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Short Paper Assignment

Third and final low-stakes paper.

Write a two-page essay that begins "My life so far has been. . ." In it, you must mention:

a color
a number
the name of at least one movie or one book or one television show
the name of a flower
the name of a perfume
the name of a street or city
the name of at least two people you know or don't know.

and three verbs or nouns you've never ever used/said before in your life.

OR

Write a two-page essay that begins "This class so far has been. . ." In it you must mention:

The name of at least two authors (any two)
The name of at least two books (any two)
The name of at least two other people in this class (besides yourself and me)
a color
a number
and three verbs or nouns you've never ever used/said before in your life.

Assignment May 7 and Extra Credit

Dear Class,

Please have a look at the article "Cutting the Tongue: Language and the Body in Kingston's The Woman Warrior," by Jeehyun Lim. You can find this article in Academic Search Premier when you type in the key words Maxine Hong Kingston. It is the first entry that comes up in the list.

Read this article (at least skim it) and highlight some parts that you think are particularly insightful. Look for a part you might choose to quote were you writing a paper on The Woman Warrior (which some of you are). Print it out (you can do this on campus in the library computer labs) and bring it to class with you. We will discuss in class the proper way to set up quotations and give citations.

ALSO
As an extra credit assignment I've decided to suggest (strongly suggest) you ALL attend "A Frank Conversation" which is a part of the "Brooklyn On My Mind Series" and will be held on campus Monday evening at 7:00 in Whitman Hall.

Professor Tremper, chair of the English department says:
"A 'Frank Conversation' between Frank McCourt and Leonard Lopate--will be entertaining and full of important insights into the creative process and Frank's colorful life. It should be wonderful for all our students."

This event is free for BC students who show up with an ID. You cannot get in without an ID, so don't forget it. For EXTRA CREDIT you will also need to bring a pen and paper to take some notes, and turn in a report on the event to me by Wednesday, May 9. The report should recap the basics of the event and include your own ideas and comments on at least some of the points made by McCourt and Lopate. This event is highly relevant to our class as McCourt is an autobiographer. Some of you may have read his best-selling book, Angela's Ashes.

I plan on being there and hope to see you ALL there!
Peace,
Erin

Your Research Project Assignments

Hey everybody,

Again, make sure you see Katherine and Marci's posts below! Also remember that on Monday we will meet in the library - 3rd floor, room 383 (that's a computer lab).

This course requires that we do some research. As such, you have a research paper due at the end of the term. You have two options to choose from:

Option #1.
Literary Research Paper: Choose a major theme from The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, demonstrate and analyze how that theme is constructed throughout the entire book (this means reading all five chapters). You must also find and read two scholarly articles (using the library databases) that address the theme in some way, and cite those articles within your paper according to the MLA guidelines.

In a sense you are making an argument about the theme that Kingston constructs in her text. Therefore, you must use examples from her text as well to support your argument. Remember, it is never enough to just plop a quote into the text. Quotations cannot stand alone. When you use a quote you must first set it up properly so that the reader has some context for where it comes in the story. And then, you must give some analysis of the citation. Why did you choose to cite that quote at this exact point in your argument? Analyze what the quote means and how it fits with your argument.

This assignment will be a typical literary research paper, and I will bring in a model one for you to follow. (If you chose to write about The Woman Warrior already for essay #2, you have the option of simply expanding that original paper and turning it into a longer, researched piece.) The research paper must be 5-7 pages in length.

Option #2.
Unconventional Research Paper: Write an autobiographical paper that focuses on some aspect of your own personal identity --either race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class or culture – as it connects to some current public issue in the U.S. (this of course may include the war in Iraq). We will spend some time in class brainstorming possible current public issues that may be doable. But you should also start thinking about it now if you are interested in this project.

Part 1. Explain the aspect of your identity that you chose and discuss how you understand it to be part of who you are. Consider how this aspect of your identity impacts your life on a regular basis.

Part 2. Explain what the current issue is that you have chosen to explore in relation to your identity, making clear the connection between the two. In addition to explaining what the issue is, you must also give some analysis. Consider: What is at stake in this issue? Who is involved? Does it directly or indirectly impact your own life? How does this issue play out in the word - in the media - in the lives of everyday people?

You may write this paper in the form of a narrative if you would like. (One way to think about this is by considering two pieces we read in this class: Audre Lorde’s piece, “The Summer I left Childhood was White” and Satrapi’s Persepolis. Both told their own autobiographical stories as they were set within the framework of the cultural climate around them – Lorde’s in the midst of racism and segregation, and Satrapi’s in the midst of war and revolution.) Or it can take a more traditional academic prose form.

Either way, (unlike Lorde and Satrapi) you must conduct and include some research for your piece: Find, read and cite one academic source – either scholarly article or academic book that is concerned with your topic. And find, read and cite at least one newspaper or magazine article that addresses the current issue. Again, you must follow the MLA guidelines for in-text citations as well as a works cited list.

(If you think you can expand the first essay you wrote on identity, then you may choose to do so, as long as you revise that piece so that it meets all of the standards of this assignment). The research paper must be 5-7 pages in length.

These papers will be due in stages (this will become clearer next week). But the final draft is due Weds. May 16. All topics must be presented to me for approval ahead of time.

Please feel free to ask questions here(in the comments section) if you have any, but know that we will talk about these projects at length in class as well.

Have a great weekend, all.

Peace,
Erin

Check it Out

Hey everybody,

Make sure you see Katherine and Marci's posts below! Also remember that on Monday we will meet in the library - 3rd floor, room 383 (that's a computer lab).

Just want to let you know I haven't forgotten about posting the research assignment (your final paper). I'm still working on it. It will be up by this evening.

Peace,

Erin

Shaman reading

Throughout Kingston's writing I've noticed a theme of her being caught between her American life that she was born into, and the Old World values that her family expects her to live by. I found the first two chapters to be on the confusing side, mostly because at times it was hard to decipher what events had actually happened and what details she embellished upon to make more interesting. I think that the story of Fa Mu Lan as told in White Tigers was Kingston's way of exploring a life that she wished she had; one that would have made her parents and community proud of her, because of the courage and dedication it took to become a warrior. In Shaman we got to see an entirely different side of Kingston's mother. I had pictured her to be a very subsurvient and dependent housewife, and by learning of her time spent in medical school I began to see a more independent and intellectual side of her. Instead of continuing to lavish herself with clothes and other things, she put the money her husband sent from America to a more productive use. It was interesting to see how the pressure of being twenty years older than her classmates pushed her to work hard and study contstantly, because she wanted to appear like her intelligence had been bestowed upon her by the Gods, not as a result of avid studying. The section that tells about the haunted room where the mother sleeps one night to prove or disprove the ghosts' prescence, made me question whether or not she actually believed in ghosts or not. At first it seems like she doubts they exist and is not afraid of them, but then during what may have been just a nightmare, she goes back and forth talking about how she will vanquish the "Sitting Ghost" in the morning and that she isn't afraid of it because she knows all about what it does. A quote on page 68 that describes how she felt in the dark haunted room was, "She had been pared down like this before, when she had traveled up the mountains into rare snow -- alone in white not unlike being alone in black." What do you guys think this quote's meaning and intent was meant to be, as far as the mother's complex life goes?

I have to say that I'm really not enjoying reading this book. The only story that i enjoyed was the white tigers, but even that was a little dragged out. The Shaman has an interesting topic, but I just dont like the way kingston writes it. I actually think she drags things out more than Kincaid. There are a few things that I find interesting and a few questions that come up while reading the Shaman. For one I noticed that every story she tells is a story that her mother has told her as a child. Like we discussed in class I think she does elaborate on each story though. She is also always comparing her mother's chinese life to her modern american life. I'm not sure what it means but on page 59 when kingston compares her older age mother to the little girl she was in the picture she says that the girl in the picture looks happy, and that her mother now doesnt smile, isnt soft and is completely opposite of what she is now. It makes me wonder, something must have happened for her to change..the ghosts maybe? I might be a little harsh on Kingston, but I think her stories are more interesting to her than they are to others. Its like the stories my mother tells me about her childhood are more interesting to me than if i would write them down and tell them to others.

Class Today

Unfortunately, I need to cancel class today. I plan on being there Wednesday though.

I will still collect your papers on Weds.

Please finish reading the chapter,"White Tigers," in The Woman Warrior if you haven't already. Also, jump into the discussion here below if you haven't already.

See you soon.

Erin