239749 Theologies in 'Latinidad' (S) (WiSe 2012/2013)

This course assists students with going into detail about how U.S. Latina/o identity is affected by one of its major components: religious systems and beliefs. It analyzes how different Latina/o religions and religious denominations were (and are) constructed, developed, adopted or abandoned, and finally portrayed – from within and from outside Latina/o communities.
After defining main concepts of identity formation in Latinidad, we will explore common cultural themes within a community-based theology as well as their portrayal in non-Latina/o U.S. culture and society (such as machismo); analyze postmodern thoughts such as gay issues; explore popular religion, alternative traditions such as Mexican American folk practices (and their origins), and curanderismo. While a major focus is on Latina/o Catholicism, ‘other’ religions embraced by Latinas/os in the U.S. such as Islam, which in turn help create entirely ‘new’ communities that have to redefine their position in the discourse on Latinidad, are significant for this course.

Literaturangaben

Students can go ahead and fetch a copy of John Rechy’s The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez (New York: Grove Press, 2001), which is part of the mandatory reading for this course.