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EL 132 | American Immigrant Literature
Spring 2025
Useful Link to Useful Things: Blackboard
Just-in-Case Link: Etiquette for attending a virtual class: here.
Week 1 – Week 2 – Week 3 – Week 4 – Week 5 – Week 6 – Week 7 – Week 8 – Week 9 – Week 10 – Week 11 – Week 12 – Week 13 – Week 14 – Week 15 & Final
Am Lit eTexts and Helpful Sites: Here
Overview of Authors: Here
EL 132, American Immigrant Lit: From the journal writing of the earliest European explorers to the present, the immigrant experience has been a part of American literature. Our exploration of American immigrant writing will take us from the story of Alavar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca—marooned in (believe it or not) Texas—to stories of immigrants in early-twentieth-century New York City to more contemporary writers and stories. We will look at the ways characters in stories, poems, and plays navigate the often difficult terrain between the faith, family, and community traditions with which they (or their parents) arrive and the new cultural possibilities they discover as they make new lives, imagine new possibilities, and join (or reject) new communities in the US.
This is also a class about reading well. We will read a wide variety of literary works (including prose, poetry, and drama), consider how and why they were written as they were written, and work to become sharper, more appreciative readers of all the writing (informal and formal, creative and not-so-creative) that we encounter. In our class sessions, we’ll discuss—together—what we’re reading and what sorts of strategies can be used to understand and appreciate it. We’ll also consider, as we go, the practical importance of reading well. In your writing for this course, you’ll be putting what you learn into practice by producing short, focused, analytical readings of prose, poetry, and drama. The course may be used to fulfill either the “Literature and Storytelling” or the “Culture and Diversity” shared curriculum requirement.
Assignments/Scores to Anticipate
- Midterm and Final, Each Including Essay Portions
- Pop Quizzes (If There’s a Reading, There Might Be a Quiz)
- Personal Ethnography
- Poetry Analysis Essay (Close Critical Reading)
- Fiction Analysis Essay (Close Critical Reading)
- Drama Analysis Essay (Close Critical Reading)
- An Evening Screening of In Time of War
- An Evening Screening of Far and Away
- A Course Participation Score.
You Should Always Have the Readings in Front of You in Class
Right in front of you, even if on a screen. But not on a small screen. Something with dimension, man. Something that lets the text breathe. We’re here to read together. Let the text take its right place.
Week 1 (Jan. 31)
- Notice that “due” items and small notes about any given week are listed right under each week’s heading, in these bulleted lists.
- Please Note: Readings are meant to be completed for class time on the day when they are listed on the schedule.
Day 1: No Class Yet
Day 2: No Class Yet
Day 3: Course introduction.
Week 2 (Feb. 3, 5, and 7)
- Remember that you need to either PRINT texts for class or have some way (Kindle? iPad? Laptop?) to view your electronic copy in class. Showing up for a discussion without a copy of the text under discussion is super lame. Trying to read off only a phone is *not* an adequate way to focus and read; use a bigger screen, if you need to use a screen.
Day 1: Gardner and Diaz, Chapters 1 and 2 (Bb) + Watch “Jennifer 8. Lee Hunts for General Tso” + Thoroughly Read the “Personal Ethnography” Assignment Sheet. (If that assignment sheet is not yet available, look for a note from me about it, over the weekend. If I’m too late with it, you won’t be responsible for having read it until Wednesday…)
Day 2: Selections from The Relation (Cabeza de Vaca) (Text available in our Blackboard “Readings” section.)
Note Taking in Class: Do you have a strategy? It’s *always* the right semester to work on improving your note taking.
Day 3: Gardner and Diaz, Chapter 5 “Cut” (cut down to two pages) + “No Name Woman” (Maxine Hong Kingston) (Available at Bb.)
Week 3 (Feb. 10, 12, and 14)
- Due NEXT WEDS: Personal Ethnography and the “Also This…” sheet.
Day 1: Before class time: Watch the class session video that is posted to Bb for you (under “***READINGS***” in the sidebar. About 40-45 minutes.
During class: You’ll meet with your group of four (to be assigned) to discuss how the concepts from the video might be applied to either Cabeza de Vaca or Kingston. Look for an instruction sheet about this to be posted soon.
Also: Make some serious progress on your personal ethnography!
Day 2: Gardner, Chapter 6 + “The Magnificent Seven” (The Clash, YouTube) + “The Magnificent Seven” (The Lyrics, More or Less) + “Ducks” (Naomi Shihab Nye) + “My Father and the Figtree” (Naomi Shihab Nye). Link to class work assignment: here.
Hey, read the poems two or three or four or ten times! They’re not long, and they’re made to be considered and heard aloud and read more than once, not to be quickly gulped down in the minutes before class.
Class activity: here.
Day 3: Poetry, Cont. Gardner and Diaz, Chapter 6. Two Additional Poems: “Refugee Ship” (Lorna Dee Cervantes, available via Bb) + “Oread” (H.D.)
Week 4 (Feb. 17, 19, and 21)
- Due WEDNESDAY at 5:00: Personal Ethnography
- Due FRIDAY at Class Time: Assigned Prep Work for Your Poem Analysis
Day 1: One Additional Poem: “Persimmons” (Li-Young Lee)
Day 2: Poetry, Cont.
Due at 5:00: Personal Ethnography
In class, we’ll be convening writing support groups. Be sure you’ve chosen the poem you plan to work on for Essay 1.
Day 3: Poetry, Cont.
Complete Assigned Prep Work for the Poetry Essay. (Please, double-check the list of eligible poems on the assignment sheet!)
Week 5 (Feb. 24 and 26)
- Plan ahead for longer readings due NEXT WEEK. (We’ve reached the end of brief poetry readings…)
Day 1: Poetry, Cont.
Be writing for Essay 1: Poetry Analysis!
Day 2: Poetry, Cont.
Due by Thursday at 11:59:59: Poetry Analysis Essay.
Notice that we’ll have longer reading for this coming Monday. Make time! Anticipate that there could be quiz.
Day 3: NO CLASS: Faculty Development Day
Week 6 (Mar. 3, 5, and 7)
- Notice that the Midterm/Exam 1 is NEXT Friday and Monday.
Day 1: “Why They Came” from A Nation of Immigrants (John F. Kennedy, via Bb) + Selections from American Passage (Vincent J. Cannato, via Bb).
Note that I won’t be testing you on all the many, many specific dates in Cannato, so don’t stress out about that, though you should have a good general sense of the years/time period when all this happened and of the major places and kinds of events described.
Day 2: “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian” and “In the Land of the Free” (Edith Maude Eaton/Sui Sin Far) + “An English-Chinese Phrase Book” (Wong Sam and Assistants) (via Bb)
Day 3: The Promised Land, Chapter 1 and Chapter 9 (Mary Antin) + “America and I” (Anzia Yezierska) (Note: The Antin is available online or via Blackboard.)
Week 7 (Mar. 22, 24, and 26)
- Head’s Up! Midterm / Exam 1 is Friday (and Monday)!
Day 1: Yekl (Abraham Cahan), Chapters 1-5.
Day 2: Yekl, to the end (of Yekl, chapters 6-10).
Part 1: Exam #1 of 2 (Midterm)
Day 3: Part 1 of Midterm
Week 8 (Mar. 17, 19, and 21)
- Due Monday @Class Time: Opening of Author Snapshot to Eli Review
- Due Tuesday @5:00: Feedback on Author Snapshot Opening to Eli Review
- Due Wednesday @11:45 pm: Inquiry Project
Part 2: Exam #1 of 2 (Midterm)
Day 1: Part 2 of Midterm
Day 2: “Seventeen Syllables” (Hisaye Yamamoto) (Available Via Blackbaord) + Read Gardner and Diaz Chapter 5
Day 3: Screen before class: In Time of War (Bb)
Next week is spring break. Don’t come to class!
Week 9 (Mar. 31; April 2 and 4
Day 1: No-No Boy (John Okada), Chapters 1-3
Day 2: No-No Boy, Chapters 4-7
Day 3: No-No Boy, Chapters 8-11
Week 10 (April 7, 9, and 11)
- Due Friday: Notice there will be pre-writing work for Essay 2 due on Monday.
Day 1: “The Mother Tongue Between Two Slices of Rye” (Gary Shteyngart, also available via Bb)
Day 2: “In the American Society” (Gish Jen) (Available Via Blackboard)
Day 3: Prewriting. Complete assigned prewriting before class, and bring along your copy of the work you have chosen to write about for Essay 2. Laptops welcome/encouraged.
Week 11 (April 14 and 16)
- Due Friday at 5:00 pm: Essay 2
Day 1: “The Politics of Recognition” (Excerpt) (Charles Taylor) (@Bb)
Day 2: “Searching for Gold Mountain” (Ronald Takaki) (@Bb)
Day 3: No Class + Essay 2 is Due by 5:00, Thursday, but I’m giving the whole class an automatic extension to Friday at 5:00. Yours if you want it!
Week 12 (April 23 and 25)
- Due Friday at 5:00 pm: Any (100% Optional) Revisions of Essay 1
Day 1: No Class
Day 2: Gardner and Diaz, Chapter 7 + David Henry Hwang: “Trying to Find Chinatown” (read the short play of that title, not the whole collection!).
Day 3: FOB (David Henry Hwang), Act 1 + Optional Revisions of Essay 1, Due at 5:00
BEYOND HERE BE DRAGONS
(The rest of the schedule will be posted within a few days! Apologies for the delay!)
Week 13 (April 28 and 30; May 2)
- …
Day 1: FOB (David Henry Hwang), Act 2
Day 2: Zoot Suit (Luis Valdez), Act 1 + (In Class) Clips from Zoot Suit film
Day 3: Zoot Suit, Act 2 + (In Class) Clips from Zoot Suit film.
Week 14 (May 5, 7, and 9)
- Guided Writing Day on Monday!
- Essay 3 Due on Friday at 5:00.
Day 1: Guided Writing. Bring your copy of the play you have chosen to write about for Essay 3; have in mind one small section/scene from the play on which you’d like to write. Laptops welcome/encouraged + Monday or Tuesday Night: Far and Away Screening
**Monday or Tuesday Night: Far and Away Screening**
Day 2: “Emigrants from Erin” (Ronald Takaki) + Screening of Far and Away before this day.
Day 3: View/Discuss Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant (We’ll watch it in class! No homework!) (BTW: Linked version = lower quality, worse music than in-class version.)
Due: Essay 3 @ 5:00
Week 15 (May 12 + Exam)
- Exam Week!
Day 1: TBA/Catch Up/Review
EXAM 2/Final: 1 – 3 PM, Wednesday, May 14
Final Exam (#2 of 2): Wednesday, May 14, 1 – 3 PM
Find Free e-Texts Online
- Project Gutenberg (Start Here!)
- Open Library (The Internet Archive)
- Standard E-Books (*Nicely * Done)
- Fadedpage
- “Read Print” Online Texts
- U VA American Hypertexts
- ManyBooks.net
- Open Culture (eBooks)
- Libby App (if you have a local library card)
Audio Options
- Be sure to *read* alongside any listening! The visual experience of the text matters, too. It teaches you things about writing that listening cannot.
- Librivox
- Lit2Go
- Open Culture (Audio)
- Spotify has Some Stuff, Too
- Scribd is a Subscription Service with Stuff
General Am Lit Resources
The Writers We’re Reading, an Overview
(For the future…)
- Writer, Year-Year. Brief, pithy thumbnail bio.
- Writer, Year-Year. Brief, pithy thumbnail bio.
- Writer, Year-Year. Brief, pithy thumbnail bio.
Composed and Maintained by Fred Johnson.