ENGL 144
Race and American Crime Fiction Spring 2014
Division I Writing Skills
Cross-listed AMST 144
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This class explores the relationship between race and mystery/crime fictions. From the emergence of the hard-boiled in the 1920s to contemporary police procedurals and spy novels, American crime fictions have often served as vehicles for social commentary and critique. For many writers of color, such as Chester Himes, Barbara Neely, Manuel Ramos, Ed Lin and others, the genre has also served as vehicles to explore racism and racial hierarchies, racialization of criminality and justice, and histories and experience of violence in various minority communities. We will also consider the ways in which form and conventions of crime fiction lend themselves to articulations of race/racialization, as well as social, cultural, historical, political concerns of different racial and ethnic groups in America. As the semester progresses, the question of what does or does not constitute a mystery novel will become less central as we investigate multiple ways in which the texts stretch, disrupt, and play with the conventions of crime fictions.
The Class: Format: discussion/seminar
Limit: 19
Expected: 19
Class#: 3663
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: active in-class participation (including group led discussion facilitation), 4 response papers (3-4 pages each at least one of which will go through the process of revision), and a final paper
Extra Info: (6-8 pages, which will also go through the process of revision and in-class workshop) on a mystery novel or film of your choice .
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: first-year students who have not taken or placed out of a 100-level English course
Distributions: Division I Writing Skills
Notes: meets Division 1 requirement if registration is under ENGL; meets Division 2 requirement if registration is under AMST
This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AMST 144 Division II ENGL 144 Division I
Attributes: AMST Arts in Context Electives
AMST Comp Studies in Race, Ethnicity, Diaspora
LATS Comparative Race + Ethnic Studies Electives

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