Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

BORDER NARRATIVES,
ROAD NOVELS, AND THE
SOUTHERN US/MEXICO
BORDER
Lecteur : James Nate Nichols
james-nathaniel.nichols@univ-paris8.fr
james.nate.paris8email@gmail.com

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

Lecteur : James Nate Nichols

james-nathaniel.nichols@univ-paris8.fr
james.nate.paris8email@gmail.com

BORDER NARRATIVES,
ROAD NOVELS, AND THE
SOUTHERN US/MEXICO
BORDER

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This class aims to introduce students to contemporary American road

novels and border narratives by focusing on the geopolitical area of
the Southern US/Mexico border—an area now considered to be one
of the largest communal graves in the world. Against the backdrop of
the Southern US/Mexico border, then, this class looks to how
contemporary American authors and filmmakers engage with the
motifs and topi of the road novel/film genre by looking to cultural
production shaped by distinct but related immigrant experiences that
coalesce within this wider zone—from perilous journeys over and
across desserts and rivers, to struggles adapting to new cultural,
social, and linguistic realities. We will consider how the motifs of
journeys, borders, and crossings function as themes, aesthetic forms,
and as culturally contingent modes of thought about epistemology
(ways of knowing) and ontology (ways of being). Indeed, this class
will not only focus on movement per se—whether in spatiotemporal
terms, inner- and outer transformations, or other push/
pull factors—but also on the dialectic relationship between
movement and stasis, as it were.

In this class, then, we will also unpack (i.e. explicate) how conceptual
categories such as refugee, exile, asylum, im-/migrant, legality, and
border have shifted and changed in order to accommodate
shape-shifting political and legal agendas throughout the larger
hemisphere. As such, we will read theoretical texts about migratory
aesthetics, hybridity, race/ethnicity, decoloniality, memory,
gender, and trauma. We will also critically examine political and
legal defini-tions/categorizations and public discourses about human

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

rights, criminalization, and racialization in order to ask the

following questions: How might the motifs and topoi of the road
novel/film genre engage with the racial and cultural tensions of
displacement? In what ways might the texts/films consider the
limits and/or possibilities of build-ing communities across racial,
cultural, geographical, and generation-al borders? What political
visions and cultural politics might these differing geographies
open up vis-à-vis the options they foreclose? How can we consider
the ways in which the global south has been instrumentalized and
triangulated by the two Cold War superpowers and how, or if, we
might tease out and interrogate protracted Cold War epistemes
after 1989? These questions, however, are just some possible
examples. Indeed, students will develop and formulate their own
questions as we move through the semester.

COURSE MATERIALS
Required Primary Texts:

Carmen Aguirre
Anywhere but here (2021)
ISBN 978-1772012903

Valeria Luiselli
Lost Children Archive (2019)
ISBN 0525520619

Valeria Luiselli
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty
Questions (2017)
ISBN 1566894956

All other material will be available in

a printed reader and/or sent via pdf.

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION

Attendance and Participation 30%

- Your responsibility is to have read ALL texts for the week. This means that you will not only
have read, but also annotated and are ready to discuss the text in class. While I am happy to
help unpack aspects of the reading that you did not understand, I will not be providing com-
prehensive summaries of the texts covered; as such, subsequent discussions will presuppose
that you have already completed the reading required for that day.
- In every class I will be asking students about their annotations.
- Attendance at each class is a requirement of this course.

Potential Topics for Essays/Projects 10%

Topics for Essays/Projects 10%

Outline 10%

Final Essay/Project 40%

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Through the successful completion of this course, students will:

- Develop analytical and interpretive skills such as: annotation strategies, thesis development,
and close and distant reading techniques.
- Understand and evaluate key concepts such as displacement, migrant, refugee, and borders
- Better understand the cultural nuances of the in-/exclusionary experiences of migration.
- Demonstrate an understanding of reasons for and causes of displacement and migration in
this zone and how these have changed over time.
- Develop the ability to analyze these literature and films and advance an argument based on
textual evidence, close reading, and thesis driven arguments.
- Consider the cultural, ideological, epistemological, and ontological, issues related to migra-
tion and crossings in road novels.
- Critically think about the politics of consumption, mediation, and commodification in the
Global North
- Engage with and discuss moral dilemmas and debates about contemporary mass migration
and how/if these are made in-/visible in course materials and discuss the implications of
these.
- Discern how certain themes and aesthetic forms can communicate cultural modes of thought
about identity, belonging, and home.

STATEMENT OF RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY

It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds, experiences, and positions be
well-served by this course, that students’ learning needs be addressed as equitably as possible,
and that the multiplicity of perspectives that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource,

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

strength, and benefit. I aim to present materials and activities that are respectful of diversity,
including but not limited to gender, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race,
and culture. Your suggestions and questions are always encouraged and appreciated. Further,
my pedagogical style involves a fluid, student-centered approach to complexity as the “norm.”
That is, as an educator, I try to be mindful of the ways students dis/-advantages intersect and also
diverge in so many complex ways that they do not fit neatly into one box. As such, I hope to main-
tain an open and respectful classroom dialogue. I will try to help students navigate disagree-
ments (or partial agreements) and view them in a way that respects these disagreements—in a
way that views them as a productive part of this collective thinking that we are all involved in.

If you feel like your performance in the class is being impacted by your experiences outside of
class, please do not hesitate to make me aware of them. I want to be a resource for you. Remem-
ber that you can also submit anonymous feedback, on the basis of which, if necessary, I can make
a general announcement to the class to address your concerns. Please communicate with me in
a timely manner if you are experiencing any kind of challenge or obstacle which might be affect-
ing your engagement and/or performance in the class. I’m more than willing to accommodate any
hardships that affect your learning —within reason.

E-MAIL COMMUNICATION

We will be communicating via email, so, please, monitor your inboxes. If you send me an email,
please understand that a response may take, but will not exceed, 24 hours (although, often, I will
respond the same day). I also ask that you give me at least 24 hours’ notice whenever possible
before trying to set up a meeting outside of my regular office hours.

POLICIES, CONDUCT, ETC.

Every student is expected to attend all scheduled sessions on time and be thoroughly prepared
for the day’s class activities. I will compile regular attendance records and take these records into
account when evaluating student participation and overall course performance.

- Please communicate any possible absences in advance.

- Late arrivals or early departures from class, use of electronic devices unrelated to class
content, sleeping or causing disruptions in class or during class activities may result in being
marked absent from class.
- When broken up in pairs/small groups to complete an activity. I expect you to work promptly
with other peers and treat everybody respectfully.
- The success of the class truly depends on the individual’s commitment to work, follow and
show good behavior.
- Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or ideas with-
out proper citation.
- This course entails active participation and discussions. While it is a forum for sharing and
exploring ideas together, there will be zero tolerance for any and all discriminatory, hateful, or
otherwise threatening language. Please be respectful of one another at all times when
engaging in discussion.

Note:
The instructor reserves the right to make changes or modification to this syllabus.

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

CLASS SCHEDULE

TOPICS, DISCUSSION, ASSIGNMENTS

DATE AND ACTIVITY (DUE DATES)

Week 1 INTRODUCTION

Contemporary American Road Novels

& Border Narratives:
Genres, Histories, and
Socio-Political Contexts

Activities:
Two-Truths and a Lie

Week 2 TWENTIETH CENTURY

PARADIGMS:
EXILE, DIS-/PLACEMENT, AND
MIGRATION

Gloria Anzaldua,
“Una lucha de fronteras/A Struggle of
Borders” “A Tolerance For Ambiguity”

Darko Suvin,
“Displaced Persons

Edward Said,
“Reflections on Exile”

Week 3 TWENTIETH CENTURY

PARADIGMS:
(CONTINUED)

Sandro Mezzadra and Brett Neilson

Border as Method, Or, the Multiplica-
tion of Labor (1-26)

Carine M. Mardorossian
"From Literature of Exile to Migrant
Literature"

Peter Gatrell,
“The Making of the Modern Refugee”

Andrew E. Shacknove,
“Who Is a Refugee?”

Emma Haddad,
“Who is (not) a refugee?”

Activity:
Annotation Strategies

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

CLASS SCHEDULE

TOPICS, DISCUSSION, ASSIGNMENTS

DATE AND ACTIVITY (DUE DATES)

Week 4 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE

AMERICAN BORDERLANDS

Carmen Aguirre
Anywhere but here (2021)

Joseph M. Gilbert,
“Border crossings and the remaking of
Latin American Cold War Studies”

Week 5 Carmen Aguirre

Anywhere but here (2021)

Juan Poblete
“Americanism/o: Intercultural Border
Zones in Post-social Times”

Week 6 Valeria Luiselli Due:

Lost Children Archive (2019) Potential Topics
(pgs. 1-108) for Essays/Projects

Nicholas P De Genova
“Migrant ‘Illegality’ and Deportability
in Everyday Life” (2002)

Week 7 Valeria Luiselli

Lost Children Archive (2019)
(109-186)

Activity:
Reading and Writing Strategies

Week 8 Valeria Luiselli

Lost Children Archive (2019)
(Finish novel)

Juan Poblete,
“U.S. Latino Studies in a Global
Context: Social Imagination and the
Production of In/visibility”

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

CLASS SCHEDULE

TOPICS, DISCUSSION, ASSIGNMENTS

DATE AND ACTIVITY (DUE DATES)

Week 9 Valeria Luiselli, Due:

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Topics for
Forty Questions (2017) Essays/Projects

Macarena Garcia-Avello
“Translating Nations in a Global Era:
Valeria Luiselli´s Approach to the
Child Migrant Crisis.” (2020)

Week 10 Two Films: Due:

Outline
Cary Jôji Fukunaga
Sin Nombre (2009)

Fernando Frías
Ya no esoty aqui (2019)

Optional reading material:

John Coatsworth
“The Cold War in Central America,
1975-1991,” (2010)

Week 11 PRESENTATIONS Due:

AND WORKSHOP FOR FINAL Potential Topics
PROJECTS for Essays/Projects

Final Readings:

Universal Declaration of Human

Rights (1948)

Convention Relating to the Status of

Refugees (1951)

Week 12 PRESENTATIONS Due:

(CONTINUED) Final
Essays/Projects

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

IMPORTANT NOTES ON WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

Objectives and Expectations for Essays and Projects:

Throughout the quarter, I will help guide you all through various approaches to literary analyses
and provide models and tools for this in class. It is up to you to use them. I want to help you all
develop and demonstrate (in and through your writing) these analytical skills. This will help you
in our class, in your own disciplines, and as an educated person in the world. This class is an
elective English for Arts class for many of you, but it's not just that; it’s about thinking of ways to
see and interpret the world, analyzing, questioning, etc. I am happy to help you via zoom appoint-
ment as well to discuss any aspect of the class. To these ends, the analyses you all are expected
to do for this class demand a certain level of engagement in and through your writing and discus-
sion: argumentative, cultural, historical, etc. What will be crucial for this class is the difference
between explanation and explication.

As such, all essays and/or projects should be concise and to the point: do not spend time summa-
rizing the content or making a "laundry list” of disconnected statements. There is also no need for
a broad introductory paragraph. Successful essays will also utilize close reading techniques in
order to produce a thesis driven argument based off of your close readings (more on this below).
Please do not base your argument off of vague, subjective reactions to, or personal opinions of,
the content of the course material. Remember, a thesis is a reasonable argument someone could
argue against, which, in turn, means that the thesis needs to go beyond the obvious things in the
texts. No one can argue about what is obviously there; it’s objectively there. Further, a driving
ethos of the class is that it’s so much easier to critique and dismiss something—to destroy rather
than try to understand it—and it’s so much less productive: essays should reflect this ability.

Successful essays, then, will also articulate the following two step-process: the first step is to be
sympathetic to the object at hand (whether that be a text, film, critical essay, etc.). The second
step is to critique. This practice is not only be necessary for classwork, but also a very important
life skill in general. Writing a paper that only critiques will be penalized. Examples of sympathetic
questions for a text could include: What does the text do on its own terms? What is it trying to
portray and how? How cogent is the text? Examples of critical questions could include: What
does it leave out? What should it do or include? What could be some of the effects/implications?

Please note: For this class, it doesn't matter how good you think your insights are, or how well
you think you have understood a text or film: you must have a strong claim or argument and be
able to communicate this in writing. These notes on reading and writing, then, are meant to act
as guides so that you can be successful in this class:

First, Start Big, Then Go Deep

- Have your own experience with the text. As you read think about things that jump out at you,
repeat, or appear strange or out of place, etc. etc.
- Annotate as you read and mark these as you go. When there are many pages to read and get
though, just mark and keep going.
- Let the things come from, or out of the text itself—not the other way around; don’t force
something onto a text that isn’t quite there (or can’t be backed up with evidence).

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

- Is there a wider, broader topic that stands out (e.g. gender relations, political and social struc-
tures, racial representations and/or tensions, and so on)?
- Then, go back and think about the relationality of these and how you could develop a deeper,
more detailed analysis? And how you might be able to weave some of these categories
together into a solid paper/argument.

Next, The Question of Form:

In lecture I will take time explaining the structure and form of the texts and films in the class. That
is, the “how” of a text in distinction to the “what” or content of the text. As you all read for this
class, think about the “how” and then think about the “what” and/or content itself. Think about
the ways in which form and might be related to the content of text. Could this gesture toward
something?

We will practice how one might think about texts and films in this course in relation to literary
close reading practices; so as you read, please pay attention to passages/lines that stick out to
you, your interests, certain words, thematics, translations and differences, etc.

Please Note:
The instructor reserves the right to make changes or modification to this syllabus as needed.

© 2023 James Nate Nichols

Semester 2, 2024 Wednesday : 9:00-12:00 / 15:00-18:00

BORDER NARRATIVES,
ROAD NOVELS, AND THE
SOUTHERN US/MEXICO
BORDER
Lecteur : James Nate Nichols
james-nathaniel.nichols@univ-paris8.fr
james.nate.paris8email@gmail.com

© 2023 James Nate Nichols