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Courses Current offerings:
Fall 2004
Diaspora and Asian American Experiences
EAST
251 FA/ Crosslistings:AMST 211
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REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS AMST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
SECTION 01
This section explores Korean and Korean diaspora through history, literature, and film. In the fist part of the course, which is about Korea, Korea's literary and historical modernizations will be reviewed, after which a more in-depth exploration of recent Korean literature and film will begin. During this first part of the course, the North/South split and its psychological and artistic effects will be highlighted. We will also analyze developments in Korean cinema, particularly the new prominence of Korean film beginning in the 1990s. In the second part of the course, which centers on Korean diaspora, we will take up materials originally written in English. We will compare and contrast these with materials from the first part of the course, originally written in Korean. Throughout, we will ask how the issue of Korea and its tensions and successes figures on the Korean-American scene.
- Major Readings
-
Kim and Fulton, tr., A READY-MADE LIFE
Pihl, Fulton, and Fulton, LAND OF EXILE: CONTEMPORARY KOREAN FICTION
Suh, tr., BROTHER ENEMY. POEMS OF THE KOREAN WAR
Fulton and Fulton, tr., WAYFARER: NEW FICTION BY KOREAN WOMEN
Chang-rae Lee, NATIVE SPEAKER
Chang-rae Lee, ALOFT
Susan Choi, THE FOREIGN STUDENT
Susan Choi, AMERICAN WOMAN: A NOVEL
Patti Kim, A CAB CALLED RELIABLE
Caroline Hwang, IN FULL BLOOM
Helie Lee, ABSENCE IN THE SUN
Hyangjin Lee, CONTEMPORARY KOREAN CINEMA
Cha and Kang, NUCLEAR NORTH KOREA: A DEBATE ON ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Bruce Cumings, KOREA'S PLACE IN THE SUN, A MODERN HISTORY
Films:
JOINT SECURITY AREA
SHIRI - Examinations and Assignments
- Three short (3-5 pp.) papers
One final paper, 8-10 pp.
- Three short (3-5 pp.) papers
- Additional Requirements and/or Comments
- Class participation
One or two additional movie screenings may be required.
- Class participation
- Instructor(s): Widmer,Ellen B.
- Times: ..T.R.. 02:40PM-04:00PM; Location: TBA
- Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
- Special Attributes:
- Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts
SECTION 02
How do we make sense of Asian American culture as a coalition of differences and contradictions? This seminar will survey and read closely recent scholarship on Asian American culture. This class will interrogate how these works theorize the textual, cultural and political coalition called Asian America and its connections with other communities of color. We will apply these theories to literary and filmic texts by and about Asian Americans. Moreover, we will ask how such theories help us re-conceptualize difference, nationhood, citizenship and coalition.
- Major Readings
Texts will include:
Lowe, IMMIGRANT ACTS
Okihiro, MARGINS AND MAINSTREAMS
Espirtitu, ASIAN AMERICAN PANETHNICITY
Palumbo-Liu, ASIAN AMERICA
Prashad, EVERYBODY WAS KUNG-FU FIGHTING: AFRO-ASIAN CONNECTIONS AND THE MYTH OF CULTURAL PURITY
- Examinations and Assignments
Students will submit weekly inquiry papers on the assigned reading(s). Each student will present an aspect of the class session's reading assignment, distributing a 4-6 page written version and set of questions to other students. Grades will be based on a 15 page final project, inquiry papers, presentations and active listening and participation in class discussion.
- Additional Requirements and/or Comments
Students who have taken Asian Am. Lit, Multi-Ethnic Literature or Introduction to Ethnic Studies will have priority. This course meets the English department's theory requirement.
- Instructor(s): Isaac,Allan Punzalan
- Times: ...W... 07:00PM-09:50PM; Location: TBA
- Reserved Seats: (Total Limit: 15)
Special Attributes:- Curricular Renewal: Reading Non-Verbal Texts, Speaking
Past offerings:
Fall 2002
Diaspora and Asian American
Experiences
Professor Su Zheng
This
year-long course is a part of a four-year project to develop the
study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at Wesleyan. Introducing recent
theoretical approaches to topics in Asian American History and in
understanding Asian American experiences, the course aims at learning
about Asian diaspora through classroom study and guided research
during the summer in Asian or the United States.
The fall course will introduce the historical background of Asians
in the United States, examine the impact of diaspora on Asian American
experiences, and discuss topics in Asian American cultural representations.
Students are expected to explore the possibilities of community-based
research projects, and will complete a pilot research project. Classes
will be devoted to discussions of both readings and issue encountered
in the research projects. The Spring seminar is designed to introduce
students to the major themes of Chinese American history through
the reading of selected primary sources, some of the major works
in the field, and recent interpretations of the Chinese experiences
in the United States.
At the end of the year-long course, students will participate in summer research on Asian American topics in carefully chosen sites in America or Asia, depending on the student's major field, research interests and personal goals. Students will receive support for travel, housing, and expenses, as well as a stipend.
Major Readings
Buell, Frederick, National
Culture and the New Global System
Chan, Sucheng, Asian Americans: An Interpretive History
Hammamoto, Darrell, Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the
Politics of TV Representation
Lee, Lisa, Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics
Ma, Sheng-mei, Immigrant Subjectivities in Asian American and
Asian Diaspora Literatures (1998)
Ong, Aihwa, Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of
Transnationality (1999)
Xing, Jun, Asian American through the Lens: History,
Representations, and Identity (1998)
Materials on-line
www.wesleyan.edu/libr/reserve.htm
Spring 2003
The Chinese American
Experience
Professor K. Scott Wong
Course Description:
This seminar is designed to introduce students to the major
themes of Chinese American history through the reading of selected
primary sources, some of the major works in the field, and recent
interpretations of the Chinese experience in the United States.
During the course of the semester we will be reading works on
Chinese immigration, labor, the anti-Chinese movement, the Chinese
response to exclusion, gender and sexuality, community dynamics, the
notion of "overseas Chinese" and literary expressions of
the Chinese American Experience.
Major Readings
Chin, Ko-lin, Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration
to the United States (1999)
Chin, Tung Pok, Paper Son: One Man's Story (2000)
Choy, Dong, & Hom, The Coming Man: 19th Century American
Perceptions of the Chinese (1994)
Chu, Louis, Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961)
Khu, ed., Josephine M.T., Cultural Curiosity: Thirteen Stories
About the Search for Chinese Roots (2001)
Ma, Sheng-Mei, The Death Embrace: Orientalism and Asian American
Identity (2000)
Ng,Fae, Bone (1993)
Peffer, George Anthony, It They Don't Bring Their Women Here:
Chinese Female Immigration Before Exclusion (1999)
Tchen, John Kuo Wei, New York Before Chinatown: Orientalism and
the Shaping of American Culture, 1776-1882 (1999)
Wong, K. Scott and Chan, Sucheng, eds. Claiming America: Constructing
Chinese American Identities during the Exclusion Era (1998)
Materials on-line
www.wesleyan.edu/libr/reserve.htm
Fall 2003
Diaspora and Asian American
Experiences
Professor Su Zheng
Required Sequence: EAST251/AMST211 and EAST252/AMST212
This year-long innovative course is part of
a four-year project supported by the Freeman Initiative grant to
further develop the study of Asia and the Asian diaspora at
Wesleyan. Introducing recent theoretical approaches to topics in
Asian American history and in understanding Asian American
experiences, the course aims at learning about Asian diaspora
through classroom study and guided research during the summer.
The fall course will introduce the historical background of Asians
in the United States, examine the impact of diaspora on Asian
American experiences, and discuss topics in Asian American cultural
representations. Students are expected to explore the possibilities
of community-based research projects, and will complete a pilot
research project. Classes will be devoted to discussions of both
readings and issues encountered in the research projects. The spring
seminar is designed to introduce students to the major themes of
Chinese American history through the reading of selected primary
sources, some of the major works in the field, and recent
interpretations of the Chinese experience in the United States.
At the end of the year-long course, students will participate in
summer research in carefully chosen sites in America or Asia,
depending on the student's major field, research interests and
personal goals. Students will receive support for travel, housing,
and expenses, as well as a stipend.
MAJOR READINGS
Karin Aguilar-San
Juan, THE STATE OF ASIAN AMERICA: ACTIVISM AND RESISTANCE IN THE
1990s
Sucheng Chan, ASIAN AMERICANS: AN INTERPRETIVE HISTORY
Juanita Tamayo Lott, ASIAN AMERICANS: FROM RACIAL CATEGORY TO
MULTIPLE IDENTITIES
Lisa Lowe, IMMIGRANT ACTS: ON ASIAN AMERICAN CULTURAL POLITICS
William Wei, THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT
Henry Yu, THINKING ORIENTALS: MIGRATION, CONTACT, AND EXOTICISM IN
MODERN AMERICA
Min Zhou and James V. Gatewood, eds. CONTEMPORARY ASIAN AMERICA: A
MULTIDISCIPLINARY READER
Fred Ho with Carolyn Antonio, Diane Fujino, and Steve Yip, eds.
LEGACY TO LIBERATION: POLITICS AND CULTURE OF REVOLUTIONARY ASIAN
PACIFIC AMERICA
Jun Xing, ASIAN AMERICA THROUGH THE LENS
Josephine Lee, PERFORMING ASIAN AM ERICA: RACE AND ETHNICITY ON THE
CONTEMPORARY STAGE
David Leiwei Li, IMAGINING THE NATION: ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND
CULTURAL CONSENT
Helen Zia, ASIAN AMERICAN DREAMS: THE EMERGENCE OF AN AMERICAN
PEOPLE
Frank Wu, YELLOW: RACE IN AMERICA BEY OND BLACK AND WHITE
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Several class projects and a final research paper.
ADDITIONAL
REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
First-year students are excluded from this
course.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA EAST Grading Mode: Graded Prerequisites: NONE
SECTION 01
Instructor(s): Zheng,Su
Times: ...W... 06:30PM-09:20PM;
Location: EAST LIB.
Reserved Seats:
(Total Limit: 15)
SR. major: 0 Jr. major: 0
SR. non-major: 5 Jr. non-major: 4 SO: 6 FR: 0
Spring 2004
Asian Disaspora in the Americas
Professor Taku
Suzuki
Course Description:
Paul Gilroy argued that the culture that
peoples of African descent in Europe and the Americas share is the
'Black Atlantic' culture; not specifically African, European, North
American, Caribbean, South American or 'African,' but all of these
at the same time, based on stereophonic, bilingual, or bifocal
cultural forms. Peoples of Asian descent also have established their
lives, after crossing another ocean, the Pacific, in North America,
Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Echoing Gilroy,
this course will ask the following questions: Is there such a
culture and experience that can be called, say 'Yellow Pacific'?
We may also ask. perhaps more importantly, what is the significance
of having such a scope for diverse experiences of Asians in the
Americas and the Caribbean? As the second half of the
year-long course on Asian Diaspora, this course will compliment the
last semester's "Diaspora and Asian American Experiences" by
exploring Asian immigrants' experiences across the Central and South
America and the Caribbean, and examining how their cultures and
experiences have been shaped within particular socio-economic,
political, gender, and racial/ethnic conditions of nation-states.
The course will first overview the modern history of Latin America
and concepts of race and ethnicity that are differently configured
than within modern North America. Then it will proceed to
historical and ethnographic studies of Asian immigrant communities
in the Central and South America and the Caribbean. Cross-national
(Chinese in Panama vs. Peru, for instance) and cross-ethnic
comparisons of Asian groups (South Asians and Chinese in Trinidad
and Tobago, for instance) will be made in order to provide a broader
perspective. The course will use academic as well as
non-academic sources (films, novels) for our inquiries into the
experiences of Asians with various backgrounds and social
conditions. Drawing upon the theoretical approaches to Asian
diaspora that you explored in the last semester, we will return to
the questions of 'diaspora' and 'Yellow Pacific' culture and
identity, and discuss the significance of studying Asian immigrants'
(and their descendants') experiences, cultures, and identities
across the nation-state boundaries.
As this course concludes the end of the year-long course which
require you to develop your own research project, you are also
expected to learn research design and methods through this course.
Students are required to submit the IRB (Institutional Review Board)
for your research by April, the course will devote substantial
amount of time for developing individual research projects in
the first half. Be prepared to be pressured quickly conceive
and develop your project with fairly detailed logistical plans in
the first 5-6 weeks.
Major Readings:
Booth, Wayne C., and et al. The Craft of
Research. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Lesser, Jeffrey. 1999. Negotiating National Identity: Immigrants,
Minorities, and the Struggle for Ethnicity in Brazil. Durham,
N.C.: Duke University Press
Lesser, Jeffrey. ed. 2003. Searching for Home Abroad: Japanese
Brazilians and Transnationalism. Durham, N.C. Duke University Press
For the Fiction Paper:
Garcia, Cristina. 2003 Monkey Hunting. New York: Knopf
Naipaul, V.S. 2001 A House for Mr. Biswas. New York: Vintage
Yamashita, Karen Tei. 1992 Brazil-Maru: A Novel. Minneapolis:
Coffee House Press
Yamashita, Karen Tei. 2001. Circle K Cycles. Minneapolis:
Coffee House Press
