Module Identifier EN36920  
Module Title ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE  
Academic Year 2003/2004  
Co-ordinator Dr Helena Grice  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   20 Hours Seminar. (10 x 2 hour workshop seminars)  
Assessment
Assessment TypeAssessment Length/DetailsProportion
Semester Assessment Continuous Assessment: 2 x 2,500 word essays  100%
Supplementary Assessment Resubmit any failed elements and/or make good any missing elements. 

Learning outcomes

On completion of this module students should typically be able to:

- demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of a range of Asian American writing in its historical and cultural contexts;
- demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of theories of Asian American cultural production;
- demonstrate an ability to express themselves cleraly in writing and speech.

Brief description

This module is a study of the ways in which Asian American literary traditions have developed and how they are related to other traditions of American literature within historical, social, political and cultural contexts. It includes fictional and autobiographical texts from the mid-1940s to recent publications in the 1990s. The term 'Asian American' gathers together a variety of different ethnic groups, including Chinese American, Japanese American, Filipino American, South Asian American and Korean American, and this module attempts to display the range of writing which has been produced in these areas. The module also examines some of the themes and experiences that have preoccupied these authors. These themes include: the mother/daughter relationship, identity and the process of (Anglo-) Americanisation, and the search for 'home'. The experiences of immigration, Japanese American experiences during the Second World War, and Asian diaspora responses to political upheaval in the ancestral country, will provide an additional focus for discussion.

Aims

to introduce students to an important and expanding body of American ethnic writing;
to explore developing theories of Asian American cultural production, and to encourage students to relate these to their reading of Asian American literature;
to study the development of Asian American literature in its historical and cultural contexts;
to expand the student's knowledge of ethnic American literatures.

Content

Programme
1: Introduction to Asian American Literature: Beginning Ethnic American Literatures, chapters 1&3

2: Telling the Gold Mountain Story: Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men

3: Chinese American Mother/Daughter Writing: Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club. Extract from Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

4: Japanese American Writing: John Okada, No-No Boy

5: Writing Against Red China: Anchee Min, Red Azalea

6: Filipino American Writing: Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart

7: Korean American Writing: Chang Rae Lee, Native Speaker

8: Hawai'ian American Writing: Kathleen Tyau, A Little Too Much Is Enough

9: South Asian American Writing: Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine

10: Writing Nagasaki: Sui Wai Anderson, 'Autumn Gathering'

Set Texts:
 Maxine Hong Kingston, China Men (Picador 1982)
Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club (Minerva 1989)
Anchee Min, Red Azalea (Indigo 1996)
John Okada, No-No Boy (University of Washington Press 1972)
Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart (University of Washington Press 1974)
Chang Rae Lee, Native Speaker (Granta Books 1995)
Kathleen Tyau, A Little Too Much is Enough (The Women's Press 1995)
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine (Virago 1991)
Helena Grice et al, Beginning Ethnic American Literatures (Manchester University Press 2001)

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6