Professor Malini J. Schueller AML 3673; Section 1000
Office: 4113 TUR Spring 14
Office Ph.: 392-6650 T 8-9, R 9 TUR 2336
e-mail: malini@ufl.edu
Office Hours: T 5:00-6:00
R 2:00-3:30
and by appointment
Racial Identities in Asian American Literature
Course Description: Asian-American is a highly contested, yet necessary category, born of racism, nationalism, and resistance. This course focuses on the ways in which different forms of racialization have constructed Asian American identity. We will examine Asian-American literary and cultural productions in relation to specific immigration acts, restrictions, exclusions, and laws as well as to racialized stereotypes such as model minorities. We will also study how U.S. imperialism in Asia and the Asia Pacificthe Philippines, Vietnam--have produced different Asian-American cultures. In keeping with the wide range covered by Asian American studies, the course will engage with a variety of cultural materials: novels, autobiographies, short stories, plays, poems, graphic novels, documentaries, newspaper articles, as well as essays.
This is an intensive discussion course. Please come to class prepared to raise questions about the readings for the day. I am interested in your active responses to the materials you are reading.
Texts: Jade Snow Wong Fifth Chinese Daughter
David Henry Hwang M Butterfly
Frank Chin Chickencoop Chinaman and the Year of the Dragon
Mine Obuko Citizen 13660
Yone Noguchi The American Diary of a Japanese Girl (on ARES)
R. Zamora Linmark Leche
Soo Kim Abboud and Jane Kim Top of the Class
John Okada No No Boy
Aimee Phan We Should Never Meet
Bharati Mukherjee Jasmine
Coursepack available at BookIt (13th st across from Krispy Kreme)
(Many items in the coursepack are on electronic reserve in the library. Should you choose not to
purchase the coursepack, you will be responsible for accessing the items, xeroxing them, and bringing them to class. Items on electronic reserve in the library are marked ARES. You can access readings from journals on your own. Please note that although I have placed these on reserve, the library might/might not have them up on time. I advise you to access all items at the beginning of the semester. Some items are on sakai and are marked as SAKAI. )
Course Requirements and Grade Distribution:
Pop Quizzes ..................................15%
Oral Presentation...........................10%
Essay # 1........................................30%
Essay # 2.........................................35%
Class Participation..........................10%
Panels: Three or four students should get together to work on a panel. These panels are either intended to broaden, contextualize, or interrogate the topic being discussed in class. Many panels require you to take a position on a topic. Taking a position does not simply mean presenting an unverifiable opinion. A position must be supported by close readings of the text in question. By all means, direct the class to a specific page and offer specific analyses. All panelists should e-mail a 1-2 page statement to each of the panel participants as well as to me at least 24 hours before class. Make sure you are not repeating other panelists. During class, the panelists should read aloud their statements. Then each panelist should ask one question to another member. After that, the panel will open to class discussion. Please do not pose questions to the class because this usually inhibits discussion. If I do not get your paper 24 hours before class, I will consider it late. In class, please hand me a hard copy of your panel statement. Please practice and time yourself before you present in class. Presentations and panels will be graded on the information provided, clarity, and on the ability to elicit questions.
Attendance: Please remember that this is a discussion class and that you are expected to attend every day. Attendance means bringing all reading material to class and being prepared to discuss the readings. If you come to class without the assigned readings you may be considered absent. Please do not work on laptops during class.
There is no way to simply "make up" work for missed classes. If you miss more than four hours of class, you will lose a third of a letter grade for each additional absence. The four -hour absence policy does not mean that I am encouraging these absences or that you should, indeed, miss four hours of class. The allowed absences are meant strictly to cover emergencies ( if you "use up" your absences and then have an emergency, you're out of luck). Missing eight or more hours of class constitutes failing the course. If you are absent you are still responsible for knowing the material and turning in assignments, including responses.
Papers : I do not require any research for your papers other than the material in the packet. Please follow MLA guidelines for citation. Remember that any use of reference material, both in direct quote or paraphrase, must be meticulously footnoted. Plagiarism, while intentional or otherwise, will result in a failing grade. Make sure your paper has a thesis (ie something you need to prove), that there is only one thesis for the entire paper, and that your paper is not a plot summary. I will put a Guidelines for Papers handout on sakai as well as sample graded papers.
Turning in Papers: Your papers (including responses) are due in class on the days assigned. Before bringing a hard copy of your paper to class, please turn in the papers on sakai on or before the due date. Please don't slip papers under my door. Late papers will be reduced one letter grade for each class period; after one week they earn an "E."
Rewrites: You may revise any one paper. For rewriting, please follow the long comments at the end of the paper. Remember that a rewrite is a serious effort and not simply a correction of mechanical errors. When you rewrite a paper turn in the original graded paper along with the rewrite. In the new paper, highlight all the revisions you have made. If you want to rewrite a paper, I recommend your doing so within two weeks of getting the graded paper back. Do not rewrite a paper with a grade higher than a B. All rewrites are due April 25th.
All papers and the panel must be done in order to pass the course. Work not done will receive a grade of "0"
For purposes of calculation A=90, B+=85 etc
Announcements and Assignments will be on sakai. Please go to https://lss.at.ufl.edu/ and follow the student links. Please check your email frequently.
You can expect things of me in return. I will be happy to answer any questions or help you with papers. If you are not free during my office hours and need help, please don't hesitate to see me after class to set up an appointment.
Syllabus: This is a tentative syllabus which might be changed according to the needs of the course.
Jan 7 Introduction
Jan 9 Suchen Chang Hostility and Conflict from Asian Americans: An Interpretive History pp. 45-61 Coursepack ARES
Frank Wu from Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White, pp. 1-19 Coursepack
ARES
Jan 14 Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States
Pp.57-69 Coursepack ARES
Text of the 1882 Exclusion Act Coursepack
Letter from Mary Tape to San Francisco School Board 1885 Coursepack SAKAI
Frank Chin and Jeffrey Chan Preface to Aiieeeee vi-xvii Coursepack ARES
Jan 16 Frank Chin and Jeffrey Chan Racist Love From Seeing Through Shuck, pp. 65-72
Coursepack ARES
Orientalism
Jan 21 Edward Said, Orientalism pp. 1-9 Coursepack ARES
Noguchi, The American Diary of a Japanese Girl ARES
Jan 23 American Diary of a Japanese Girl
Panel # 1: Is The American Diary an Orientalist text or does it subvert Orientalist representation?
Jan 28 From Sheridan Prasso The Asian Mystique 1-28 SAKAI
M Butterfly
Jan 30 M Butterfly
Butler Imitation and Gender Insubordination Coursepack ARES
Suji Kwock Kim Rice of Orientalamentations SAKAI
Panel 2: Does M Butterfly undermine all gender identities or does it only question
Orientalist constructions of gender?
Model Minorities
Feb 4 Peterson Success Story, Japanese-American Style. New York Times Magazine,
New York Times, Jan 9, 1966. Please print out and bring to class. Its the first item
that youll see on google if you type the title.ARES
Success Story of One Minority Group in the US Coursepack
Jade Snow Wong Fifth Chinese Daughter
Feb 6 Jade Snow Wong Fifth Chinese Daughter
Sau Ling Cynthia Wong from Reading Asian American Literature pp. 55- 71
Coursepack ARES
Panel # 3: Is Fifth Chinese Daughter a work of food pornography?
Feb 11 Top of the Class
From Frank Wu Race in America Beyond Black and White, pp. 39-67
Feb 13 Top of the Class
The Rise of Asian Americans Pew Research Center
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/06/19/the_rise_of_asian_americans/
Panel # 4 Is Top of the Class a help book for parents or does it simply reinforce model
Minority Stereotypes?
Paper # 1 Due
Blackness, Masculinity, and Asian American Identity
Feb 18 Maeda, Daryl J. Black Panthers, Red Guards, and Chinamen: Constructing Asian American Identity through Performing Blackness, 1969_1972" American Quarterly _ Volume 57, Number 4, December 2005, pp. 1079_1094 Electronic SAKAI ARES
Frank Chin Chickencoop Chinaman
Feb 20 Chickencoop Chinaman
Railroad Standard Time Coursepack ARES
Panel # 5: Does blackness help Chin formulate a resistant Asian-American identity or does it subsume that identity under African-American?
The Politics of Internment
Feb 25 Ronald Takaki The Myth of Military Necessity for Japanese_American Internment From Strangers From a Different Shore, pp. 379-405 Coursepack ARES
Mine Obuko Citizen 13660
Feb 27 Citizen 13660
Panel #6: How does the representation of camp life in Citizen 13660 differ from or is similar to other documents from Topaz? (You will need to go to densho.org to find other documents)
March 4: Spring Break
March 6: Spring Break
March 11 John Okada No No Boy
March 13 John Okada No No Boy
Panel # 7 Is No No Boy a novel of revolt against revolt?
Galvanizing Asian American Identity
Mandatory out of class screening. Time and place TBA
March 18 Discussion Who Killed Vincent Chin
March 20 No class
Race and Empire: The Philippines
March 25 Ronald Takaki Dollar a Day... from Strangers from a Different Shore 315-335 SAKAI
Carlos Bulosan The Story of a Letter
Be American COursepack
March 27 Evelina Galang Talk to Me Milagros
Her Wild American Self Coursepack
Queerness, Race, and Empire
April 1 Leche
April 3 Leche
Dana Y. Takagi Maiden Voyage: Excursion into Sexuality and Identity
Politics in Asian America Amerasia Journal 20: 1 (1994), 1-17 Coursepack
Panel # 8 Does Vinces Queer Identity Affect his racial identity?
Grateful Orphans
April 8 Yen Le Espiritu The We-Win-Even-When-We-Lose Syndrome... American
Quarterly 58 ii (2006), pp. 329-352. Coursepack SAKAI
Aimee Phan We Should Never Meet pp. 1-143
Panel # 9 Does Phan challenge imperialist recuperations of Vietnam?
April 10 We Should Never Meet pp. 143-end
History and Memory
April 15 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha Melpomene Tragegy From Charlie Chan is Dead pp. 33-41.
Sakai
Walter Lew 1983" from Treadwinds pp. 74-78 sakai
Asian Americans Beyond the Hyphen?
April 17 Bharati Mukherjee American Dreamer Coursepack
Bharati Mukherjee Jasmine
April 22 Bharati Mukherjee Jasmine
Panel 9: Is Jasmine an Asian-American novel?
April 25 Paper # 2 Due in my mailbox by noon
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