Module Identifier EN36920  
Module Title ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE  
Academic Year 2007/2008  
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. 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. Where this involves re-submission of work, a new topic must be selected.100%

Learning outcomes

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

1. demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of a range of Asian American writing in its historical and cultural contexts;

2. demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of theories of Asian American cultural production;

3. demonstrate an ability to express themselves cleraly in writing and speech.

Aims

This module aims:

1. to introduce students to an important and expanding body of American ethnic writing;

2. to explore developing theories of Asian American cultural production, and to encourage students to relate these to their reading of Asian American literature;

3. to study the development of Asian American literature in its historical and cultural contexts;

4. to expand the student's knowledge of ethnic American literatures.

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.

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: Writing Hawai'i
Kathleen Tyau, A Little Too Much Is Enough

9: South Asian American Writing
Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine

10: The Asian American Short Story
Text to be announced: photocopy provided

Reading Lists

Books
** Should Be Purchased
Amy Tan (1991) The Joy Luck Club Vintage 0749399570
Anchee Min (1996) Red Azalea Orion 0575400102
Bharati Mukherjee (1991) Jasmine Virago 1853812781
Carlos Bulosan (2000) America is in the Heart University of Washington Press 029595289X
Chang Rae Lee (1998) Native Speaker Granta Books 1862071144
Helena Grice et al. (2001) Beginning Ethnic American Literatures Manchester University Press 0719057639
John Okada (1980) No-No Boy University of Washington Press 0295955252
Maxine Hong Kingston (1989) The Woman Warrior Picador 0330264001
Sylvia Watanabe (1995) Talking to the Dead Anchor Books/Doubleday 0385418884
Please note that as these books are American, and in most cases published by American presses, they MAY have to be changed at short or late notice

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6