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Students will:
1. Read and encounter works by Chicano/Chicana writers, filmmakers,
artists, and musicians of the past and present.
2. Develop an awareness of the historical patterns which have influenced
Chicano/Chicana literary and artistic production.
3. Identify the traditions of Chicano/Chicana literary and artistic
development within generations developed both in the New and in the
Old World.
4. Develop a critical understanding of the stereotypical and archtypal
use of Chicanos/Chicanas in literature, drama, cinema, art, and
music.
5. Develop an understanding of the discipline of Chicano studies and
apply the principles therein to the study of literature and arts.
6. Analyze historical sociological and psychological trends which
have influenced the role of Chicano/Chicana writers, filmmakers,
artists, and musicians and which provide insight into the study of
these creative minds.
7. Be able to identify the central themes within the emerging tradition
of Chicano/Chicana writers, filmmakers, artists, and musicians..
8. Study the influence of race, gender, and class on literary and
artistic production, on publication and display, and on public
acceptance.
9. Examine Chicano/Chicana literature and arts, addressing major theoret-
ical and analytical issues relevant to understanding the meaning of
and dynamic interactions among gender, race and ethnicity in the
United States.
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1. What is Literature and What is Art?
A. The sign and signified: a pointing to a method of cultural
and individual expression.
B. Forms of Expression peculiar to the Chicana/Chicano experience.
1. la poesia, el cuento (short story), la novella, el teatro,
la peclicula (film), saber popular (folklore), etal.
2. What is the Function of Literature and of Art?
A. Literary and artistic function according to the traditional
Western Civilization approach.
1. e.g., classical aesthetics, Romantic, Renaissance, Modern.
B. Literature and art as a tool for the national instruction of
the massess.
1. e.g., the Marxist-Maoist approach, as a tool for the
creation of a political consciousness.
2. Cultural comparisons will include non-Chicano Latinos/
Latinas, European Americans, and Indigenous Peoples
found in the Spanish-speaking communities of the
Western and Southwestern United States.
C. The function of literature with in the artistic setting
engendered by that literature - the creation of poetic time.
D. Literature and art become more than just cultural artifacts;
they also become part of, and contribute to, el ambiente, the
collective consciousness of the people; this can serve as a
bank of resources which can serve the spiritual life and
direction of a people.
E. The evolution of a culture, of a literature, and of art.
3. Chicana/Chicano Literature and Art.
A. A political/cultural/historical/aesthetic phoenomenon.
B. Popular prose.
C. The voice of the people; poetry.
D. Towards a dialectic of truth.
E. Formal prose; Short story and novel (the historical novel,
the mythic, folkloric novel, the creation of a new literary
novel-like genre, the affirmation of the Chicana/Chicano "Me".
4. Evaluation.
A. Techniques and methodologies of criticism.
B. Literary and artistic critical paradigms.
C. The truth of the New World .
D. The realities of cultural conflicts.
5. Reflections.
A. Personal reactions to the literature and to the art.
B. Continuing the tradition.
C. A creation of a piece of Chicana/Chicano literature and/or art.
