Asian American Literature: Mainstreaming?

Current Works and Theories in Asian American Literature

Context: English 381/American Culture 324 (cross-listed) is repeatable for up to six credits, at three credits per term, provided that the student's second run of the course is substantially different in content from the first. The following version of 381/324 has been adapted from earlier undergraduate and graduate seminars on the most current works of Asian American literature and literary studies. This time the course enrolled about a hundred students. It follows chronologically from the literary history that constitutes the other version of 381/324, with little overlap in the readings. In addition to the two versions of 381/324, another course in the undergraduate curriculum in Asian American literature at the University of Michigan is a third one, on Colonialism in Asian/Pacific Literature (under the rubric, Engl 317, Literature and Culture), which in the Winter Term of 1998 will focus on literatures and histories of Hawai'i and the Philippines, with attention also to South Asia, the Americas, and colonialism. The occasion is 1898-1998, or the hundredth year of the takeovers of the two groups of islands by the United States. That course will be grouped with new courses at Michigan to be offered in Native Hawaiian music and dance, Asian American music, and, following the broader theme of "1898," Puerto Rican culture and history and the acquisition of that island in that year.

English 381/American Culture 324: Asian American Literature Section 1 Mainstreaming? Current Works and Theories in Asian American Literature

The University of Michigan Winter 1997

Syllabus

DESCRIPTION: We shall study works published since the mid-1980s and discuss them in contexts of their literary, historical, popular, and aesthetic environments and receptions: a rise of Asian American literary output and their authors as "hot properties" and a coming of age of writers and readers on a wave of immigration from Asia that began in 1965.

INSTRUCTOR AND OFFICE HOURS: Stephen H. Sumida, Associate Professor, Department of English Language and Literature and Asian/Pacific American Studies Program of the Program in American Culture; MWF 10-11 a.m. and otherwise by appointment, 3236 Angell Hall, phone 764-6356. You may also call 764-6330 and press the number 3 to reach or leave a message for me at the Undergraduate English Office.

COURSE ASSISTANTS: Bich Nguyen, Porter Shreve, and Pavneet Singh.

TEXTS: Texts for the course are available at Shaman Drum Bookshop, 313 South State Street. Any editions of the following works will suffice (in your papers you should cite the editions you are using). I asked Shaman Drum simply to stock the paperback editions that cost the least.

Alexander, Meena. Fault Lines. Chin, Frank. Donald Duk. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. Arranged Marriage. Gotanda, Philip Kan. Fish Head Soup and Other Plays. Hagedorn, Jessica. Dogeaters. Kingston, Maxine Hong. Tripmaster Monkey. Lee, Chang-rae. Native Speaker. Lew, Walter, ed. Premonitions. [N. B.: This is an optional text and is recommended rather than required. It is an excellent anthology of Asian American poetry.] Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Wong, Shawn. American Knees. Yamanaka, Lois-Ann. Saturday Night at the Pahala Theater.

COURSEPACK: In an earlier description of the course I noted that we would use a Coursepack to supplement the required texts. As the course came together, however, I decided not to require that you incur the additional cost of a Coursepack. Supplementing the required texts can be endless, and your own interest--rather than my limited choices--may lead you to asking about, finding, and reading works that allow you to follow your interests and needs. Please note, however, that Coursepacks for other courses in Asian/Pacific American literature are available for you to purchase if you wish. One is for a course in the study of Asian American Literary History (a different version of 381/324 from the present one). Those who have not taken that course covering a century of Asian American literature and history (up to the mid-1980s) might find that Coursepack useful. The other is for Engl 851 (Asian American Literature: Aesthetics, Politics, and Histories, Fall Term 1993), containing some criticism and theory relevant to contemporary works and excerpts from many books that were recent at that time. These optional Coursepacks are being restocked at Michigan Document Services, 1119 South University, Suite A (above Ulrich's Electronics), phone 662-4530. I shall inform you further about how to order copies of these Coursepacks if you want one or both.

SCHEDULE: During my sabbatical leave, Fall Term 1996, I learned that my teaching plans for Winter Term 1997 were to be affected by several unexpected occurrences. The most conspicuous effect evident in the following schedule will be my absence and necessary canceling of our class meetings, my office hours, and my accessibility from 19 January to 2 February. Please see me as soon as possible if this causes you problems.

8-10 January 1997: Introduction to the course and Asian American literary history prior to the mid-1980s.

13-17 Jan.: Maxine Hong Kingston, Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book. Lecture and discussion of this text will begin on Monday. Read as far as you can by then. Read the entire text by Wednesday.

20 Jan.: Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday. University symposia; no regular class meetings

22-31 Jan.: Our own reading period. Our class will not meet. From 19 January to 2 February I will be in India and in New York City for a conference, speaking engagements, and meetings. Use this time to complete these required readings and get ahead in others: Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club; and Frank Chin, Donald Duk.

3-7 February: Discussion of Joy Luck Club, Donald Duk, and critical issues arising from and around them.

10-14 Feb.: Donald Duk (continued), the "Heroic Tradition," and a paradigm of immigration in Asian American literature.

17-21 Feb.: Hot Properties: screenings and discussions of film and video works related to contemporary Asian American literature. PAPER 1 (3-5 PP., TO BE ASSIGNED) DUE IN CLASS ON MONDAY, 17 FEBRUARY 1997.

24-28 Feb.: Philip Kan Gotanda, Yankee Dawg You Die (in his Fish Head Soup and Other Plays) and its generic (drama and theater), popular cultural (film and print), and social contexts.

3-7 March: Spring Break.

10-14 Mar.: Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters. "New" paradigms for "Asian American literature": colonial, post colonial, and diasporic models, with comments on R. Zamora Linmark (Rolling the Rs) and current works of N. V. M. Gonzalez.

17-21 Mar.: Meena Alexander, Fault Lines: narratives of diaspora; memoir as genre. Also selections of poetry from a recommended text: Walter Lew, ed., Premonitions.

24-28 Mar.: Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Saturday Night at the Pahala Theater: backgrounds and currents in literatures of Hawai'i. PAPER 2 (3-5 PP., TO BE ASSIGNED) DUE IN CLASS ON MONDAY, 24 MARCH 1997.

31 Mar.-4 April: Shawn Wong, American Knees: love, (phone) sex, (hetero)sexuality, (inter)raciality in current works.

7-11 Apr.: Chang-rae Lee, Native Speaker.: an evocative title; plus recurring anxieties about broken lineages and interracial heterosexuality.

14-18 Apr.: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Arranged Marriage.: coming full circle, in a sense, on an old theme in Asian American literature, with brilliant new writers and possibilities.

21 Apr.: Last class meeting.

FINAL PAPER (7-10 PP.) DUE ON FRIDAY, 25 APRIL 1997, BY 5 P.M. AT 3236 ANGELL HALL.

PAPERS, QUIZZES, GRADES, REQUIREMENTS: The basic writing requirement for the course consists of two brief papers (3-5 typed, double-spaced pages each) and a Final Paper (7-10 pp.) as scheduled above. The Final Paper grade will count twice the grade for a short paper. Announced and possibly unannounced quizzes will cumulatively weigh as much as an individual short paper in the final grading. Thus the grade proportions are: each of two short papers accounts for 20% of the final grade; the total quiz score, 20%; Final Paper, 40%. While there are no exams in this course, the regular quizzes serve in part to measure the consistency of your preparedness and your attendance, both of which are required throughout the semester (except, of course during late January when I am the one absent and am canceling our class meetings). Moreover, the quizzes are a way for me to credit and respond to you frequently in the course during the relatively long gaps between responses to your essays. Quiz questions will be based on lectures, matters we have discussed in class concerning our readings, and on comments and ideas students express in class. To do well, you need to be in class to hear a quiz announced for an upcoming class, be in class to take the quiz, be in class to receive the scored quiz when it is returned, be in class to hear the lectures and discussions, be in class to participate in discussions and possibly be recognized in a quiz for your contribution to it, and be prepared for class in order to follow lectures and discussions and to judge the value of what is said. In short, the quizzes credit you for attendance and preparedness. As for your papers, in general you will be graded on how well in your essays you understand, define, and support your responses to questions you have been assigned or have chosen to pursue within your specific topic. Failure to come to terms with fundamental concepts in the course (e. g., a distinction in our course between a "literature of immigration" and a "literature of diaspora") means a failure of an essay with such a shortcoming. Each paper is expected to be more than a presentation of information: it is the working out of an idea. Missing papers count as Es. It will not be possible to revise papers for regrading after the papers for the entire class have been graded and returned. If you wish to revise, then please draft your paper well in advance, show it to me, and heed my advice for your final draft. In doing this, make your earlier draft as taut as possible at that point in your composing of it, so that my comments will engage you and not just take up your slack. For those who are fulfilling the ECB writing requirement (see below), such drafting and revising will be required. Be sure to cite your sources (write endnotes and bibliographies for your papers when necessary, or else build citations directly into the texts of your essays) whenever you use readings, lectures, or other forms of resources in your writing of papers for this course. Use your sources critically, for instance by stating or implying why you choose to use them at those places in your discussion. I am interested in your ideas and your words for expressing and developing them, based upon the words we read, hear, and speak in our course of study.

ECB JR.-SR. WRITING REQUIREMENT: If you choose to modify your registration in the course in order to fulfill the Junior-Senior Writing Requirement of the English Composition Board, please indicate this choice as instructed in class or by letting me know as soon as possible.