The following
books were included in the course during the Fall 2007 and Spring
2008 semesters. For the most up-to-date information, please consult
the professor teaching the course.
Edward
Said, Orientalism
Twenty-five years after its first publication, Edward Said's groundbreaking critique of the West's historical, cultural, and political perceptions of the East has become a modern classic. In this wide-ranging, intellectually vigorous study, Said traces the origins of "orientalism" to the centuries-long period during which Europe dominated the Middle and Near East and, from its position of power, defined "the orient" simply as "other than" the occident. This entrenched view continues to dominate western ideas and, because it does not allow the East to represent itself, prevents true understanding. Essential, and still eye-opening, Orientalism remains one of the most important books written about our divided world.
Amitav Ghosh, In an Antique Land
Once upon a time an Indian writer named Amitav Ghosh set out to find an Indian slave, name unknown, who some seven hundred years before had traveled to the Middle East. The journey took him to a small village in Egypt, where medieval customs coexist with twentieth-century desires and discontents. But even as Ghosh sought to re-create the life of his Indian predecessor, he found himself immersed in those of his modern Egyptian neighbors.
Climbing shrewd observations with painstaking historical research, Ghosh serves up skeptics and holy men, merchants and sorcerers. Some of these figures are real, some only imagined, but all emerge as vividly as the characters in a great novel. In an Antique Land is an inspired work that transcends genres as deftly as it does eras, weaving an entrancing and intoxicating spell.
Richard Rodriguez, Brown: The Last Discovery of America
In his dazzling new memoir, Richard Rodriguez reflects on the color brown and the meaning of Hispanics to the life of American today. Rodriguez argues that America has been brown since its inception - since the moment the African and the European met within the Indian eye. But more than simply a book about race, Brown is about America in the broadest sense - a look at what our country is, full of surprising observations by a writer who is a marvelous stylist as well as a trenchant observer and thinker.
Alfred Lubrano, Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams
This powerful book uncovers a cultural phenomenon - the limbo existence of people raised in blue-collar families, living white-collar lives. Limbo presents a thoughtful look at this phenomenon through the author's personal story, and those of 100 interviewees, all struggling with the duality that exists in their workplaces, their hearts, and their minds.
Patricia
Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor