LTEN 181 / ETHN 124: Special Topics in Asian-American Literature
PHILIPPINE AND VIETNAMESE AMERICAN DIASPORIC CULTURES: TEXTS AND
CONTEXTS
Winter 2012
Course codes: 730627/ 732455
T-Th 2-3:20
SOLIS 109
Instructor: Jody Blanco
434 Literature Building (phone: 858-534-3639)
jdblanco@ucsd.edu
This course will explore the comparative experiences of US, Philippine- and
Vietnamese Americans as represented in postwar (World War II) 20th century
literature and film. Focus will be given on the history of US empire in southeast Asia;
the militarization of Asian countries against the “red” scare; the traumas and
continuing legacies of the Vietnam War; cultural responses to the enforced
invisibility of Asian-Americans; and the paradoxes of a perpetually stalled or
interrupted cultural “assimilation” project to the US.
REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance and participation: Students are expected to attend all classes and
participate in all discussions and workshops. Please make every effort to commit
yourself to coming to class prepared to engage in a productive and positive way.
Grades will be adversely affected by multiple absences.
Quizzes / short responses (4 x 5% = 20%): These in-class or take-home assignments
will ask students to answer one or more questions pertaining to a key theme of the
reading or discussion of the day or week; or solicit their response to a particular
argument or concept. Student absence during a quiz will result in 0 points for that
day: there are no make-up quizzes.
Oral presentation (20%): Oral presentation on a given reading or topic will be
conducted at the beginning of each class, and should not exceed 10 minutes. Its
purpose is to highlight ONE main idea or theme of the assigned reading(s) for the
day, and to discuss its importance in comparison / contrast to other ideas or themes
we have taken up in class. Students are free to take up one of the keywords or key
themes suggested in the syllabus for that particular section of the course. The oral
presentation should not exceed 10 minutes.
Long Paper (20%): Students will be asked to analyze literary and / or cultural texts,
either through the comparison and / or contrast with other texts or in relation to
historical events or social theory; or develop an argument about an author’s stakes
or literary strategies in developing a story, character, event, etc., a particular way (710 pages). Students are encouraged to consult the UCSD student handbook on
policies regarding fraud or plagiarism, which is punishable by suspension or
expulsion from the university.
Midterm exam (20%): In class exam.
Final exam (20%): Schedule TBA
REQUIRED TEXTS (books available at UCSD Bookstore):
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Nick Joaquin, The Woman Who Had Two Navels
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War
Brian Ascalon Roley, American Son
Le thî diem thûy, The Gangster We Are All Looking For
*Course reader available for sale at University Readers website
(http://www.universityreaders.com)
SCHEDULE
Mapping the Cold War Imaginary
Keywords and key concepts: Capitalism, Socialism, Communism,
Ideology, Containment, Modernization, (Under) Development /
Developmentalism, First / Second / Third World(s), Cold War
T January
Th
10
12
Introduction
*George Kennan, “Sources of Soviet Conduct”
(http://www.historyguide.org/europe/kennan.html); Carl Pletsch,
“The Three Worlds, or the Division of Social Science Labor, Circa
1950-1975” (http://www.jstor.org/stable/178394)
T
17
Th
19
“From Russia With Love” (dir. Terence Young, 1963); *Neil
Jamieson, Understanding Vietnam (chapter 4: “The End of
Colonialism and the Emergence of Two Competing Models for
Building a Modern Nation, 1940-1954”)
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
T
Th
24
26
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Decolonization in Southeast Asia
Keywords and key concepts: Imperialism, Philippine-American War,
Nationalism, Differential Inclusion, Commoditization /
Commodity Fetishism, Colonial Mentality, Westernization,
Nihilism
T
31
Th February 2
T
7
Th
9
*Samuel Tan, “Imperialism and Filipinism”; *Yen Le Espiritu,
Home Bound (chapter 2: “Positively No Filipinos Allowed”)
Nick Joaquin, Woman Who Had Two Navels
Nick Joaquin, Woman Who Had Two Navels; *Renato
Constantino, “Society Without Purpose”
Nick Joaquin, Woman Who Had Two Navels; *John D. Blanco,
“Fatalism and the Commodity Form”
Legacies of (Cold) War
Keywords and key concepts: Trauma / Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder, Melancholy, Ego, Conscious-PreconsciousUnconscious, Cathexis,
T
Th
14
16
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War; Sigmund Freud, “Mourning and
Melancholia”(http://www.arch.mcgill.ca/prof/bressani/arch6
53/winter2010/Freud_Mourningandmelancholia.pdf)
T
21
Th
23
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War; *Robert Grossman, On Killing
(section II)
“Apocalypse Now” (dir. Francis Ford Coppola, 1979); *Robert
Grossman, On Killing (Section 7: “Killing in Vietnam: What
Have We Done to Our Soldiers?”)
T
28
MIDTERM EXAM
The politics and performance of remembrance and repetition
Keywords and key concepts: Pastiche, Nostalgia-Industry, Historical
Revisionism, 1st- and / vs. 2nd-generation, Stereotype, 1965 US
Immigration Act, US-Philippine Military Bases, 1992 LA
(Rodney King) riots,
Th March
1
“Hearts of Darkness” (dir. Fax Bahr, et al., 1991); *Marita
Sturken, Tangled Memories (chapter 2: “The Wall and the
Screen Memory”)
T
Th
6
8
Brian Ascalon Roley, American Son
Brian Ascalon Roley, American Son
T
13
Th
15
“Bang Bang” (film); Le thî diem thûy, The Gangster We Are All
Looking For
Le thî diem thûy, The Gangster We Are All Looking For
Final paper due
Th
22
FINAL EXAM (3-5:50PM) location TBA