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Academic Year 2005/2006
Asian American Literature and Its Discontents
ENGL 243 FA
What is so Asian American about Asian American Literature? The course will survey Asian American literature from its emergence as first anthologized in Aiiieeee (1974) fueled by the Yellow Power Movement to the various
cultural
and literary challenges since then posed in terms of gender, sexuality and colonialism. The class will give a brief overview of Asian American history in the 19th and 20th centuries to contextualize the two centuries of
Asian
American writing in the United States, and how themes have evolved and been challenged through the 21st century. The class will develop close reading skills to interrogate literary (traditional and experimental novels)
and
filmic texts (melodrama and musical) by and about Asian/Asian Americans to raise questions about form, aesthetics and the literary market as they relate to the larger project of Asian American Studies. These texts offer
not
only different ways of understanding sexuality, gender, migration and ethnicity but also challenge how we ask ethical questions of texts and how we read literature.
MAJOR READINGS
Maxine Hong Winston, WOMAN WARRIOR
R. Zamora Linmark, ROLLING THE R'S
Bharati Mukherjee, JASMINE
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, DICTEE
Lois Ann Yamanaka, BLU'S HANGING
Jessica Hagedorn, DOGEATERS
Lan Cao,
MONKEY BRIDGE
Monique Truong, BOOK
OF SALT
Brian Ascalon Rolley, AMERICAN SON
Course Reader including excerpts from:
LITERARY CRITICAL ESSAYS
Chin et all, AIIIEEE (anthology)
Films: MY AMERICA...OR HONK IF YOU LOVE BUDDHA, FLOWER DRUM SONG,
JOY LUCK CLUB
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Students will submit a total of six 1-page reaction/inquiry papers due on the day's assigned reading(s). Once during the semester, each student will present an aspect of the class session's reading assignment. Grades
will be based on a 5-page midterm
take home exam, a 10-page final paper, inquiry papers, presentations and active listening and participation in class discussion.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
Required film viewings will be scheduled on Tuesdays 6-8.
COURSE FORMAT:
Lecture/Discussion
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL
Grading Mode:
Graded
Prerequisites:
NONE
SECTION 01
- Instructor(s): Isaac,Allan Punzalan
- Times: ..T.R.. 01:10PM-02:30PM; Location: FISK413;
- Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 25)
- SR. major: 6 Jr. major: 8
- SR. non-major: 3 Jr. non-major: 3 SO: 5 FR: X
Special Attributes:
- Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts, Writing
Links to Web Resources For This Course.
Last Updated on MAR-30-2006
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wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
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Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459