DOCSLIB.ORG

(00 Zora Neale Hurston, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Maxine Hong

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
(00 Zora Neale Hurston, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Maxine Hong DOCUMENT RESUME ED 390 060 CS 215 161 AUTHOR Slevin, James F., Ed.; Young, Art, Ed. TITLE Critical Theory and the Teaching of Literature: Politics, Curriculum, and Pedagogy. INSTITUTION National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, REPORT NO ISBN-0-8141-0963-2 PUB DATE 96 NOTE 385p. AVAILABLE FROMNational Council of.Teacheis of English, 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, IL 61801-1096 (Stock No. 09632-0015: $16.95 members, $22.95 nonmembers). PUB TYPE Collected Works General (020) EDRS PRICE MFOI/PC16 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Classroom Techniques; Conflict; *Critical Theory; Cultural Context; Elementary Secondary Education; *English Curriculum; *English Instruction; Higher Education; *Literature Appreciation; *Politics; Reading Instruction; Role Playing; Theory Practice Relationship; Writing Instruction ABSTRACT The 21 essays in this book interrogate one another as they explore the relationships among politics, curriculum, and pedagogy in contemporary classrooms and cultures. Critical theory, the book suggests, is generated in and through classroom practice, rather than imported from without. After an introduction by James F. Slevin and Art Young, essays in the book are:(I) "Daring To Dream: Re-Visioning Culture and Citizenship" (Mary Louise Pratt); (2) "What We Talk about When We Talk about Politics" (John Warnock);(3) "Theory, Confusion, Inclusion" (Keith Hjortshoj);(4) "The Unconscious Troubles of Men" (David Bleich);(5) "Teaching Literature: Indoctrination vs. Dialectics" (Min-Zhan Lu); (6) "Standing in This Neighborhood: Of English Studies" (Daniel Moshenberg);(7) "Redistribution and the Transformation of American Studies" (Eric Cheyfitz);(8) "Organizing the Conflicts in the Curriculum" (Gerald Graff);(9) "Literature, Literacy, and Language" (Jacqueline Jones Royster); (10) "Cultural Institutions: Reading(s) (00 Zora Neale Hurston, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Maxine Hong Kingston" (Anne Ruggles Gere and Morris Young); (II) "A Flock of Cultures--A Trivial Proposal" (Robert Scholes); (12) "Polylogue: Ways of Teaching and Structuring the Conflicts" (Gary Waller); (13) "Attitudes and Expectations: How Theory in the Graduate Student (Teacher) Complicates the English Curriculum" (Wendy Bishop); (14) "Teaching Theorizing/Theorizing Teaching" (James Phelan); (15) "Does Theory Play Well in the Classroom?" (Barbara T. Christian); (16) "Mr. Eliot Meets Miss Lowell and, ah, Mr. Brown" (Paul Lauter);(17) "The War between Reading and Writing--and How To End It" (Peter Elbow); (18) "Reading Lessons and Then Some: Toward Developing Dialogues between Critical Theory and Reading Theory" (Kathleen McCormick); (19) "Teaching in the Contact Zone: The Myth of Safe Houses" (Janice M. Wolff);(20) "How Literature Learns To Write: The Possibilities and Pleasures of Role-Play" (James E. Seitz); and (21) "Making Connections: Theory, Pedagogy, and Contact Hours" (Beverly Sauer). (RS) 'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS MATERIAL HAS BEENGRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER(ERIC1' , ) k a 7.0 sva ." 04-I" irat' -- ;> = " A ,A0 -' _ ,,trt 316e--riera U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION r I Oath or a Resew, I, and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) 10/1"hitdocument has been reproducod as renew, on, the person or organuation originating it Minor chattoes have bean flIcIde improve ,eprodudion quality Points, of crew or opo ans stated in this docuroont rlo not nococsanly reprosonl flIftrral Of RI poylIon or poky BE T COPY AVAILABLE 2 - V,a fan Critical Theory and the Teaching of Literature NCTE Editorial Board:Colette Daiute, I laid Davis, Bobbi Fisher, Keith Gilvard, Gail Flawisher, Ronald Jobe, Richard Luckert, KarenSmith, Chair, ex officio, Mario Welshons, ex officio Two-Year College, Four-Year College, and UniversitySection Committee: James L..I Jill, Chair, Albany State College; Frank Madden,Assistant Chair, Westchester '.2ommunity College; Pat Belanoff, SUNY-StonyBrook; Theresa Enos, CCCC Representative, University of Arizona;Gail E. Hawisher, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Dawn Rodrigues,Kennesaw State College; Tom Waldrep, Medical University of South Carolina;Denietrice A. Worley, Bradley Uniyersi ty; Col lett Dilworth, CEE Representative,Eist Carolina Univer- sity; Louise Smith, ex officio, Editor, ColleNe Englisi;. Universityof Massachusetts at Boston; Miriam Chaplin, Executive Committee liaison,Rutgers University; Miles Myers, NCTE Staff Liaison 4 Critical Theory and the Teaching of Literature Politics, Curriculum, Pedagogy Edited by James F. Slevin Georgetown University Art Young Clemson University National Council of 'leacher., of 1111 W. Kenyon Road, Urbana, Illinok 61801-10% Manuscript Editors: Robert A. I Ieister, Frances NI. (..:amarena lumanities 8z Sciences Associates Production Editor: Michael Greer Interior Design: Tom Kovacs tor TGK Design Cover Design: Martin I lertzel NC rE Stock Number: n0632-3030 ( bv the National Council ot 'Teachers ol English. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. It is the policy of NCTE in ik journals and other publications to provide a fonim for the open discussion of ideas concerning the content and the teaching of English and the language art.,. Publicity accorded to any particular point of view does not imply endorsement by the Executi ve Committee, the Board of Directors, or the membership at large, except in announcements ot policy, where such endorsement is death specified. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-l'ublication Data Critical theory and the teaching ot literature : politics, curriculum, pedagogy edited by lames I. SlevinArt Young. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. l!,13N 0-8 13141%3-2 (alk. paper) I. Criticism. 2. Critical theor\ .3. I.iteratureStudy and teaching (I ii;her)I. Slevin, lames I..04. II.oung, Art. PNOS.Shc 67 IOW; irs-312R7 CII 6 for Kathy and Ann Contents Introductiori ix James F. Slevin and Art Young I Politics 1 Daring to Dream: Re-Visioning Culture and Citizenship Mary Louise Pratt What We Talk about Vhen We .1 Ilk about Politics 11 John Warnock 3. Theory, Confusion, Inclusion 33 Keith Hjortshoj 4. The Unconscious Troubles of Men 47 David Bleich 5. Teaching Literature: Indoctrination vs. Dialectics 63 Min-Zhan Lu 6. Standing in This Neighborhood: Of English Studies 75 Daniel Moshenberg 7.Redistribution and the Transformation of American Studies Eric Cheyfit/ II Curriculum 8. Organiiing the Cont lids in the Curriculum Uerald (.;raff 1.iterature, I.iteracv, and l.anguage 140 Jacqueline Jones Royster ultural Institutions: Reading(s) (of /ora Neale 1 lurston, 1 eslie Nlarmon Silko, and Nla Inc 1 long Kingston 7,1 Anne Ruggles Geri. and Nlorris Young viii Content-; 11. A Flock of CulturesA Trivial Proposal Robert Scholes P. Polvlogue: kVays of Teaching and Structuring the Conflicts 189 Gary Waller 13.t.tt.tuces1 and Expectations: How Theory in the Graduate Student (Teacher) Complicates the English Curriculum 2()7 Wendy Bishop 14. Teaching Theorizing!Theorizing Teaching 113 James Phelan III Pedagogy ')39 15. Does Theory Play Well in the Classroom? 241 Barbara T. Christian 1 h. Mr. Eliot Meet Miss Lowell and, ah, Mr. Brown 258 Paul Lauter 17. The War between Reading and Writingand 1 low to End It270 Peter Elbow 18. Reading Lessons and lhen Some: Toward Developing I'ialogues between Critical Theory and Reading Theory 191 Kathleen McCormick 19.Teaching in the Contact Zone: 'The Nlyth of Safe Houses 31(1 Janice M. Wolff 20.1 low Literature l_earns to Write: The Possibilities and Pleasures of Role-Play 328 James E. Seitz 21. Making Connections: Theory, Pedagogy, and Contact I lours 341 Beverly Sauer 355 361 3(15' Introduction James F. Slevin (eorgetown University Art Young Clemson University This book grew out of the work of two Summer Institutes tor Teachers of Literature sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English. In June 1991, and again in June 191)2, hundreds of college teachers of literature gathered for what has become an important tradition in the NCTE. This book attempts to capture the dialogue that began there. The five mai n speakers a t these conferencesBarbara Christian, Peter Elbow, Gerald Graff, Mary L.ouise Pratt, and Robert Scholesinitiated a conver- sation that continues in the pages of this volume. Other essaysby Keith I ljortshoj, Beverly Sauer, John Warnock, and Janice Wolffincubated during the conference, generated as part of the many opportunities tor conversation and collaboration made possible there. These and the other essays represent a variety ot viewpoints, and they take a range of generic forms, ranging from formal arguments to personal reflections and dia- logues. In selecting them, we have been guided by our commitment to providing a vital exchange of views on the issues raised at the Summer Institutes. These issues are probably the central questions of our discipline at this time. If texts no longer organize the curriculum, then what does? If the "professor" is no longer the privileged agent of education, then who is? The essays in this book raise and respond to these pressing questions, which contemplate the end of coverage as a model, the end of the canon as an agreed-upon certainty, the end of the professor as the agent ot learning, and the end of the classroom as a place where education is delivered. These "ends" have been much contemplated, indeed. But what arises ill their place? What have we begun? 1.1w new directions in literary theory and criticism that mark the last twi decades call 110 wen as responses to these very concerns, reexamining ix J?it?'OdiiCti(.)II
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Transgenerational Trauma in Sherman Alexie's
    Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Anna Vacková The Transgenerational Trauma in Sherman Alexie’s Autobiographical Writing Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2018 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. for his helpful approach and valuable advice he provided me. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and my partner for their support. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1. SHERMAN ALEXIE .................................................................................. 3 The Analysed Works ........................................................................................ 7 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ...................................... 9 You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: a Memoir ...................................... 10 2. THE CONCEPT OF TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA .............. 12 3. ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 18 4. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 30 5. WORKS CITED ......................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Walt Whitman, Where the Future Becomes Present, Edited by David Haven Blake and Michael Robertson
    7ALT7HITMAN 7HERETHE&UTURE "ECOMES0RESENT the iowa whitman series Ed Folsom, series editor WALTWHITMAN WHERETHEFUTURE BECOMESPRESENT EDITEDBYDAVIDHAVENBLAKE ANDMICHAELROBERTSON VOJWFSTJUZPGJPXBQSFTTJPXBDJUZ University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright © 2008 by the University of Iowa Press www.uiowapress.org All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Design by Richard Hendel No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving natural resources. Printed on acid-free paper issn: 1556–5610 lccn: 2007936977 isbn-13: 978-1-58729–638-3 (cloth) isbn-10: 1-58729–638-1 (cloth) 08 09 10 11 12 c 5 4 3 2 1 Past and present and future are not disjoined but joined. The greatest poet forms the consistence of what is to be from what has been and is. He drags the dead out of their coffins and stands them again on their feet .... he says to the past, Rise and walk before me that I may realize you. He learns the lesson .... he places himself where the future becomes present. walt whitman Preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass { contents } Acknowledgments, ix David Haven Blake and Michael Robertson Introduction: Loos’d of Limits and Imaginary Lines, 1 David Lehman The Visionary Whitman, 8 Wai Chee Dimock Epic and Lyric: The Aegean, the Nile, and Whitman, 17 Meredith L.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Tricksters in African American and Chinese American Fiction
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2000 Far from "everybody's everything": Literary tricksters in African American and Chinese American fiction Crystal Suzette anderson College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, and the Ethnic Studies Commons Recommended Citation anderson, Crystal Suzette, "Far from "everybody's everything": Literary tricksters in African American and Chinese American fiction" (2000). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623988. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-z7mp-ce69 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
    [Show full text]
  • Masculinity, Food, and Appetite in Frank Chin's Donald Duk and “The
    2 Masculinity, Food, and Appetite in Frank Chin’s Donald Duk and “The Eat and Run Midnight People” [T]he male body is understood as powerful, big and strong, “with enormous, imperative, brutal needs” which are asserted when eating. —Deborah Lupton, Food, the Body, and the Self [T]he stereotype of male eating habits originated in the bush, and included a lack of table manners for the expression of a rude, hearty appetite, simply cooked meat, damper baked in the ashes of camp fires and meat pies and tomato sauce. —Michael Symons, One Continuous Picnic The name Frank Chin provokes controversy among Asian American readers and scholars, but almost all agree that masculinity has preoccupied his entire literary and critical career. Almost all his writings aim at dismantling the U.S. hegemonic, emasculating representations of Asian American males, even when this agenda must sometimes be carried out at the expense of Asian American women and gay men. Recognizing his homophobic and macho tendencies, I nevertheless value Chin’s literary attempts to assail the prevailing stereotype of Asian American male sexuality. His is not only an important but also a neces- sary project in the evolution of Asian American aesthetics. Moving away from the black masculine model (such as in The Chickencoop Chinaman), Chin in his imagination of a proud Chinese American manhood turns to Asian and Asian American cultures in his 1991 novel, Donald Duk. While Donald Duk is no exception in its goal, it is a departure from the angry tone that dominates his earlier works, such as “Racist Love” (1972), “The Chickencoop China- man” (1981), and “Come All Ye Asian American Writers of the Real and the Fake!” (1991).
    [Show full text]
  • Sherman Alexie's Reservation: Relocating the Center of Indian
    ABSTRACT SHERMAN ALEXIE’S RESERVATION: RELOCATING THE CENTER OF INDIAN IDENTITY by Tracey L. Connette NOVEMBER, 2010 Director: Ellen L. Arnold, PhD DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Indian reservations are territories within the United States recognized by the federal government as land reserved specifically for American Indians. Indigenous communities still referred to as tribes have some autonomy over the reserved lands, which allow tribes freedom to maintain and preserve cultural heritage. Indian reservations are societies within the larger mainstream America, making physical and social boundaries problematic for cross-cultural exchange. Indian writer Sherman Alexie challenges the misrepresentations of Indians which originated from a EuroAmerican perspective of the “outside looking in” to these cultures. Sherman Alexie presents the Indian perspective of “looking out” at mainstream society. Rather than evoking a desire for one homogenous society, Alexie’s narratives reveal Indian identity as a distinct identity compatible with other cultures. The homogenous element Alexie does include in all of his literature is the human condition. This thesis demonstrates how Sherman Alexie conceptualizes the reservation as a center of Indian identity in three of his novels, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), Reservation Blues (1995) and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2009). In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven , the reservation functions as a center of post-colonial trauma rather than existing as a cultural hub. In Reservation Blues , Alexie portrays the center as a process rather than location of Indian identity. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , the center of Indian identity is the Indian character him or herself; the reservation is only elemental as part of the process of Indian experience.
    [Show full text]
  • The Post-Postmodern Aesthetics of John Fowles Claiborne Johnson Cordle
    University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Master's Theses Student Research 5-1981 The post-postmodern aesthetics of John Fowles Claiborne Johnson Cordle Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/masters-theses Recommended Citation Cordle, Claiborne Johnson, "The post-postmodern aesthetics of John Fowles" (1981). Master's Theses. Paper 444. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE POST-POSTMODERN AESTHETICS OF JOHN FOWLES BY CLAIBORNE JOHNSON CORDLE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF ~.ASTER OF ARTS ,'·i IN ENGLISH MAY 1981 LTBRARY UNIVERSITY OF RICHMONl:» VIRGINIA 23173 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION . p . 1 CHAPTER 1 MODERNISM RECONSIDERED . p • 6 CHAPTER 2 THE BREAKDOWN OF OBJECTIVITY . p • 52 CHAPTER 3 APOLLO AND DIONYSUS. p • 94 CHAPTER 4 SYNTHESIS . p . 102 CHAPTER 5 POST-POSTMODERN HUMANISM . p . 139 ENDNOTES • . p. 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY . • p. 162 INTRODUCTION To consider the relationship between post­ modernism and John Fowles is a task unfortunately complicated by an inadequately defined central term. Charles Russell states that ... postmodernism is not tied solely to a single artist or movement, but de­ fines a broad cultural phenomenon evi­ dent in the visual arts, literature; music and dance of Europe and the United States, as well as in their philosophy, criticism, linguistics, communications theory, anthropology, and the social sciences--these all generally under thp particular influence of structuralism.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Thoughts on Aiiieeeee! in 2019 by Shawna Yang Ryan
    Asian American Literature: Discourses and Pedagogies 10 (2019/20) 42-44. Some Thoughts on Aiiieeeee! in 2019 By Shawna Yang Ryan On my office wall hangs a framed page from an 1886 issue of Harper’s Weekly depicting, “A Haunt of the Highbinders in Chinatown.” Along the right-hand side are illustrations of some of these highbinders—Lee Ah Fook, Chu Ah Lung—and at the top are their “favorite weapons”: a butcher knife, an axe, a variety of swords. The picture is a gift from my father-in-law, who was born in and grew up in San Francisco’s Chinatown. His mother passed through Angel Island pregnant with him, and a family picture shows him in the arms of Presbyterian missionary and Chinatown icon, Donaldina Cameron. He represents what I’ve always thought of as the archetypical Chinese American identity, one linked to San Francisco, to Angel Island, to paper sons and the Chinese exclusion laws. As a daughter of an immigrant from Taiwan, this history felt much more grounded in American soil than mine, a little bit mythical even. When I return to the introduction to Aiiieeeee! in 2019 I think that my father-in- law might have identified with Chin and his colleagues’ assertions about Chinese American identity. In the 20th century there was a certain way of being Chinese American that Aiiieeeee!, depending on which embodiment we are talking about, helped to expose, rebuke, or dismantle—or to elevate. There was a history that it helped to restore. Aiiieeee! set the terms of the conversation that I walked into as a writer, as an Asian American writer of Taiwanese-Chinese descent.
    [Show full text]
  • Aalborg Universitet Dialogues on Poetry Mediatization and New
    Aalborg Universitet Dialogues on Poetry Mediatization and New Sensibilities Ringgaard, Dan; Kjerkegaard, Stefan Publication date: 2017 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Ringgaard, D., & Kjerkegaard, S. (Eds.) (2017). Dialogues on Poetry: Mediatization and New Sensibilities. (1. ed.) Aalborg Universitetsforlag. Studies in Contemporary Poetry / Studier i samtidslyrik, No. 4 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain ? You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us at [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: June 16, 2020 DIALOGUES ON Mediatization and New Sensibilities Edited by Stefan Kjerkegaard Dan Ringgaard DIALOGUES ON Mediatization and New Sensibilities Edited by Stefan Kjerkegaard Dan Ringgaard DIALOGUES ON POETRY Mediatization and New Sensibilities Redaktører Stefan Kjerkegaard og Dan Ringgaard OA-udgave © Redaktørerne og Aalborg Universitetsforlag, 2017 4. udgivelse i serien Studies in Contemporary Poetry / Studier i samtidslyrik Serieredaktører: Professor dr.phil.
    [Show full text]
  • An Analysis of Frank Chin's Counter-Discourse in Gunga Din
    English Language and Literature Studies; Vol . 3, No. 3; 2013 ISSN 1925-4768 E-ISSN 1925-4776 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education Narrating Nationalism of “the Other” — An Analysis of Frank Chin’s Counter-Discourse in Gunga Din Highway Xu Gang 1,2 1 Foreign language school, Inner Mongolian University for Nationalities, Tongliao, Inner Mongolian, China 2 School of literature, Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin, China Correspondence: Xu Gang, Foreign language school, Inner Mongolian University for Nationalities, Tongliao, Inner Mongolian, China. Tel: 86-136-4485-2271. E-mail: [email protected] Received: June 14, 2013 Accepted: July 11, 2013 Online Published: August 15, 2013 doi:10.5539/ells.v3n3p77 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/ells.v3n3p77 Abstract Due to the unfair treatment towards Chinese Americans, Frank Chin, the defender of Chinese Americans nationalism, uses his writing as the counter-discourse to fight against the western hegemonic discourse and propagates the orthodox Chinese culture, aiming at reconstructing a heroic Chinese American culture tradition. This article will draw on Frank Chin’s Gunga Din Highway to analyze his subversive writing strategy, and illustrate how “the other” in the American mainstream society narrates his unique Chinese American nationalism. Keywords: Chinese, Americans, the other, western hegemonic discourse, counter-discourse 1. Introduction Although Chinese Americans have lived on the American continent over one hundred years, they have been seee as perpetual foreigners. Until now, there still exist some stereotypes about Chinese Americans in the American society. Chinese Americans have always been on a marginalized position in the American society. So Frank Chin, as a forerunner of Chinese American literature, makes use of his pen as a dagger to fight against the racial prejudice in American white society, and in this way, he tries to awaken the ethnic awareness of Chinese Americans to fight for the equal rights in American society.
    [Show full text]
  • Leslie Marmon Silko's Great -Grandfather), Who Came in 1872
    by Per Seyeo.led .....................---,..,.."'.... ... ....... :::-:::: ~ ..,.. ' --- .... I BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY o BOISE, IDAHO o Boise State University Western Writers Series Number 45 By Per Seyersted University of Oslo, Norway Editon: Wilyne Chiltlerton Jilmta H. Magui..e Swine.. Milnilger: Jilrnta Hadden Co~r Design by Amy Skoy, Copyright 1980 Co~r llIustriltion by Leslie Milrmon Silko from LagUFWl WOlR4n. Used by permission of the iln illi. Boise State University, Boise, Idaho Copyrighl 1980 by the Boix Stale Uni\'le'nily Wn.l ern Writen Serin ALL RIGHTS RESERV ED Library of Congrnl' Card No. 80-70460 International Sta ndard Book No. O·884!lO·069·l! Pri nted in !he United Statn of Ameri ca by J .. 0 Printing Mnidian . Idaho teJlie /lt1l,.",t11 Silk~ In 1978 when Leslie Marmon Sitko was lecturing in Norway ana one day happened to see the figures on the iron plates in my fireplace, she immediately exclaimed: "Oh there you have the three goats from that Norwegian fairyralel" As she then told me, twenty years earlier her fifth grade teacher had read to the class from a large volume ofScandinavian ta les, whereupon she had asked for the book and read them all herself. including the one she now saw illustrated in front of her. This littleincidentshows how. at an earlyage. she wasalready actively in­ terested in stories and how they remain vivid with her. Raised in Old Laguna in New Mexico. herself partly Laguna Pueblo (and partly white and Mexican), she was spurred in th is interest by the love of storytelling and the strong oral tradition of her tribe: for centuries they have kept alive and renewed a rich store of tales about mythical.
    [Show full text]
  • American Book Awards 2004
    BEFORE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION PRESENTS THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS 2004 America was intended to be a place where freedom from discrimination was the means by which equality was achieved. Today, American culture THE is the most diverse ever on the face of this earth. Recognizing literary excel- lence demands a panoramic perspective. A narrow view strictly to the mainstream ignores all the tributaries that feed it. American literature is AMERICAN not one tradition but all traditions. From those who have been here for thousands of years to the most recent immigrants, we are all contributing to American culture. We are all being translated into a new language. BOOK Everyone should know by now that Columbus did not “discover” America. Rather, we are all still discovering America—and we must continue to do AWARDS so. The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. The goals of BCF are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. BCF has always employed the term “multicultural” not as a description of an aspect of American literature, but as a definition of all American litera- ture. BCF believes that the ingredients of America’s so-called “melting pot” are not only distinct, but integral to the unique constitution of American Culture—the whole comprises the parts. In 1978, the Board of Directors of BCF (authors, editors, and publishers representing the multicultural diversity of American Literature) decided that one of its programs should be a book award that would, for the first time, respect and honor excellence in American literature without restric- tion or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre.
    [Show full text]
  • A Taste of the “Spicy Subcontinent”: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's The
    A taste of the “Spicy Subcontinent”: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices ANA CRISTINA MENDES Centro de Estudos Anglísticos da Universidade Lisboa ISBN 978-972-8886-24-0 • FROM BRAZIL TO MACAO • CEAUL / ULICES 2013 ex sells, and so does exotica. As the advertising industry has extensively demonstrated, sex gets consumers’ attention, so what better promotion for Sa film, one may think, than displaying in the teaser poster a scantily clad couple lying down on a sea of red chillies? This seems to be the promotion strategy behind the poster for the film The Mistress of Spices, directed by Paul Mayeda Berges in 2005 and adapted from the novel by the same title written by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. The couple on display here is made up of the Hollywood hunk Dylan McDermott and the Bollywood stunner and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, the latter the most visible leader of the so-called Bollywood invasion as she has been making inroads into Hollywood.1 Should the dazzling couple and the supply of red chillies in the teaser poster prove not to be spicy, that is, exotic and erotic enough, the prospective consumers are expected to notice on Rai’s upper body an extra trace of the exotic: the henna painting (mehndi), a temporary skin decoration most often applied on the palms and feet (not on the shoulders), traditionally worn by brides before wedding ceremonies, and whose status as cultural marker resulted in its incorporation, along with the bindi, into western fashion in the late 1990s. The association between food and sex is certainly a recurring motif in literature and cinema — one needs only to recall the novel and film Like Water for Chocolate written by Mexican novelist Laura Esquivel in 1989 and adapted to the screen by Alfonso Arau in 1993.
    [Show full text]