ABSTRACT

Teaching Mexican American literature, then, requires a two-pronged approach: one that considers important contextual matters and another that focuses on how a given author uses formal devices to give shape to the content of their literary product. A preponderance of Mexican American/Chicano literature is concerned with the interaction between the English and the Spanish languages. A course concentrating on Mexican American/Chicano literary production, because it may be the only sustained opportunity for study some students may have, should strive to provide wide coverage based not simply on thematic content but rather on form and genre. While a focus on several novels can be an excellent way of exploring the thematic concerns of Mexican American literature, a course that wishes to highlight diversity of form and genre will need to rely on excerpts and selections. Many students in typical English literature classroom are often frustrated or otherwise bothered by the presence of Spanish words in a work of Mexican American literature.