ENGLISH 449
_________________
ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE
Tuesday + Thursday
9:30-10:45
THH 214
This course poses a single question: “how do we tell stories about
America?” In the case of Asian Americans, we find that in many cases
American stories—fictional and historical—exclude Asian Americans.
Asian American literature exists to a great extent because writers
wanted to fill in the gaps of “the” American story. In this course,
students will not only read and write about Asian American literature
but also attempt to answer the question of “how do we tell stories
about America?” for themselves through multimedia projects that
center on the literature and experiences of Asian Americans. They will
be trained in multimedia technology and will integrate their classroom
learning and/or personal experiences into these projects that will tell
their own American stories. Training will occur in a separate lab
section with a series of rotating teaching assistants.
INSTRUCTOR
Professor Viet Nguyen
Office Hours
Office Location
Contact Info
T 2-3, Th 4-5, or by
appointment
THH 442
213.740.3746
vnguyen@usc.edu
LAB
Labs meet on either Tuesday from 3:30-5 or Thursday from 2-3:30 at
the Kerckhoff Carriage House (see map at end of syllabus).
Information about directions as well as resources of the lab and the
Multimedia Literacy Project can be found at www.mmliteracy.net
Technical
questions
can
jfron@annenberg.edu, who
appropriate person at MLP.
be
will
directed
to
Janine
Fron
at
forward your question to the
COURSE WEBSITE
Can be found at http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~vnguyen/index.html.
Assignments, useful links, and past student projects are available
there.
GRADING AND ASSIGNMENTS
Participation & Attendance
Unannounced Quizzes
Lab
10%
10%
10%
details below
English 449 – page 2
Midterm Paper
Midterm Multimedia Project
Final Paper/ Project
Team Multimedia Project
20%
10%
20%
20%
a 5-7 page paper
multimedia version of midterm paper
5-7 page paper or multimedia project
to be determined by team
Attendance in both class and lab is mandatory. Only excused absences
are allowed. Participation is both verbal and written; besides classroom
participation, students are also expected to post weekly on TOTALE, an
electronic resource for the course, at http://learn.usc.edu/. You can
sign on with your USC userid and password. Post a comment or a
response to the “Discussion Board” of no less than 100 words once a
week, directed to the readings or discussion.
Unannounced quizzes will cover only factual questions that are related
to the reading. The reading will be paced proportionally by the number
of allotted days.
Papers and projects will be described in separate handouts.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Theresa Cha, Dictee
David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
Derek Nguyen, Monster [field trip]
John Okada, No-No Boy
Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Blu’s Hanging
REQUIRED TEXTS from non-multimedia English 449
Carlos Bulosan, America Is In the Heart
Theresa Cha, Dictee
Jessica Hagedorn, Dogeaters
Le Ly Hayslip, When Heaven and Earth Changed Places
David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Li-Young Lee, The City In Which I Love You
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
Course reader with essays, poems, short stories
English 449 – page 3
SCHEDULE
Date
Class
Lab
Claiming America
WK 1 Jan 8 Tuesday
Introduction: What is an Asian
American?
Project Development: Research &
Citation
WK 1 Jan 10 Thursday
John Okada, No-No Boy
Software: Macintosh OS, FTP program
Hardware: Zip drives and Zip disks
Homework: Review a web site critically
Tasks: Hand out Multimedia Survey
Readings: Josh Beggs and Dylan
Thede, Designing Web Audio
(excerpts); How to perform an oral
history interview (handout)
WK 2 Jan 15 Tuesday
John Okada, No-No Boy
Interviewing Your Subjects
WK 2 Jan 17 Thursday
John Okada, No-No Boy and
September 11
Software: ProTools
Hardware: Digital Audio Recorders,
Digital Still Camera
Homework: conduct an interview using
digital audio and cut the interview in
ProTools
Readings: McCloud’s Understanding
Comics (excerpts); Berger’s Ways of
Seeing (excerpts); Domenic
Stansberry, “Multimedia: Notes Toward
an Aesthetic”
WK 3 Jan 22 Tuesday
John Okada, No-No Boy and
September 11
Thinking Visually: 2D Media
Acquisition, & Design
WK 3 Jan 24 Thursday
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
WK 3 Jan 24 Thursday
The Third Annual Student Screening of
the Multimedia Literacy Project (SGM
124, 5-6:30, Attendance MANDATORY)
Software: Fireworks
Hardware: Scanner, Digital Camera
Homework: Create a layered
document, and change the meaning of
a scanned image
Readings: Sturken and Cartwright,
Practices of Looking (excerpts); The
Design of Everyday Things (excerpts);
John Hart, The Art of the Storyboard
(excerpts); Twentieth Century Type;
Roger Pring, www.type; Handouts on
color
English 449 – page 4
WK 4 Jan 29 Tuesday
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
Thinking Visually Part II
WK 4 Jan 31 Thursday
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
Software: Fireworks continued,
beginning Dreamweaver
Hardware: NONE
Homework: Complete Project on No-No
Boy
Readings: Another excerpt
from McCloud; Peter
Lunenfeld, “Hypertext: The
Alphanumeric Phoenix”; Jeff
Carlson, “Navigation Now”
Postnational Identities
WK 5 Feb 5 Tuesday
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman
Warrior
WK 5 Feb 7 Thursday
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman
Warrior
Hypertext-Linear Vs. Non-Linear
Narrative Navigation, Linking,
Storyboarding
Software: Fireworks and Dreamweaver
continued
Hardware: NONE
FIRST PROJECT DUE on
No-No Boy
Readings: TBA
WK 6 Feb 12 Tuesday
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman
Warrior
WK 6 Feb 14 Thursday
Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman
Warrior
MIDTERM PAPER DUE ONLINE on
February 15 by 5PM
WK 7 Feb 19 Tuesday
PAPER RETURNED
Theresa Cha, Dictee
WK 7 Feb 21 Thursday
Theresa Cha, Dictee
Review
Review No No Boy Projects in Class
and Previous Midterm Projects
Homework: for next week, bring in
assets (ideas, images, research, links)
for midterm project translation of
midterm paper
Workshop
Workshop ideas for midterm project,
work on midterm project
Software: Fireworks and Dreamweaver
Hardware: None
Homework: Storyboard for Midterm
Project
Readings: TBA
English 449 – page 5
WK 8 Feb 26 Tuesday
Theresa Cha, Dictee
WK 8 Feb 28 Thursday
Theresa Cha, Dictee
Putting It All Together: Project
Troubleshooting
Students pitch storyboards
Software: Fireworks and Dreamweaver
Hardware: None
Homework: turn your 5-7
page paper into a Flash
project
Readings: TBA
WK 9 Mar 5 Tuesday
David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
Project Troubleshooting
WK 9 Mar 7 Thursday
David Henry Hwang, M. Butterfly
Software: Fireworks and Dreamweaver
Hardware: None
MIDTERM MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS
DUE on March 8 by 5 PM
March 11-15
Spring Recess
New and Non-Asian Americans
WK 10 Mar 19 Tuesday
Midterm Multimedia Project
Presentations
Thinking Contextually: Knowing Your
Audience
WK 10 Mar 21 Thursday
Edward Said, from Orientalism
(handout)
Archiving/organizing student projects
Software: Final Cut Pro
Hardware: Still Cam and Digital Video
Homework: Brainstorm Group Projects
Readings: TBA
WK 11 Mar 26 Tuesday
Theresa Cha, Dictee
Final Cut Pro, continued
WK 11 Mar 28 Thursday
Theresa Cha, Dictee
Final groups are formed
WK 12 Apr 2 Tuesday
Theresa Cha, Dictee
Final Cut Pro, continued
WK 12 Apr 4 Thursday
Lois Ann Yamanaka, Blu’s Hanging
Group ideas submitted and approved
WK 13 Apr 9 Tuesday
Lois Ann Yamanaka, Blu’s Hanging
WK 13 Apr 11 Thursday
Lois Ann Yamanaka, Blu’s Hanging
Working
on
projects in lab
WK 14 Apr 16 Tuesday
Derek Nguyen, Monster (play)
WK 14 Apr 18 Thursday
Derek Nguyen, Monster
final
Pitching final projects
in lab
Task: Handout Multimedia Survey
Cover how to archive student projects
Student lab reflections
English 449 – page 6
WK 15 Apr 23 Tuesday
Evaluations
WK 15 Apr 25 Thursday
Class cancelled
WK 16 Apr 29 Monday
GROUP MULTIMEDIA PROJECT DUE
by 5PM
WK 16 May 6 Monday
FINAL PAPER OR PROJECT
DUE by 5PM
WK 17 May 7 Tuesday
MULTIMEDIA PROJECT SCREENING
11-1 PM @ LEAVEY AUDITORIUM,
ATTENDANCE MANDATORY
Working on final projects in lab