Multiethnic Literatures of Chicago

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Lifelong Chicago resident Gwendolyn Brooks once said of her Bronzeville home, "If you wanted a poem, you had only to look out of a window." This "life in the raw" that inspired the Pulitzer-winning poet has also spoken to generations of Chicago writers and poets. What can the writing of Chicago, a place proud of its diversity but dogged by inequities, tell us about race and citizenship in the U.S.? And what does it even mean to talk about the literature(s) of a city? We'll tackle these big questions as we learn about the 1893 World Fair; the Chicago Renaissance; the Great Migration; The Black Arts Movement; the Latino Arts Movement; and Chicago's contemporary literary scene. Through discussion, several short writing assignments, and a longer, research essay, we'll sharpen our analytical and writing skills and seek to become empathetic but also critical readers of Chicago's writers of color.