Asian American Literature

Assignment #1: Blog Posts, Comments, and Blog Portfolio

Over the course of the semester, we’ll be using our individual blogs as a means of reflecting on and archiving our thinking about Asian American literature, history and culture. They’ll serve as a record of our conversations, your deepening thinking about various ideas, and a useful tool to study for your exams and paper. To that end:

1. You’ll be writing two substantive posts on your blog per week (see course schedule for specifics). The first post of the week must be posted by Sunday at 5 p.m., and the second sometime before Thursday at 5 p.m. Popular blogs on the internet, whether they’re about politics or gardening or movies, all share similar characteristics. They are generally focused on one particular idea or theme, and introduce new ways of thinking about that idea or theme. For your posts, then, plan to focus on specific images, quotations, themes, etc. from the texts we’re working on in class, and tell us why you are interested in that. What does it tell us about Asian Americans? About literature? About ourselves, or American culture? You should also feel free to experiment with your blog’s ability to include links, video, pictures, etc., when it’s relevant to the material!
2. In addition, please plan to comment on two classmates’ blogs at least once a week. One of the unique and culturally-transformative functions of blogs is their ability to facilitate conversation across communities. We’ll function as community of learners in this course, and the comments are an opportunity for you to engage more thoughtfully and deeply than you might in class conversation. Keep careful records of when you commented and on whose blog your comments appear, as I’ll ask you for a list of these at the end of the semester.
3. At the end of the semester, I’ll ask you to assess and analyze your thinking across all of your blog posts and all of your comments. Wordpress keeps some records of these, but it’s a good idea to keep one on your own too, just in case. These will form the basis for a blog portfolio (more information about this as the end of the semester approaches.)

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Paper #1 Assignment

Over the coming month, we will be looking at four representations of Japanese American experience: one by Monica Sone, one by Frank Chin, one by John Okada, and we will continue to read Takaki. The purpose of your paper is to articulate an argumentative thesis about Japanese American experience or writing, focusing on a very small amount of text (no more than 3 passages!). The text and your close reading of it (in which you describe and analyze the meaning of the words and ideas in it) will support your argument.

Our conversations in class should help you to explore some ideas that you may choose to expand in writing. By focusing on ONE of these ideas, you should be able to answer, in part some of the following questions: what does Japanese American life look like? Of what does it consist? What are the key themes or issues that affect this community? What gives it an identity that is distinct from other Asian American groups (e.g., Chinese Americans)? Conversely, what kinds of elements help it to remain a vital part of Asian America? Many of the same themes that we discussed concerning Chinese American writing are also located in Japanese American writing, although these themes are altered by historical, cultural, economic, aesthetic contexts. What do they tell us about the culture, or the community, or a personal identity?

Your blog should be a good place to explore the kinds of topics you might use for your paper, and to practice close reading of specific passages. Many of the same themes that we discussed concerning Chinese American writing are also located in Japanese American writing, although these themes are altered by historical, cultural, economic, aesthetic contexts. What do they tell us about the culture, or the community, or a personal identity?

Your paper should be approx. 5 pages long, should use MLA citation and bibliographic style, and should have a title.

Due Dates:
Draft 1: 3/12, in class (with 4 copies)
Final Draft: Tuesday, 3/18, by 5 p.m. via email