|
| LITR
4333: American Immigrant Literature Fall 2003, University of Houston-Clear Lake Thursdays, 7-9:50pm,
Bayou 2508 * A
multicultural course with a unifying theme: the story of coming to America, becoming American, and changing America. * (
. . . & subplots! . . . )
*
generational conflicts
* the family and the nation * ethnicity & gender
* the shock of America * the memory of the homeland * Course
Texts Short-Fiction
Anthology Imagining
America: Stories from the Promised Land
(2nd ed., 2002) Non-Fiction
Anthology Visions of
America: Personal Narratives from the Promised Land (1992) Poetry
Anthology Unsettling
America: An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry
(1994) Jewish-American Anzia
Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925) Vietnamese-American Lan
Cao, Monkey Bridge
(1997) Anglo-American William
Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation
(1620-1647) (read
with selections from the Exodus of the Bible) Course
webpage:
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/ Instructor:
Craig White Phone:
281 283 3380
Email: whitec@uhcl.edu Office:
2529-8 Bayou
Office Hours:
T 2-4, Th 5-7 & by apptmt Caveat: Data stated and contracts implied in this syllabus may change with minimal notice through fair hearings at class meetings. Summary of Graded Assignments (details
below) (Percentages for final grade are only approximate. Numbers are not used in calculating final grades.) · Midterm examination on immigrant narrative and comparison / contrast with minority experience (2 October; 20%.) · Research Project (Proposal due 16 Oct.; Project due 20 Nov. 30%). · Final Examination (11 December; 30%). · Class participation, preparation, attendance, quiz grades, presentations, email submissions. Dates for presentations assigned at second class (20%). COURSE POLICIES Attendance policy: You are expected to attend every scheduled class meeting. You may take one free cut. More than one absence jeopardizes your status in the course. If you miss more than one class (especially early in the session), you are encouraged to drop. If you miss the first class, even if you are not enrolled at that time, that absence counts as your free cut. Partial absences also count negatively. Even with medical or other emergency excuses, an excessive number of absences (full or partial) results in a lower or failing grade. More than one absence affects final grades. You are always welcome to discuss your standing in the course. Academic Honesty Policy: Please refer to the catalog for the Academic Honesty Policy (2002-2003 Catalog, pp. 76-78). Plagiarism—that is, using research without citations or copying someone else’s work as your own—will result in a grade penalty or failure of the course. Refer to the UHCL catalogue for further details regarding expectations and potential penalties. Disabilities: If you have a disability and need a special accommodation, consult first with the Health Center and then discuss the accommodation with me. Incompletes:
A grade of "I" is given only in cases of documented emergency late in
the semester. An Incomplete Grade
Contract must be completed. Late & Early Submissions
Warning · Submissions of Research Projects received after the 36-hour due period may be downgraded severely, especially if the student has not communicated on the issue with the instructor. The severity of grade reduction may depend on whether the problem is chronic or whether the student is generally helpful to the course. The extent of grade reduction for late papers may not become known until the final grade report. · Students are warned not to submit Research Projects drastically early. Offering a completed assignment far in advance of the due date creates a negative impression on several counts. Course
Objectives: · "Objectives" are ideas and terms that are repeatedly developed and reinforced in lectures, discussions, presentations, and examinations. As learning outcomes, this course enables you to discuss American immigrant literature in the terms set up by these objectives. · Since the subject matter of this Literature course rises from a fundamental narrative of American culture, its objectives are divided into Literary and Cultural categories, but these categories may overlap. · In the objectives below, "America" refers primarily to "The United States of America," and "Americans" to citizens or residents of the USA. "The Immigrant
Narrative" (Background
to all course objectives) Fundamental to all the course's objectives and related themes is the Immigrant Narrative (a. k. a. "the American Dream narrative"). Most Americans are broadly conscious of its outlines, but no single text tells the whole story. Below is a quick overview, but different characters, generations, or home countries may vary, divide, add to, or share out these stages or their sequence, so be prepared to improvise. · Stage 1: Leave the Old World (“traditional societies” in Europe, Asia, or Latin America). · Stage 2: Journey to the New World (here, the USA & modern culture) · Stage 3: Shock, resistance, exploitation, and discrimination (immigrant experience here overlaps with or resembles the minority experience) ·
Stage 4: Assimilation
to dominant American culture and loss of ethnic identity
(departs or differs from minority experience) · Stage 5: Rediscovery or reassertion of ethnic identity (usu. only partial) Literary Objectives: 1. To comprehend the story of immigration as a fundamental narrative of American literature and culture. (fundamental = constitutive & mythic) 1a. To define the concept of narrative as a literary and cultural category 1b. To criticize as well as celebrate the immigrant or American dream narrative. 1c. To explore the immigrant narrative as an organizing principle for studying multicultural literature. (see also Cultural Objective 1a.) 2. To chart the various literary permutations available to the narrative 2a. narrator or viewpoint: Who writes the immigrant narrative? · First-generation? (rare, except among English-speaking peoples) · Second-generation? (standard: the children of immigrants learn English and explore the conflict between ethnic and mainstream identities) · Other? 2b. setting(s): · Homeland? Journey? America? Return to homeland? · "Ethnic enclave" (e. g., ghetto, barrio) as transition or limbo between 2 worlds. (Literary
Objectives continued) 2c. character by generation: to identify and question standard generational roles or identities: · first-generation as “heroic” · second-generation as “divided” · third generation as “assimilated” 3. To distinguish fictional and non-fictional modes of the immigrant narrative. 3a. How can we tell whether we're reading fiction or nonfiction? What “markers” or signs of difference both in and outside the text alert the reader that the narrative is either fictional or non-fictional? Are these signs always accurate? 3b. How do narrative, viewpoint, and setting change from fiction to non-fiction, or vice-versa? 3c. How much may fiction and nonfiction cross or overlap? (Genre-bending.) 3d. Most of our literary terms and objectives refer to prose narratives, but we also experience and examine another crucial genre: lyric poems. How does poetry, which is generally non-narrative, represent the Immigrant Narrative differently than our prose texts? 4. To become sensitized to immigrant literature’s effects on English and to the variant English styles practiced by different ethnic groups. 4a. Immigrant speech is identifiable as such but, overall, Standard American English seems less affected by immigrant speech than by minority speech. Immigrant speech is expected to conform or assimilate to standard, whereas minority speech may assert its difference. (see Cultural Obj. 1) 4b. In American media it is unacceptable to mock minority speech but acceptable to imitate immigrant speech--e. g., the way most standup comics can do a Middle Eastern or Asian convenience store clerk, such as Apu in the Simpsons. 4c. Cultural comparison: immigrant foods—from German Frankfurters & Hamburgers to Chinese and Italian restaurants—are highly identifiable as mainstream cuisine, while minority foods—from popcorn to Barbecue—are rarely acknowledged as such. On yet another hand, English or dominant-culture food is almost unidentifiable as ethnic; spiciness or its lack has to do with climate, but maybe another reason English food is bland is so it won’t distract from work. Cultural Objectives 1. To identify the immigrant narrative as the fundamental story-line of the dominant or majority culture in the USA. 1a. American Dream versus American Nightmare: To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative. · Comparison: immigrants may experience problems of “minority” cultures in the first generation(s), and they may suffer discrimination and marginalization by the dominant culture on account of racial and cultural differences as long as those differences are visible or audible. · Contrast: the “social contracts” of immigrants and minorities differ. Immigrants like the Chinese, Germans, Dominicans, Irish, or Italians voluntarily participate in the “American Dream” migration pattern of immigrating to America for personal freedom and economic betterment, Minority groups, esp. African Americans and Native Americans, involuntarily join the “American Nightmare” through a differing migration pattern or through forced contact or participation. · Mexican Americans, sometimes known as “the ambivalent minority,” have an identity somewhere between the immigrant and minority patterns. Though many Mexicans immigrate to the USA, the states to which they primarily immigrate (such as Texas and California) were once part of Mexico. This land was taken from Mexico in much the same manner as other American lands were taken from Indians. Racially, too, Mexicans may fall in between, as they may be descended from Europeans (dominant immigrant culture) and / or from Indians and / or African Americans (minority groups). 1b. To observe cultural variations in the Immigrant Narrative by different nations, at different historical periods, or under different national conditions. · “National migration,” in contrast to the immigration of individuals or families, especially the “Great Migration” of Pilgrims and Puritans to early North America and their historical model, the ancient Hebrews migrating from Egypt to Canaan. These national groups resist assimilation and intermarriage with the people whose land they occupy, but other elements of the immigrant narrative may continue. American Jews have followed this pattern until recent generations, when intermarriage has increased. · “Internal immigration,” such as the “Great Migration” of African Americans from the Old Confederacy to northern states in the early 20th Century. · “Socioeconomic Immigration,” in which economic success or failure leads families to move from one class or neighborhood to another, with resulting challenges to assimilate to new values, language patterns, courtship patterns, etc. Marriage into another class or ethnic group can repeat this pattern for individuals. 1c. To complicate the dominant European-American culture’s east-to-west direction for migration by including immigrants from South to North (Mexico, the Caribbean) and from “Eastern Lands” (Asia, the Pacific) to the West Coast. (Cultural objectives continued) 2. To observe and analyze the effects of immigration and assimilation on American cultural units or identities: ·
family: (Old World: extended
family; New World: nuclear family) · generations: generational tensions over assimilation, expectations. (see also Literary Objective 2c.) · gender (usually traditional in homeland, modern in America) · community and laws, especially the change from traditional or family laws and a distant, autocratic state to impersonal laws and a democratic, regulated state · religion: Old World: religion and political/cultural identity closely related; New World: secular state, private religion. · Religion is the cultural factor least susceptible to assimilation. Thus, most Catholic or Islamic immigrants may generally conform to mainstream dominant culture but remain unlikely to convert to Protestant Christianity. · Is the immigrant narrative comparable to a conversion experience? · Finally, How do immigrants change America? 3. To contrast the “New Immigrant Model” with the “Old Immigrant Model.” · “Old Immigrant Model”: because of the danger and cost of journey by boat, past immigrants found it more difficult to return and were expected to cut ties to the Old World in order to assimilate to American culture · “New Immigrant Model”: improved communications and air transportation may enable recent immigrants to feel less pressure to forget the homeland and to assimilate to American culture as rapidly as earlier immigrants · The biculturalism and bilingualism of “New Immigrants” may contribute to or reflect an emerging global identity in which human beings are less defined or restricted by nationality. · “Vertical immigration”: recent tendency of earth societies to organize into a first world-third world, upper class-lower class, penthouse-street, electronic media-real time division. 4. To acknowledge the international or global nature of immigration. ·
The great waves of immigration
from Europe (17th through 19th centuries) occurred
simultaneously with Europe’s
colonization of Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. ·
Many American and European immigrants today come from lands
formerly colonized by Europeans or European-Americans. 5. To use the immigrant experience to "defamiliarize" the American experience. (To "defamiliarize" means to turn something familiar and comfortable into something suddenly strange, to transform the "natural" to the "cultural," and to bring unconscious habit to the level of intellectual analysis.) · What do immigrants see about America that the native-born cannot? (See also Cultural Objectives 6 & 7) (Cultural objectives continued) 6. To acknowledge and criticize the different values projected on ethnic homelands and on America (examples below are positive / negative):
7. To observe competing economic ideals or states exposed by immigrant literature. 7a. To identify communal or utopian elements such as Bradford’s discussion of the commonwealth and Jewish immigrants’ interests in Marxism, as well as “Old World” concepts of community, social obligations, and limits.. 7b. To discuss the immigrants’ shock at and adaptation to American economic models, variously identified as Social Darwinism, competitive individualism, laissez-faire, freemarket, high-growth capitalism 7c. A surprising feature in immigrant literature (and perhaps elsewhere): the identification of shopping and sexuality. (Consistent with Darwinian survival through competitive sexuality) 7d. To acknowledge the difficulty of stabilizing an American society founded on act of revolution (i. e., leaving the past behind); compare to the nation’s revolutionary founding in the Declaration of Independence, which breaks off ties with the “Mother Country” much as an immigrant does with the Old World. 8. To monitor the importance of public education to the
assimilation stage of the immigrant narrative. 8a. To consider the significance of free education as a
starting point for the American Dream of economic success. (first rung on the
ladder) 8b. While private schools may more successfully instill “traditional values” and provide stability for chaotic lives, public education’s secular status and willingness to innovate may prepare immigrants for the ever-changing American economic scene. (This may further relate to the struggle over whether to teach Darwinian Evolution in a Social Darwinist state.) Email and webpage contributions This course has a webpage featuring basic information about the course and student models of required assignments. The web address is http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4333/. If convenient, install it as a “favorite” on your web browser for easy access. Each student must make at least three or four contributions to the webpage through the instructor via email or other electronic means. Required email contributions: 1. Presentation handout and discussion summary 2. Midterm, or selections from midterm (may not be required) 3. Research proposal 4. Research project Optional email contributions: · final exam Email
address: Send all emails to whitec@uhcl.edu. Note the "c" at the end of "whitec." If you send the email to "white" only, it goes to the wrong professor. Contents
and attachments: Try both of the following · Paste the contents of the appropriate word processing file directly into the email message. · “Attach” your word processing file to an email message. (My computer and most of its programs work off of Microsoft Word 2000. The only word processing program my computer appears unable to translate is Microsoft Works, though Microsoft Word is fine, as are most others. If in doubt, save your word processing file in "Rich Text Format" or a “text only” format.) If you have trouble reaching me by email, save your word processing file to a 3½“ floppy disk and give it to me. If you put your name on the disk, I’ll eventually return it to you. Student computer access: Every enrolled student at UHCL is assigned an email account on the university server. For information about your account and password, call the university help desk at 281 283 2828. Reassurances: You are not graded on your expertise in electronic media but on your intelligence in reading literature, discussing it, and writing about it. I’ve tried similar email exercises for several semesters; a few students encounter a few problems, but, if we don’t give up, these problems always work out. Your course grade will not suffer for mistakes with email and related issues as long as I see you making a fair effort. Descriptions of Graded Assignments Midterm exam--Date: 2 October Relative weight: 20% of final grade Content: Immigrant narrative, esp. compared and contrasted with minority narrative Format: open-book and open-notebook. Materials: Write in blue or black ink on paper of your own. Email students should work things out according to the instructions above. Time: The exam should take at least two hours to complete, but you may use the entire class period (2 hours and 50 minutes). In-class students will be given the exam at 7pm and must turn it in by 9:50. All students will be emailed the exam at approximately 6:45pm, at which time the exam will also be posted on the course webpage. Email students must return their exam by 11pm. The time is flexible to account for possible interruptions. However, email students should spend no more than 2 hours and 50 minutes in writing the exam, and they should keep a log indicating when they start and stop. (Pauses or interruptions are okay.) Length: Given different writing styles, length is hard to estimate, but generally the best exams have more writing, while less impressive exams look scanty. Contents · Essay on "fiction-nonfiction dialogue." · Essay on The Immigrant Narrative and the Minority Narrative. "Fiction-Nonfiction" Essay (45 minutes – 1 hour) This essay question will be broad in its approach, asking you to describe your “learning curve” in this course in relation to Literary Objective 3 (p. 4 of syllabus). That is, you should be prepared to describe the state of your knowledge or your attitude as you entered this subject area of the course. You will review relevant texts, identifying, comparing, and crossing the "markers" of fiction and nonfiction, evaluating the powers of each. Summarize your learning experience. Text requirements: Four texts from Imagining America and Visions of America with the following stipulations: · 2 must be fiction (Imagining America); 2 nonfiction (Visions of America) · Avoid mechanically duplicating the pairings in the dialogues. (Duplicating the pairings is somewhat inevitable, but efforts at new comparisons, contrasts, and insights are welcome.) · You may refer briefly to additional course texts or to texts beyond the course. · You must refer to something on the subject learned from course webpage. "Immigrant / Minority" Essay (1 hour +) topic: Write a unified critical essay integrating and evaluating the following literary and cultural objectives: · Literary Objective 1c (To explore the immigrant narrative as an organizing principle for studying multicultural literature) ·
"The Immigrant Narrative": Background to all course objectives · Cultural Objective 1a. American Dream versus American Nightmare: To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative. . . . (+ bullets under C. O. 1a) Text requirements for Immigrant / Minority Essay: Your essay should refer to at least 6 texts from the assigned readings · Of these 6 texts, two should exemplify the immigrant narrative, two should exemplify the minority narrative, and two should involve features of both narratives. · Of the two texts exemplifying the minority narrative, one should be African American and one should be Native American Indian. · Of the two texts involving features of both narratives, one should be Afro-Caribbean and one should be Mexican American. · Of the 6 texts, at least four should be prose pieces from Imagining America or Visions of America; that is, two of the texts may be poems presented from Unsettling America. However, you may use all prose texts if you prefer. · You must refer to something you learned on this subject from the Model Assignments on the course webpage. · (These are only minimal requirements. Of course you may refer briefly or allusively to more.) In evaluating the immigrant narrative as an organizing principle for studying multicultural literature, you should broadly review relevant stages of the immigrant narrative in relation to Cultural Objectives 1 & 1a concerning the USA’s dominant culture and its minority cultures, but you don’t necessarily have to “march through” all the stages of the Immigrant Narrative. Of course you may also refer to other Literary and Cultural Objectives. Advice
for both parts · Keep your eye on the clock. · Relate objectives to texts, but don’t simply repeat objectives and don’t simply quote texts; interpret, explain, explore, connect. · Avoid copying out long quotations from either the texts or the syllabus. · Don’t be afraid of complications or confusions. Literature represents human realities, and they're a part of reality, so explore and develop them. Beware of simple answers, as simple answers are usually reductive rather than critical and creative. Look at both sides; second-guess your conclusions; summarize what is understood and what remains to be understood. Midterms read & returned · If you take the exam by email, your exam will be emailed back to you with a grade and comment, probably by 9 October. (Email midterms and finals are not marked internally unless otherwise noted in comment.) · If you take the exam in-class, I will try to have them ready by my office hours on Tuesday, 7 October (2-4) or Thursday, 9 October (5-7). Do not phone or email for your grade. If you take the midterm in-class, you agree to receive your grade and note in writing on your midterm submission. Research Project Examples on webpage: Students may see examples of previous student research proposals (and instructor’s replies) and student research projects by going to the index under the “Model Assignments” tab. Students
have a choice
of two options for their research projects. ·
Option 1 is a traditional 7-10 page analytic / research essay relevant to the
course. ·
Option 2 is a 10-15 page journal of research and reflections concerning a
variety of materials relevant to the course. Weight: approximately 30% of final grade Due dates: · proposal due 16 October · project due 20 November Lengths: · option 1 (analytic / research essay): 7-10 pages + "Works Cited" · option 2 (journal) 10-15 pages. Research proposal: Due
via email by or within 36 hours of 16 October. Write at least two paragraphs containing the following information: · Indicate which option—Option 1 (essay) or Option 2 (journal)—your research project will take. (If you are trying to choose between the two options, start your email by explaining the situation. If you are trying to choose between different subjects, do the same--explain and explore the situation. · If Option 1, list the primary text(s) you intend to work with. Explain the source of your interest, why the topic is significant, and what you hope to find out through your research. Describe any reading or research you have already done and how useful it has been. · If Option 2, mention your possible choices of topics for categories listed in Option 2 (journal) requirements. · For either option, conclude by asking the instructor at least one question about your topic, possible sources for research, or the writing of your research project. · Email or otherwise transmit an electronic version of your proposal to me at whitec@uhcl.edu. · Research report proposals will be posted on the course webpage. · If you want to confer about your possible topic before submitting a proposal, feel free to confer with me in person, by phone, or by email. Response
to Paper Proposal · The instructor will email you a reaction okaying the proposal and / or making any necessary suggestions. · You are welcome to continue going back and forth with the instructor on email until you are satisfied with your direction. · Student does not receive a letter grade for the proposal, only a “yes” or instructions for receiving a yes. Students will not lose credit for problems in reaching a topic as long as they are working to resolve these problems. · The only way you can start getting into trouble over the proposal is if you simply don’t offer very much to work with, especially after prompts from instructor. An example of a really bad proposal is one sentence starting with “I’m thinking about” and ending with “doing something about immigration and gender,” then asking, “What do you think?” In these cases, a bad grade won’t be recorded, but the deep hole the student has dug will be remembered. Notes regarding the paper proposal may appear on the Final Grade Report. Description of Research Options: Option 1 (analytic /
research essay) requirements · This option involves a more or less "standard College English paper" in which the student analyzes a literary text or texts. · The topic is open to any type of literary analysis, but it must have some relevance to the course. That is, a member of the class reading your essay would be able to recognize the relevance of the text or its major themes. · Possible topics: tracing in one text, or comparing and contrasting in more than one text the development of a theme, image, symbol, usage of language, character type, plot pattern, or conflict. · In terms of primary texts, you may choose a text from beyond this course, but if you use more than one primary text, at least one should be from the course readings. · In terms of research, you must incorporate references to at least three secondary and background sources--that is, your research sources must include both secondary and background types of research; the distinction will be explained. · Follow MLA style for documentation and mechanics. · Length: 7-10 pages + Works Cited · Research Requirements: One or two primary sources; at least 3 secondary and background sources (distinction explained below). At least one source should be "print"--i. e., not from the internet. Option 2 (journal) requirements If you choose the journal option, you are not choosing an option that involves less work than the traditional research paper option. You are expected to do just as much work and your writing will be judged by similar standards. However, the writing may be less centrally or consistently focused on one subject. Thus you may pursue several subjects, which may not perfectly cohere. All the same, I expect to see good absorption and expression of research and well-polished if exploratory writing. (In brief, the journal I read should not be your first drafts.) Required and optional journal elements, with suggested page limits: (The optional elements may be added to and varied as your research develops.) · Introduction (required): 1-2 pages summarizing purpose and organization of journal. (content options follow) · Review of at least three secondary sources having to do with immigrant literature, however broadly or specifically focused. These articles might pertain to our class readings or to your research on an ethnic group or an immigrant author. (At least one page each. Head report with bibliographic citation, followed by a review of the scholar’s argument, evidence, and usefulness.) (At least 3 pages; these sources should be from printed materials, not the Web.) · Brief history of immigration and immigrant literature by a particular ethnic group (e. g., Italian-American, Chinese-American, Caribbean-American, Mexican-American), including a bibliography. (The bibliography may be embedded in the text of this review.) (3 pages) · Review of one or more websites relevant to your subject. Review contents, accuracy, usefulness. (1-2 pages each) · The following elements are more optional: reflection on your own family’s immigration history (2-4 pages; interviews with family members?); interviews with recent immigrants regarding immigrant experience plus their reading habits (3-5 pages; regarding reading habits, what literature do they find relevant to their experience?) · Other possible items may be mentioned as the semester progresses. Also consider combining categories—for instance, your “immigrant author” could be from the “ethnic group” you also investigate. The journal is necessarily a "loose" form, so let your findings dictate your organization. · (Required) Conclusion: 1-2 pages summarizing what you have learned, what you would do next if you continued your research, how it might be applied.
Explanation of Research Terms Primary texts. In research writing for literature, primary texts are usually works of fiction, poetry, or drama, though other genres may be similarly analyzed. Background and secondary research. You are required to refer directly to at least three background and secondary sources, though your mix of these three may vary, and of course you may refer to more than three. Background sources refer to handbooks, encyclopedias, and companions to literature that provide basic generic, biographical, or historical information. For purposes of Literature, these books are generally shelved in the PR and PS sections of the Reference section of the library. Secondary sources refer to critical articles about particular authors or texts. (When you write your analytic / research paper, you are creating a secondary source.) These may take the form of articles or books. Articles may be found in journals or in bound collections of essays. Secondary books may be found on the regular shelves of the library. To find secondary sources, perform a database search on the MLA directory in the Reference section of the library--the reference librarians will help you. Documentation style: MLA style (parenthetical documentation + Works Cited page, as described in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th or 5th edition. Other mechanical issues: A cover sheet is not necessary. Email copy of paper to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu. You are welcome to give me a hard copy on or around the due date, but before the semester is over you are required to provide an electronic copy. Student Presentations, Responses, & Records Every student will lead (or share in leading) one class presentation, and each student will also serve in a supporting role for one or more other presentations. Each student will make one of two types of presentations—either as the reader and chief interpreter of a poem from the Unsettling America anthology, or as a presenter in a fiction-nonfiction dialogue. In either case, the student presenter is responsible for making a presentation, leading and responding to the following discussion, and submitting the finished presentation summary to the instructor via email for posting to the webpage. Poetry presentations are recommended for less experienced students, and fiction-nonfiction dialogues for more experienced students. Presentation assignments listed in the reading schedule will be decided partly by student choice and partly by chance; student preferences are not guaranteed. On the opening class day (28 August), students may indicate their preferences on an ID card, and volunteers will be solicited for the presentations on 4 September. On that day everyone will be given a printed schedule assigning students to particular presentation assignments for the rest of the semester. Student Presentations, Responses, & Records (continued) Poetry
Presentation: The Poetry Presentation assignment relates to Objective 2d. . . . to examine how lyric poems represent different stages of the Immigrant Narrative. The assigned student will introduce, read, interpret, and lead a discussion an assigned poem from the Unsettling America anthology. (The assignments appear in the reading schedule below, though some poems may be added or cut according to need.) The interpretation should relate to a course objective (besides 2d) and focus on the poem’s immigrant themes (or, in the case of "minority" poems, the minority themes and their comparisons or contrasts with immigrant themes). Also consider the following subjects concerning the poem: · Identify which generation in the immigrant narrative is speaking. · Identify the "stage" (or combination of stages) of immigrant narrative: Leaving, journeying, the shock of America, assimilation, or reconnection? · Compare to the day’s prose narratives? What does a lyric poem accomplish that a prose narrative cannot? · Many other possible topics may be suggested by the Course Objectives. Format for poetry
presentation: 1. 10-minute time limit. Ten minutes is the time limit in terms of your presentation itself (i. e., not counting discussion). If some shorter poems do not require 10 minutes, don't feel the need to stretch out your presentation. If your poem is quite long, extra time may be allowed, or consider reading parts of it. 2. You may project notes for your presentation via the course webpage and the multimedia projector, but this is not required. If you choose to do so, make sure instructor has an electronic copy of your presentation notes at least an hour before class. 3. Before reading the poem, cite one or two course objectives relevant to your interpretation, and begin your interpretation. Your interpretation of the poem may be divided before and after the reading of the poem. You may provide some brief biography of the poet (see pp. 385-400), but this is not necessary and may be distracting. Concentrate on the poem itself. 4. Read the poem aloud. Look up unfamiliar words and practice pronunciations. (Feel free to ask for help beforehand.) Try to read with feeling and comprehension. 5. After reading, briefly complete your interpretation. In general, students are most ready to discuss soon after the reading, so don't lose that opportunity. 6. If the poem has a previously-existing web summary or summaries, make at least one reference to the points raised about the poem in a presentation or discussion. 7. At some point during the presentation or discussion, the reader is required to refer to an entry in the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms and apply it to the reading. Instructor will help as necessary. 8. Begin discussion by asking a question. The best way to begin a discussion is by asking a question. Therefore, your last steps in the poetry presentation (besides leading and responding to discussion) are to wrap up your interpretation and to ask the other members of the class a question relevant to what you've said up to that point. (Sometimes they’ll just sit there, so you might have an extra question ready; sometimes they’ll want to discuss something besides what you asked, but that’s okay; sometimes you have to keep asking and trying different angles until you get a response.) Discussion may go up to 10 minutes beyond the presentation itself. 9. Respondent joins discussion. (see below for Respondent's role.) 10. Recorder takes notes of discussion. 11. Email instructor summary of presentation & discussion. For posting to the webpage, the presenter emails to the instructor a 2-3 paragraph summary of the presentation plus 2-3 paragraphs reviewing the highlights of the discussion, prepared with the help of the recorder. Be sure to include respondent's comments. (Attribute by name.) The presenter is welcome to consult with the respondent, the recorder, and other discussion participants as much as is helpful. Respondent: The “respondent” is first responsible for having read the assigned poem before the class meeting and for having some interpretations in mind. When the presenter asks the question to begin discussion, the respondent should not “jump in” immediately but should watch to see how or if discussion develops before beginning to contribute. The respondent may speak for a minute or two at once or may make two or three briefer remarks during discussion. The respondent is encouraged not to bail out of his or her duties by shrugging that “They’ve already said it.” Recorder: An assigned student will take notes of the discussion, writing down as much as possible of what students say and connecting it, if possible, to names. (Instructor will help with names.) The note taker will share these with the reader and consult as far as desirable in helping with the email / webpage summary (see below). The reader and note taker may share and consult in person, by phone, or by email. Examples of Email /
Webpage summaries: You will find examples of web
summaries of poetry presentations and discussions from the previous offering of
this course under the “Model Assignments” tab on the course webpage, or go
directly to http://www.uhcl.edu/itc/course/LITR/4333/poetprsns.htm.
Remember that if your poem was presented in an earlier semester, you are
responsible for making at least one reference to the ideas or interpretations in
the summary. Fiction-Nonfiction
dialogues: This is an innovative, cooperative student presentation premised on Literary Objective 3. To distinguish fictional and non-fictional modes of the immigrant narrative 3a. How can we tell when we're reading fiction or nonfiction? What “markers” or signs of difference both inside and outside the text alert the reader that the narrative is either fictional or non-fictional? Are these signs always accurate? 3b. How do narrative, viewpoint, and setting change from fiction to non-fiction, or vice-versa? 3c. How much may these two genres cross? (Genre-bending.) Overall, the spirit of this presentation is summarized in the last word of 3c: “Genre-bending.” As with “gender-bending,” the Readers and discussion participants may enjoy seeing how supposedly fixed categories or genres like fiction and nonfiction can overlap, and how, at least in literary representation, what is supposedly “real” and what is supposedly “made up” are often entangled with each other. Such insights may be at once frustrating and liberating, critical but creative. In terms of student leadership and preparation, each Fiction-Nonfiction dialogue involves two student leaders and one recorder. The subject matter involves one Fiction Text and one Nonfiction Text from the day's assigned readings. The two student leaders will be designated the Fiction Reader and the Nonfiction Reader. Here is a suggested order of presentation. However, by mutual agreement, Readers could reverse or otherwise change the order throughout. Also, Readers are encouraged to experiment with different approaches for inviting discussion. Fiction-Nonfiction
dialogues—suggested order of presentation 1. The Fiction Reader will explain how and why the Fiction Text may be identified as fictional, highlighting some passages, defining or summarizing the markers, and identifying some of the pleasures fiction provides. (3-5 minutes) 2. The Nonfiction Reader responds by pointing out elements of the Fiction Text that may also appear to be Nonfiction. (1-2 minutes) 3. The Fiction and Nonfiction Reader may open up the floor for discussion of the fictional and nonfictional elements of the Fiction Text. 4. The Nonfiction Reader then turns to the Nonfiction Text, explaining how and why it may be identified as nonfiction, highlighting some passages, defining or summarizing the markers, and identifying some of the pleasures nonfiction provides. (3-5 minutes) 5. The Fiction Reader responds by pointing out elements of the Nonfiction Text that may also appear to be fiction. (1-2 minutes) 6. The Fiction and Nonfiction Reader may open up the floor for discussion of the fictional and nonfictional elements of the Fiction Text. 7. At some point during the presentation or discussion, both readers should refer to at least one idea from any pre-existing web summary of their subjects. 8. At some point during the presentation or discussion, the readers are required to refer to at least one entry in the Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms and apply it to the reading. 9. Instructor adds, summarizes, and relates points raised in other fiction-nonfiction dialogues. Fiction Reader and Nonfiction Reader are welcome to consult and prepare together as much as they like beforehand, or they may just show up prepared with their own materials and react to each other. Also, any presenters (whether of poetry or fiction-nonfiction dialogues) are invited to consult with the instructor beforehand. Recorder: The Recorder’s job is to take notes of the discussion sections of the presentation. The recorder will then provide the notes to the presenters for their email / webpage summary. These notes may be provided in person, by email, by phone, or some combination. It is not necessary to record the instructor’s comments. Email / webpage summary: The Fiction and Nonfiction Readers are responsible together for preparing together a summary of their presentation and discussion (with the Recorder's help). In a few detailed paragraphs the Readers should indicate the passages they referred to and summarize their insights. They should also organize the Recorder’s notes into readable form. The complete report should be emailed to the instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu for posting to the course webpage. The main goal in the summary’s composition is to provide an interesting and readable account for future students to consult. Since this is a cooperative venture, there is always the risk that one reader will slack off or be distracted, and the other reader will have to do most of the work. Both readers should feel free to confer with instructor on such issues. Examples
of Email / Webpage summaries: You will find examples of web summaries of
fiction-nonfiction dialogues and discussions from the previous offering of this
course under the “Model Assignments” tab on the course webpage.
(Student Presentations, Responses, & Records continued) “Silent
Grade” for presentation, responses, etc. You are graded for the quality of your work in presentations, responses, and general class participation, but this grade is not announced until the end of the semester, when it is recorded in the general grade tally that is included in your final exam. The reason for this “silent grade” is to avoid unproductive behavior from students in relation to the presentations, such as second-guessing, comparing grades, competing to each other’s detriment, or performing to the teacher. Altogether the presentations are a cooperative exercise on the part of the class, so it’s better to keep grading out of sight; however, since some students would work less otherwise, the leverage of a grade is necessary. Your roles as respondents and recorders are not a major feature of your grade unless you simply shirk and draw attention to yourself for lack of cooperation. You are expected to help your presenter in the same spirit that you would like to be helped. One potential complication is that the Fiction and Nonfiction Readers are responsible for a joint email / webpage submission. If problems arise because one Reader has to do too much work while another Reader may take too much credit, one or both should speak to the instructor, who will try to resolve the situation as reasonably as possible. Final Exam--Date: 11 December 7-9:50pm Relative weight: 30% of final grade Format: In-class or email Time: The exam should take at least two hours and a half to complete, but you may use the entire class period (2 hours and 50 minutes). In-class students will be given the exam at 7pm and must turn it in by 9:50. All students will be emailed the exam at approximately 6:45, when the exam will also be posted on the course webpage. Email students must mail in the exam by 11pm. The time is flexible to account for possible interruptions. However, email students should spend no more than 2 hours and 50 minutes in writing the exam, and they should keep a log indicating when they start and stop. (Pauses or interruptions are okay.) Length: Given different writing styles, length is hard to estimate, but generally the best exams have more writing, while the less impressive exams look scanty. Course content & Exam Organization: Three essay questions: · National migration (Jewish-American and Pilgrim literature) compared to the standard Immigrant Narrative · Asian American Immigrant Narratives · Fiction-nonfiction comparison or poetry analysis. Coverage: Refer to assigned readings & lectures and discussions since midterm, and to fiction-nonfiction presentations and poetry presentations throughout the semester. Final exam samples on course webpage: look under “Model Assignments.” Reading Quizzes: Most class meetings will feature a short, objective reading quiz based on the day’s assigned readings. · These quizzes are given one time only. If you come in after the quiz has been given, or if you miss a class, please do not ask if you can take the quiz. I strongly appreciate your not asking me, and I very much dislike being asked. You risk losing more by asking than you do by missing the quiz. · Even if you do not know the answers, you should turn in a quiz with your name on it, as the quizzes are used for taking attendance. · Answer the questions as briefly and accurately as possible, as I grade them very quickly. In most cases, a few words or phrases will suffice. You do not need to answer in complete sentences. · Grades will range from “checks” for correct answers to “X’s” for no right answers to combinations of these grades with pluses or minuses for combinations of right and wrong answers. Occasionally one or two students in the class will receive a “check-plus” for answers that are not only accurate but entertaining, insightful, or otherwise impressive. · You are expected to make checks or check-minuses on all but one or two of your quizzes. Failure to take or turn in quizzes, or overall quiz grades noticeably lower than the class average, can result in a much lower overall course grade, beyond the declared weight of the quizzes. Final
Grade Report I will turn in final grades to the registrar according to the usual procedures. Students may check their final grades by calling the university’s EASE line. However, I will email each student a tally of their grades. Though this message should be accurate, it will be “unofficial” in that none of its information aside from the final grade will be recorded or supported by the university registrar. The message will appear thus: LITR 4333: American Immigrant Literature STUDENT NAME Contact information Absences: Quiz grades: Presentation grade: Midterm grade: Research project proposal: Research project grade: Final exam grade: Course grade: LITR 4333 2003 reading schedule IA = Imagining
America (2nd edition) VA = Visions of America UA = Unsettling
America ************ Thursday, 28 August: introduction; students indicate presentation preferences; some history of immigration; Crevecoeur, “What is an American?” ************ Section
I: Immigrants & Minorities + New World Immigration Thursday, 4 September: Examples of the Immigrant Narrative. Anzia Yezierska, “Soap and Water” (IA 105-110) [handout]; Nicholasa Mohr, “The English Lesson” (IA 21-34); Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, “Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited” (VA 158-169); June Jordan, “Report from the Bahamas” (VA 305-315) Poetry presentation: Joseph Papaleo, “American Dream: First Report,” UA 88 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: *** Fiction-nonfiction dialogue Fiction text: “The English Lesson” Fiction reader: Nonfiction text: “Going Home: Brooklyn Revisited” Nonfiction reader: Recorder: ************ (Sept. 8 Last day to drop class with refund) Thursday, 11 September: Minorities and the immigrant narrative. James Baldwin, from No Name in the Street (VA 284-290); Jewell Gomez, “Don’t Explain” (182-190); Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson” (IA 145-152); Leslie Marmon Silko, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” (IA 205-209); Louise Erdrich, "American Horse" (IA 210-220); Sherman Alexie, “A Drug Called Tradition” (IA 387-394). Poetry presentation: Patricia Smith, “Blonde White Women,” UA 77 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Poetry presentation: Chrystos, “I Have Not Signed a Treaty with the United States Government,” UA 304 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Fiction-nonfiction dialogue Fiction text: Toni Cade Bambara, “The Lesson” Fiction reader: Nonfiction text: from No Name in the Street Nonfiction reader: Recorder: ************ Thursday, 18 September: Non-Mexican Latin American or Caribbean Immigrants. Junot Diaz, "How to Date a Browngirl . . . “ (IA 276-279); Edwidge Danticat, “Children of the Sea” (IA 98-112); Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Silent Dancing" (VA 179-186) Paule Marshall, “The Making of a Writer: From the Poets in the Kitchen” (VA 82-89); Paule Marshall, “To Da-Duh, in Memoriam” (IA 368-377) Poetry presentation: Jose Angel Villalongo, Sr., “In the Good Old U. S. A.,” UA 328 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Poetry presentation: Martin Espada, “Coca-Cola and Coco Frio,” UA 124 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Fiction-nonfiction dialogue Fiction text: “The Making of a Writer . . . ” Fiction reader: Nonfiction text: “To Da-Duh, in Memoriam” Nonfiction reader: Recorder: ************ Thursday, 25 September: Mexican Americans as Immigrants or as Ambivalent Minority? Richard Rodriguez, from Hunger of Memory (VA 229-235); Gary Soto, “Like Mexicans” (VA 301-304); Nash Candelaria, "El Patron" (IA 221-228); Sandra Cisneros, "Barbie-Q" (IA 252-253) Poetry presentation: Pat Mora, “Immigrants,” UA 119 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: **** Poetry presentation: Tino Villanueva, “Haciendo Apenas la Recoleccion,” UA 191 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: **** Fiction-nonfiction dialogue Fiction text: "El Patron" Fiction reader: Nonfiction text: “Like Mexicans” Nonfiction reader: Recorder: (September 26: last day to apply for fall 2003 graduation) ************ Thursday, 2 October: midterm exam (see p. 9) ************ Asian
American Immigrant Literature Thursday, 9 October: 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); Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge, chapters 1 through 5 (through p. 93 in Penguin Books paperback). Fiction-nonfiction dialogue Fiction text: "In the Land of the Free" Fiction reader: Nonfiction text: from The Woman Warrior Nonfiction reader: Recorder: Poetry presentation: Nellie Wong, “When I was Growing Up,” UA 55 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: ************ (13-18 October: mid-semester week) Thursday, 16
October: Research
Proposal due Complete Lan Cao, Monkey Bridge (through chapter 13, p. 260 in Penguin Books paperback). Poetry presentation: Shirley Geok-lin Lim, “Father from Asia,” UA 19 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: ************ Thursday, 23 October: Chitra Divakaruni, “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” (70-83); Bharati Mukherjee, “A Wife’s Story” (IA 57-69); Bharati Mukherjee, “Love Me or Leave Me” (VA 187-194) Fiction-nonfiction dialogue Fiction text: “A Wife’s Story” Fiction reader: Nonfiction text: “Love Me or Leave Me” Nonfiction reader: Recorder: **** Poetry presentation: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, “Restroom,” UA 21-23 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: (27 October: last day to drop a fall class or withdraw for the semester) ************ European-American
Immigrant Literature / Prototypes of the American Dominant Culture: The Ancient
Jews & New England Thursday, 30 October: Jewish-American: Chosen People in the New World. Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925) Poetry presentation: Louis Simpson, “A Story about Chicken Soup,” UA 245 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: ************ Thursday 6 November: Jewish-American (continued). Sonia Pilcer, “2G” (VA 201-206); Eva Hoffman, from Lost in Translation: A Life in a New Language (VA 219-228); Other Middle Eastern Immigrants. Mikhail Naimy, “His Grace” (IA 115-120); Tahira Naqvi, “Thank God for the Jews” (IA 229-236); Anton Shammas, “Amerka, Amerka: A Palestinian Abroad in the Land of the Free” (VA 291-300); Poetry presentation: Gregg Shapiro, “Tattoo,” UA 34-5 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Poetry presentation: Gregory Djanikian, “In the Elementary School Choir,” UA 215 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: ************ Thursday, 13 November: selections from the Exodus story in the Old Testament of the Bible (student provides; King James / Revised Standard version preferred); Exodus, chapters 1-15; chapter 16, verses 1-4; chapter 20; chapter 31, verse 12 through chapter 32 complete. Leviticus, chapter 18, verses 1-5 Numbers, chapter 14, verses 1-6; chapters 33, 34. Deuteronomy, chapter 7, verses 1-6; chapter 11, verses 10-17 Joshua, chapter 24 Judges, chapter 2, verses 1-15 Poetry presentation: Michael S. Glaser, “Preparations for Seder,” UA 176 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Poetry presentation: Hamod (Sam), “After the Funeral of Assam Hamady,” UA 288 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: Poetry presentation: Shirley Kaufman, "Next Year, in Jerusalem" UA 48) Reader: Respondent: Recorder: ************ Thursday, 20
November: Research Project due 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). Poetry presentation: Enid Dame, “On the Road to Damascus, Maryland,” UA 141 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: (26-29 November: Thanksgiving Holidays) Thursday, 27 November: Thanksgiving Holiday—no meeting ************ Thursday, 4 December: 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 (VA, 344-356) Poetry presentation: Lyn Lifshin, “Being Jewish in a Small Town,” UA 144 Reader: Respondent: Recorder: ************ Thursday, 11
December: final exam |