Quote #2: In the United States and the rest of the world, the shifting borders of “homeland” have become blurred, and the new meanings of home are continually being traversed upon, reconstructed, and reimagined. War, natural disaster, occupation, genocide, militarism, political struggle, and colonization, affect … [these writers’] relationships to their homelands and impact whether or not they can return home. “Homeland” invokes contradictory feelings and ideas: rootedness and departure, stability, and insecurity, reality and imagination.
Thinking about the complexities of text, context, and subtext, and culture, the above quotes (you can refer to aspects of one or both) as a frame to discuss the ways in which the readings address particular themes/issues. Please make sure that you use textual evidence and refer at least two (2) of the QTP questions:
- Do the characters/voices of the text experience a longing for home/homeland/or place in society?
- 3.
4.
What are the cultural, political, social elements that shape the text?
How do we engage literature as an example of cultural production and as informed by the historical predicament in which it is produced, and as it also reflects upon history and culture?
What are the links between specific cultural experiences, literary, and cultural productions and the changes in the political and social landscape of the United States?
