T 29-Nov
- Read: Gloria Anzaldúa “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” (excerpt from Borderlands/La Frontera) — Norton
- Read: “Contemporary American Literature”
— Kathryn VanSpanckeren, America.gov Archive (2008)
- Discuss: Essay 2 Novels / Analyses;
— further defining “American Literature,” from survey & essays.
R 01-Dec Read/Discuss:
- Maxine Hong Kingston, “No Name Woman”
& N. Scott Momaday The Way to Rainy Mountain (excerpts)
— web version of section 1 (optional)
F 02-Dec Due: Blog entry (last one)
- Optional Reading Response: “American Lit” Defined (extra credit) — due Sunday
» New York Times “What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?”
Poll results (May 21, 2006)
“In Search of the Best” A.O. Scott article (May 21, 2006)
» Time‘s List of the 100 Best (English) Novels (October 16, 2005)
List: Best Novels since 1923
About the List article
» Modern Library (1998 poll)
Board’s List & Readers’ List
List 100 Best Novels in English
About the List (New York Times article July 20, 1998)
» “Is Genre-Bending Trending?”
By Elissa Schappell. Vanity Fair (29 Nov 2011)
Permalink
“No Name Woman”
This is a very detailed story that switches between the past and the present. This is to show that the past can always affect the present and it is never forgotten.
The story is very cultured with traditions that we have never seen; and how the fact that the aunt got pregnant was completely against society rules.
It uses past and present, fact and fiction, Chinese and American, which are all opposites that Kingston has working together. This makes it hard to pick one genre that this story falls under or one mode.
I was wondering if there were any specifics for the optional reading response? Is it still due tomorrow?
@Caitlin Penny
As for prompt, the key question is how you would redefine “contemporary American literature” from your new insights generally after our “survey study” and specifically from your analysis of the novel.
You can use any of the terms / frameworks we’ve read and that we discussed on Tuesday: form, genre, modes, content, historical context (“contemporary” period/experience = ?) –
as we saw in the example in Kathryn VanSpanckeren’s entry for America.gov Archive, practical attempt; likewise in the more theoretical discussions, though equally grounded in specific instances observed, by Sukenick, Gass, Barthes, Hirschfield, Abbott even.
As always, most important is presenting your new ideas, key insights, conjecture/propose definition, qualitative statements (degrees prominent / prevalent, for example) — with limited summary, only needing precise examples when supporting a general/theoretical point. And these examples should come from your novel/essay, as well as our readings from “recent decades” (1980-2000?) and perhaps any contemporaneous texts you’ve read independently (good for comparison/contrast, issue of genre too — especially comprising “literary” fiction).
In Thursdays class i thought the story No Name Woman would also be a good thing to talk about. Although It challenged traditions and social beliefs i thought it was very good in the way it connected the past and the present. I thought this was kinda similar to the story i read for my project essay with the different story worlds connecting the past and the present. I agree with Natalie in the fact that this story does not fall under one genre and seems to be a reoccuring idea with the previous novel. I do know where to begin in picking a genre because there are so many aspects involved in the story that not one word will cover it.