Contemporary Short Story & Novel
Think Oscars 2016: Good at math. And more: Stingy with money. Stoic or stone-faced. Tiger mom. Chinaman. Loud. Yellow.
Stereotypes of Asian Americans have formed in collective imaginaries as they’ve been continually reified through images, discourse, and the arts over time. Here we see the makings of the Model Minority myth, notions of assimilation as upward mobility, and the “better” life offered through American culture. Here we also see the role of racism in (mis)representation, other-ing as marking difference, and the violence of erasure in no representation at all.
Think resistance and survival: This course will survey how contemporary writers have complicated, challenged, and reinvented these categories of “Asian” and “American” in the short story and novel. What happens when these labels come together as the construction “Asian American”? In our readings, we will encounter themes of immigration, exile, belonging, community, citizenship, and nationalism. We will also observe how race, gender, sexuality, and class intersect with and shape positions of identity, as well as the role of language and culture in transforming identity.
Course Requirements:
Attendance and Participation
Close reading responses
Two 4-page papers
Short presentation
Final essay
Required Texts:
Available at Revolution Books (2615 S. King St. suite 211):
Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Shawna Yang Ryan, Water Ghosts
Chang Rae Lee, Native Speaker
Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You
Alexander Chee, Edinburgh
Course reader, available the first week at Professional Image (2633 S. King St.) which will include work by:
Erika Lee, Susan Koshy, Elaine H. Kim, Lisa Lowe, editors of The Big Aiiieeeee, editors of Charlie Chan is Dead, Maxine Hong Kingston, R. Zamora Linmark, Don Lee, Violet Harada, Jhumpa Lahiri, Krys Lee, Andrew Lam, and Nami Mun.
Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, Master of None on Netflix (“Immigrants,” “Indians on TV”)
Student Learning Outcomes:
- Students will improve their ability to ask questions of and to read, analyze, and interpret complex literary texts, using relevant literary terminology critically and creatively.
- Students will augment their knowledge of how literature is organized by historical periods, genres, cultures, and cultural formations.
- Students will improve their ability to express ideas by organizing, developing and supporting a description, analysis, or argument in written formats, within the conventions of academic writing.
- Students will produce a significant amount of writing such that the course fulfills the requirements of its mandatory W Focus designation (i.e. 4,000 words).