The Junot Diaz Syllabus

After Junot Diaz’s widely passed-around essay on “the standard problem of MFA programs” (“That shit was too white”), Salon found two of Diaz’s own syllabi from his undergrad classes at MIT. The first, from a delightfully nerdy class on world-building in narrative media (“roleplaying games, films, comics, videogames and literary text”), includes V for Vendetta, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, Lilith’s Brood, A Princess of Mars, The Hunger Games and Perdido Street Station. The second, from an advanced fiction class, is really lovely as well:

“Clara” by Roberto Bolaño
“Hitting Budapest” by NoViolet Bulawayo
“Whites” by Julie Otsuka
“Ghosts” by Edwidge Danticat
“My Good Man” by Eric Gansworth
“Gold Boy, Emerald Girl” by Yiyun Li
“Bounty” by George Saunders

Decentralize the delicate egocentrism of the upper-middle American white male experience forever! [Salon]