Course Description

Since Shakespeare’s time, theatre and cinema have offered spaces for exploring the complexities of racial identities. In this class, we will read and watch plays and films that pose questions about race in English and American society. Does drama help define how we understand racial difference? How can plays and films challenge society’s ideas about race? How do performances of race help us to understand society’s attitudes about racial issues? We will address these and other questions through a series of reading and writing assignments designed to give you college-level writing and critical thinking skills.

Readings, Films and other Materials Required for the Course:

Shakespeare, Othello Pelican
Guare, Six Degrees of Separation Vintage
Jones, The Dutchman and The Slave Morrow
Hwang, M. Butterfly, Penguin
Moraga, Heroes and Saints and other Plays, New Mexico
Corbett and Finkle, The Little English Handbook, Pearson

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?
Six Degrees of Separation

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