American Orientalism

Examines Orientalism as central motif and thematic concern for American writers from Emerson to DuBois to Kingston. Issues to be addressed include the distinctions between U.S., European, and Afro-Orientalisms; how intra-Asian differences (i.e., China-Japan, East/South Asia) shape conceptions of the Orient; how whiteness and blackness are constructed via a vis yellowness; the relationship between Orientalism and racism; how "nativist" Asian American literary texts, on the one hand, and diasporic texts, on the other, negotiate the legacy of Orientalism. Enrollment limited.