World English/es: Asian American Women Writers
Dr. Donna Tong
世界英文: 華美女性作家
Email: 080695@mail.fju.edu.tw
Friday 9:10am – 12:00pm
Office: SF225
Location: LC302
Office Hours: Thursday 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Course Description
In the history of Asians in the United States, Asian Americans have occupied a
complicated position, veering between near-black and near-white in terms of their social
perception and legal treatment by American society. Moreover, the positioning of Asian
American women writers is further complicated by intra-ethnic controversy emanating from the
intersectionality of gender and race which became a point of contention in the 1960s and 1970s.
This course will use that context and analyze the particular intersection of race, gender,
and class to discuss the selected works, both literary and filmic, of several Asian American
women writers and producers. Such questions as how these writers and producers interpret and
represent social issues and problems, how their works resist racist and/or gendered stereotypes,
and how their texts may actually reproduce such tensions are ones that we will explore in this
class.
Required Texts
Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Writings by Sui Sin Far
The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston
Interpreter of Maladies: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri
Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Unbroken Thread: An Anthology of Plays by Asian American Women, ed. Roberta Uno
Course Requirements
Group Presentation
10 points
1. Form groups of no more than three people.
2. Select a text to discuss and analyze from the list.
3. Prepare a written report with each person contributing at least 750 words.
a. Each person must select a passage or scene from a text to analyze.
b. Consider language, rhetorical devices, literary techniques, genre.
c. Discuss your analysis in the context of the text’s history – both in terms of the
period it represents, the period in which it was written/published (and optionally
how the text was received by the public).
4. Present for 30 minutes total in your group; please use Powerpoint.
a. 5-10 minutes per person on his/her analysis of his/her section of the text.
b. 5-10 minutes for discussion questions – each person must prepare at least one-two
questions and possible answers.
Midterm exam
30 points
Final exam
40 points
Attendance & participation
20 points
Schedule
Week 1
02/26
Introduction; Slaying the Dragon
reading assignment:
Mrs. Spring Fragrance –
“Mrs. Spring Fragrance”; “The Inferior Woman”;
“The Wisdom of the New”; “Its Wavering Image”
Week 2
03/05
Lotus Blossom & China Dolls
Week 3
03/12
Miscegenation & Assimilation
Week 4
03/19
Masquerade or Troubling Gender
Week 5
03/26
Native Informant
Week 6
04/02
His/Herstory: Paper Sons/Daughters
reading assignment:
Unbroken Thread –
The Music Lessons p. 60-104
Week 7
04/09
His/Herstory: Community & Family
reading assignment:
Unbroken Thread –
Gold Watch p. 112-153;
Tea p. 162-200
Week 8
04/16
CLASS CANCELLED
Week 9
04/23
His/Herstory: Internment & Warbrides
Week 10
04/30
Naming, Claiming, Writing
**MIDTERM EXAM**
reading assignment:
Mrs. Spring Fragrance –
“Her Chinese Husband”; “The Americanizing of Pau Tsu”;
“In the Land of the Free”; “The Chinese Lily”
reading assignment:
Mrs. Spring Fragrance –
“The Smuggling of Tie Co”; “The Sing Song Woman”;
“A Chinese Boy-Girl”
reading assignment:
Mrs. Spring Fragrance –
p. 179-200, p. 218-258
reading assignment:
Unbroken Thread –
Paper Angels p. 18-52
reading assignment:
The Woman Warrior –
“No Name Woman”; “White Tigers”
reading assignment:
The Woman Warrior –
“Shaman”; “At the Western Palace”;
Week 11
05/07
Immigration, Identity, Community
reading assignment:
The Woman Warrior –
“A Song for a Barbarian Reed Pipe”
Week 12
05/14
Dis/placement & Racial Melancholia
Week 13
05/21
Dis/placement & Transnationalism
Week 14
05/28
Assimilation & Adaptation
Week 15
06/04
The Melting Pot
Week 16
06/11
Intra- & Inter-ethnic Problems
Week 17
06/18
**FINAL EXAM**
reading assignment:
Interpreter of Maladies –
“A Temporary Matter”; “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine”;
“Interpreter of Maladies”; “A Real Durwan”; “Sexy”
reading assignment:
Interpreter of Maladies –
“Mrs. Sen’s”; “This Blessed House”;
“The Treament of Bibi Haldar”; “The Third and Final Continent”
reading assignment:
Blu’s Hanging p. 3-86
reading assignment:
Blu’s Hanging p. 87-162
reading assignment:
Blu’s Hanging p. 163-260