MALA 61163 Ethnicity and Language
Prerequisites: Enrollment in the MLA program. 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.' Words do hurt as we full know because language is neither innocuous nor value neutral, especially in the process of constructing identities. Language's form as stereotype constructs and relects the representations of others. Its discourse of difference and humiliation as an ethno-typing strategy presumes superiority of one ethnic group (e.g. Israel and Euro-American) over another. And these stereotypes proliferate throughout culture and time via diverse media, including the Bible, itself a cultural artifact. Probing the seams of the representation strategy of stereotyping in its diverse media, however, reveals the identity of 'self' reflected within 'other' while simultaneously ascribing a voice often left silenced to the 'other' in its own identity construction. This course explores the representation process through stereotyping by means of paired ethic groups, past (e.g. Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Samaritans) and present (e.g. Native, Latina/o, Asian, and African Americans).