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Honors 380 - Writing Your Heritage: Home

Historical Newspaper Collections

Welcome!

This library guide has been designed for students enrolled in Dr. Rita Rud's Honors 380 seminar.

To access information on specific topics please click on the tabs above.

You have endless possibilities for inspiration related to this assignment, including literature, film, politics, music, history, food, pop culture, folklore, architecture, and art. After selecting a country related to your family history and heritage, you can draw on your own personal interests for inspiration. What speaks to you? How do you see yourself as the inheritor of your cultural heritage?

Literary works that discuss the immigrant experience are sometimes called "assimilation narratives," or "immigration narratives", books that tell the story of the protagonists as new citizens, navigating a new world through the lens of their cultural heritage. Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street and Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, are two titles that come to mind. You may also find inspiration in biography as literary form, or “life writing”; Dominika Dery’s Twelve Little Cakes is an interesting example of this genre.
 
Whether your own family recently immigrated, or whether they came to the United States several generations ago, this assignment gives you the opportunity to investigate your own cultural heritage and reflect on how it manifests itself in your present life.

Online Reference Collections

Oxford, Sage, and Gale each offer a suite of online reference materials. Search these for preliminary information on cultural history, social, political and economic history for your country or topic.

Additional Resources

Getting Started...

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