LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature (Immigrant)

 Index to Text-Objective Discussions, summer 2008

Tuesday, 10 June 2008: Examples of the Immigrant Narrative. Anzia Yezierska, “Soap and Water” (IA 105-110) [handout]; Nicholasa Mohr, “The English Lesson” (IA 21-34)

Text-objective discussion leader: Tanya Stanley


Thursday, 12 June 2008: Asian American Immigrant Literature

Sui Sin Far, "In the Land of the Free" (IA 3-11); Gish Jen, “In the American Society” (IA 158-171); Maxine Hong Kingston, from The Woman Warrior (VA 195-200) [handout]; Carlos Bulosan, from American is in the Heart [handout]

Text-objective discussion leader: Cana Hauerland


Tuesday, 24 June 2008: Caribbean Immigrants: Minorities or Immigrants? June Jordan, “Report from the Bahamas” [handout]; Edwidge Danticat, “Children of the Sea” (IA 98-112); Paule Marshall, “The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen” [handout]; Paule Marshall, “To Da-Duh, in Memoriam” (IA 368-377)

Text-objective discussion leader: Tanya Stanley


Monday, 30 June 2008: Indian & Pakistani American Literature

Chitra Divakaruni, “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” (70-83); Tahira Naqvi, “Thank God for the Jews” (IA 229-236); Bharati Mukherjee, “A Wife’s Story” (IA 57-69)

Text-objective discussion leader: Danielle Maldonado


Tuesday, 1 July 2008: Jewish-American: Chosen People in the New World. Bernard Malamud, “The German Refugee” (IA 35-46); Adrienne Rich, “Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity” (VA 90-105) [handout]; Sonia Pilcer, “2G” (VA 201-206) [handout]; Eva Hoffman, from Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language (VA 219-228) [handout]; Vivian Gornick, “To Begin With” (VA 74-81) [handout]

Text-objective discussion leader: Jessi Snider


Thursday, 3 July 2008: selections from the Exodus story in the Old Testament of the Bible (student provides; King James / Revised Standard version preferred);

Text-objective discussion leader: Keith Vyvial


Monday, 7 July 2008: The Pilgrims and the Hebrew model of national migration; prototype of white exclusiveness and purity? William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (introduction, esp. p. xxii; chapters I-IV).

Text-objective discussion leader: Larry Stanley


Tuesday, 8 July 2008: The Pilgrims, the Hebrew model of national migration, and late Anglo-American culture / vertical immigration.  Of Plymouth Plantation (V, 29-32;VI, 45 middle paragraph; VII, 49-50, 57; VIII, 59-61; IX; X; XI, 83-89; XII, 96-100, 107 bottom paragraph; XIV, 128-129, 132-134, 143-146; XV, 160-161; XIX, 224-232; ch. 21, p. 62; XXIII, 281-283; XXXII, 351; XXXIII, 364-368; 370-1); Jonathan Raban, from Hunting Mr. Heartbreak: A Discovery of America [handout]

Text-objective discussion leader (Raban article): Jessi Snider