MAS/GWS/ENG 312: Latina/o Pop: Race, Gender, Sexuality & Popular Culture (Crosslisted: ENGL/GWS)

This course examines how Latinas/os have been a major force in the production of popular culture. In particular we will critically examine discourses of "Latinidad" (a seamless construction of Latinos as a monolithic group) in the corporate production of identities. Latinidad also provides the contradictory grounds where consumer culture meets Latina/o performance. Some artists choose to reappropriate commercial spaces as sites of empowerment, while others are complicit in perpetuating stereotypical representations of Latinas/os. We will explore the construction of Latina/o identities as they influence and produce particular racial, sexual and gendered identities. Furthermore, the course focuses on the real- world implications for these performances as they commodify Latina/o culture. Over the course of the semester, students will be introduced to Latina/o/Chicana/o musical production, movies, television, advertising, magazines, literary texts, performance art, murals, installation art, music videos, and animation within a historical context.