Bilingual Aesthetics

Warm-up exercises

I.  Cultural amnesia misinformation, lying or all the above?

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:
Colbert Report

Exhibit C: Apropos of Precious Knowledge: Critical Race Theory and Bilingual Aesthetics

Ethnic Studies à la Jon Stewart

In Arizona, Censoring Questions About Race

Why Bilinguals Are Smarter

II. Desert Blood: Discussion, analysis and commentary


III. Bilingual Aesthetics


After Luis and David’s presentation, be prepared to explain Sommer’s argument in “Bilingual Aesthetics: An Invitation.” For example, What does she mean by:

“[T]he challenges to a democratic society in times of globalization”? (see page 8)

“[O]ne way assimilation”?

“[F]air and fulfilling contemporary life”?

“[T]he monolithic system of language and cultural assumptions that we inherited from an early and outmoded project for national consolidation”?

[...] “What if I said that multilingualism coordinated by a lingua franca promotes fair procedure and effective education, while one way assimilation derails progress on both counts? Would you be curious about the arguments and perhaps willing to change your mind if you have been feeling that bilingualism is irrelevant or even damaging? I invite you to consider the cultural conditions for fair and fulfilling contemporary life. Or maybe you already intuit the benefits of bilingualism. But if you're not curious enough to hear and to heed arguments, that inertia may itself be a symptom of the monolithic system of language and cultural assumptions that we inherited from an early and outmoded project for national consolidation.” 

--Doris Sommer, “Bilingual Aesthetics: An Invitation”


IV. Susana Chávez Silverman, Ambientes, "Magnetic Island sueño crónica": Discussion, analysis and commentary