MultiCultural American Literature 373/1A

Time: 12-12:50 am; Classroom # 208

 

Off. Hours: S/T/THU 10:00-10:50 a.m.

email: emanq_ku@yahoo.com

 

Course Description

 

Required Novels:

  1. Silko, Leslie Marmon.  Ceremony.  NY:  Penguin, 1986.
  2. Morrison, Toni.  The Bluest Eye.  NY:  Vintage, 2007.  
  3. Divakarauni, Chitra Banerjee.  Arranged Marriages.  NY:  Anchor, 1996.
  4. Danticat, Edwidge.  Krik?  Krak!.  NY:  Vintage, 1996.

 

 

Reference books: 
 

  1. Baym, Nina, Ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. NY: W. W. Norton, 2003. [5 Volumes]
  2. Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. NY: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2004. (K.D. 6.000), no need to buy it if you have the MLA Guidelines for Research
  3. J.A.Cuddon. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory.  London:  Penguin Books, 1998.  Or latest version available

 

Course’s  Description: 

This course will introduce students to  major issues and themes in Ethnic American Literature, primarily 20th-century. Main areas of focus will be on issues of immigration and displacement, assimilation and ethnic belonging, encounter with racial others and constructing American Identities.  A selection of literary works by diverse minority writers will be read, analyzed and compared. Special emphasis will be on Asian-American, Arab-American, Chicano and Native-American writers.


 

Course’s Objectives

1. To develop knowledge & understanding of American Ethnic Literature and culture.
2. To apply critical principles to interpret literary texts and cultures
3. To write critically & persuasively.

4. To develop knowledge & understanding of the integral relationship between specific literary traditions and the larger American traditions

5.  To develop ability to compare & contrast texts & cultures

6. To develop reading and analytical skills.
 

Grading Policy & Course Requirements: 
 

1.  Researched Essays:  20%

You’re required to write an approximately 2-3 pages essay on each of the 4 assigned novels.  This means you will be responsible for a total of 4 Researched Essays throughout the semester. You will e-mail the assignment to me as an attachment and save a copy on your course’s Flash.  All your work should be typed in a 12” Font and double-spaced.  A Works Cited is essential and needs to be enclosed with every researched essay.  

2.   Critical Responses:  40%

Critical responses will be one of the assignments you will complete for this course. The response will be especially useful because it will help you develop and catalog ideas that you will be able to use in your final paper. You are responsible for 8, 1-2 pages, typed critical responses on the novels covered during the course.  In such an assignment you will produce a thesis and defend it throughout the response with examples from the relevant novel. No research is necessary for such an assignment.  Zeroes are registered for assignments submitted late or copied. If the problem with the work is cleared up within the week, the paper will be graded but a letter grade lower will be the consequence of tardiness in completing assigned work.  The due date of these responses is marked on your course's syllabus. 
 

For MLA guidelines you may consult Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual on-line site: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c08_o.html. 
 
 

3.   Pop Quizzes 10%

This testing is chosen to ensure that each one of you is doing the reading on time.  Without reading none of the other course's requirement would be achieved.  Good luck.

 

4.   Final Research Paper:  30% 

The paper is due on Tuesday.  May 29th., 2012.  It should be an 8-10 pages, double-spaced paper.  The topic to be chosen should be from the assigned novels in your syllabus.  You need to notify me of the selected topic by Sunday May 6.  An outline with a thesis and topic statements as well as a list of references need to be submitted the following Sunday, which will be May 13th .  Please refer to the MLA guidelines for writing papers which is available in my office, as well as at the reference desk of the library. You may also access the following MLA on-line sites: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/  or  www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html .  You need to have minimum 6 secondary resources in your Works Cited page, only two of which may be an internet, published articles.  Please remember to cite your resources within the paper itself (in-text-citation), as well as at the end of it (Works Cited).  If you fail to acknowledge any reference consulted, then this would mean "plagiarizing," and the natural consequence would be an “F”.