Dr. Alex E. Blazer Course Site Syllabus
In Class Activities Scholarly Criticism Group Project
Exam Paper 1 Paper 2

Assignments

Invisible Men and Women Warriors: Coming of Age Fiction

English 335: Literature of American Minorities, Fall 2006

Section B: Wednesday 6:00-8:50PM, 122 Lake Huron Hall

Section C: Thursday 7:00-9:50PM, 134 Meijer Campus

In Class Activities

1. Practice Annotation

In order to prepare for the annotated bibliography component of the Group Project, you have read and written a summary paragraph on a journal article explaining Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. Today, you will share you annotations with your group. Break into your Hurston criticism groups and complete the following two tasks.

  1. Share your individual annotations and then collectively compose an annotation that your entire group thinks best summarizes the journal article. Your group will present this annotation to the class.
  2. Construct a timeline for your Group Project: divide the labor and set deadlines. Your group will give this timeline to me.

2. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (Section C only)

Since there is no group presentation this week, we’ll do groupwork for the first half hour of class in order to re-acclimate ourselves to the novel as well as to get the large group discussion going. Break into three groups and discuss topic assigned to your group.

  1. Race and Class
    • Discuss the topics of race and racism in the novel.
    • What is Dr. Foster’s attitude toward the African-Americans in his town? Do you think his issue is primarily one of race or class?
    • What is Guitar’s theory regarding whites? How might it be influenced by his class status?
    • What is the goal of Seven Days and how do you evaluate it?
    • Why does Milkman tell his father about First Corinthians and Henry Porter?
    • What other racial and class issues do you see in the novel?
  2. Gender and Sexuality
    • Discuss the topics of gender and sexuality in the novel.
    • How are women (Ruth, First Corinthians, Reba, Pilate, Lena, Hagar, Sweet) generally portrayed and what is the general status of women in the novel?
    • How would you describe the majority of sexual relationships in the novel?
    • Do positive relationships exist, and if so, what happens to them?
    • What other issues of gender and sexuality do you see in the novel?
  3. Myth and Heroism
    • Do you think this story has mythic or epic elements? If so, which ones? If not, why not?
    • Discuss Milkman’s journey in the second half of the novel. Is Milkman a hero? If so, why? If not, why not?
    • How do you regard the Song of Solomon? Is it real or legendary? Does it matter? What is the significance of flight in the novel? Compare and contrast the first chapter (Robert Smith's flight) with the last (Milkman and Guitar's melee).
    • Regardless of his hero status, does he develop, and how does his worldview change?

3. Developing a Thesis

While the in class exam tested your comparative understanding of the stories we have read, the short paper requires focused analysis of a single work. In order to help to make sure that you are on the right track, we will do an in class activity that allows you to develop and get feedback on your idea.

  1. We will discuss the Dartmouth College Writing Program handout, Developing Your Thesis (other handouts you might want to look at on your own are the Ohio State University Writing Center's Thesis Statement and Harvard University Writing Center's Developing a Thesis, and my own Organization handout).
  2. Spend five minutes writing a focused thesis statement that will guide your short paper, and if you have time, begin to outline your paper.
  3. Break into groups of 3 or 4 and discuss Dartmouth's thesis checklist:
    1. Does my thesis sentence attempt to answer (or at least to explore) a challenging intellectual question?
    2. Is the point I'm making one that would generate discussion and argument, or is it one that would leave people asking, "So what?"
    3. Is my thesis too vague? Too general? Should I focus on some more specific aspect of my topic?
    4. Does my thesis deal directly with the topic at hand, or is it a declaration of my personal feelings?
    5. Does my thesis indicate the direction of my argument? Does it suggest a structure for my paper?
    6. Does my introductory paragraph define terms important to my thesis? If I am writing a research paper, does my introduction "place" my thesis within the larger, ongoing scholarly discussion about my topic?
    7. Is the language in my thesis vivid and clear? Have I structured my sentence so that the important information is in the main clause? Have I used subordinate clauses to house less important information? Have I used parallelism to show the relationship between parts of my thesis? In short, is this thesis the very best sentence that it can be?

4. Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior

Today's in class activity serves three functions: it commences our discussion of Kingston's memoir, generates notes for the class that will help in our concluding discussion of the book in two weeks, and affords us to contemplate the research paper. Divide into five groups (each group will be assigned a particular Kingston chapter) and discuss the following issues. Each and every group member should take notes, for this will allow us to dive back into our Kingston discussion after the break.

 

Groups

  1. "No Name Woman"
  2. "White Tigers"
  3. "Shamen"
  4. "At the Western Palace"
  5. "Song for a Barbarian Read Pipe"

Discussion Questions

  1. Discuss which parts of the chapter are " talk story" and which part are literal memoir. What is the relationship between imagination and reality in The Woman Warrior?
  2. Analyze the extended metaphor (ghost, white tiger, shamen, barbarian) of the chapter. What is the relationship between Chinese culture and American culture, between attitudes toward and roles of Chinese women and attitudes toward and roles of American women?
  3. Discuss how the chapter fits structurally and thematically within the context of the larger memoir.
  4. Evaluate each group member's possible research paper theses based on the following criteria:
    1. Does the thesis make an arguable claim? Does it make an interpretive point?
    2. Is it a reasonably focused idea?
    3. Is it researchable?

Criticism

To prepare for the group presentation, we first learned literary methods at GVSU. Next, we'll practice annotating a scholarly article, available online.

 

First, read and take notes on the article, paying particular attention to the questions it poses of Hurston's text, the issues it sees in the book, and the interpretive conclusions it makes of the novel. Then, write a 75-100 word annotation of the article that

  1. identifies the issue or question that the article is investigating,
  2. defines the article's thesis or main idea relevant to your work of literature (feel free to quote as well), and
  3. explains how the article helps your understanding of the work.

Bring your written annotation to class so we can work with them.

 

Article Section B, Wednesdays Section C, Thursdays

Hattenhauer, "The Death of Janie Crawford: Tragedy and
the American Dream in Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Adam Bowers

Sherri Buchman

Megan McGlynn

Catherine Proctor

Daniel Wolf

 

Kaplan, "The Erotics of Talk: 'That Oldest Human Longing' in Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Megan Bobeldyk

Chantell Boyd

Rory Byrne

Sammie Hicks

Andrea Fryling

Dave Kolean

Jason Ponce

Cara Thompson

Kitch, "Gender and Language: Dialect, Silence and the Disruption of Discourse"

Brando Bartkowiak

Michael Beach

Joya Marsh

Anneliese Michels

Trisha Snoblen

Margaret Austin

Kai Siemers

Josh Spanninga

McGowan, "Liberation and Domination: Their Eyes Were Watching God and the Evolution of Capitalism"

Sara Madura

Meghan McDonough

Kayla Penokie

Noah Theut

Mary Voogd

 

Miller, "'Some Other Way to Try': From Defiance to Creative Submission in Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Jake Brawley

Teri Crouse

Jessica Hoover

Tina Jansons

Carla Lewis

Jennifer Gonzalez

Marsha Myaard

Elizabeth Walters

Sartwell, "Bits of Broken Glass: Zora Neale Hurston's Conception of Self"

Jessi Denbesten

M. Ted Droski

Michelle Hamilton

Tess Hoaglund

Haleigh Thompson

Karla Lamb

Kitty Panagopoulos

Sara Tague

Group Presentation

The three goals of the presentation is for students to pose tentative readings of a novel, conduct research, and lead class discussion; therefore, groups of three to five will write a two page preliminary analysis of the work that elucidates core conflicts and character developments, an annotated bibliography summarizing scholarly criticism of the work, and discussion and debate questions. They will also deliver this material in a class presentation. The written and presentation components must be uploaded to Blackboard on the day your presentation is due. Note that Blackboard Group Pages affords group discussion board, collaboration (chat), email, and file exchange.

Presentation Schedule: Section B, Wednesdays 6:00-8:50PM

 

Novel Due Date Students
Ellison, Invisible Man
W, 9-27

Adam Bowers

Sherri Buchman

Megan McGlynn

Catherine Proctor

Daniel Wolf
Morrison, Song of Solomon
W, 10-4

Megan Bobeldyk

Chantell Boyd

Rory Byrne

Sammie Hicks

Andrea Fryling
Thomas, Down These Mean Streets
W, 11-1

Brandon Bartkowiak

Michael Beach

Joya Marsh

Anneliese Michels

Trisha Snoblen
Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
W, 11-8

Sara Madura

Meghan McDonough

Kayla Penokie

Noah Theut

Mary Voogd
Kingston, The Woman Warrior
W, 11-29

Jake Brawley

Carla Lewis

Jen, Mona in the Promised Land
W, 12-6

Jessi Denbesten

M. Ted Droski

Michelle Hamilton

Tess Hoaglund

Haleigh Thompson

 

Presentation Schedule: Section C, Thursdays 7:00-9:50PM

 

Novel Due Date Students
Ellison, Invisible Man (1-295)
Th , 9-28

Dave Kolean

Jason Ponce

Cara Thompson

Morrison, Song of Solomon
Th, 10-5

 
Thomas, Down These Mean Streets
Th, 11-2

Jennifer Gonzalez

Marsha Myaard

Elizabeth Walters

Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Th , 11-9

Karla Lamb

Kitty Panagopoulos

Sara Tague

Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Th , 11-30

Margaret Austin

Kai Siemers

Josh Spanninga
Jen, Mona in the Promised Land
Th , 12-7
 

Exam

The in-class exam is designed to test your comparative understanding of the key issues regarding African-American coming of age stories and bildungsroman discussed in the first third of the course. Expect to answer two or three long essay questions regarding character development, conflicts of culture, race, class, religion, gender, and sexuality, in a two to two and a half hour period.

  1. Richard Wright, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man"
  2. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
  3. James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain
  4. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
  5. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon
  6. Toni Cade Bambara, "The Hammer Man"

If I were preparing for this exam, I would create and review a page or two of notes for each author consisting of the following:

I would also compare and contrast the stories in terms of main characters, conflicts, and theme. Although you could simply review your original class notes, I advise composing these set of notes for doing so attunes your thinking and writing process to the cause of the exam in a much more active way than using old notes. Constructing notes is prewriting for the essay exam. Your exam will be accessed on its interpretive and analytical understanding of the stories in terms of character and theme as well as its ability to make connections and distinctions among the stories.

Short Paper

While the in-class exam tested your ability to compare general topics among African-American stories, the short paper is designed to allow you to explore a specific issue in one particular story (the research paper will further this goal by adding outside sources to the mix). Whereas the exam topics were universal (bildungsroman, minorities, family, gender and sexuality) because you had to make connections between texts, the paper topic that you select should be as distinctive as possible. For instance, on the exam you may have written in general ways about the status of women in Go Tell It on the Mountain and Song of Solomon while on the paper you can analyze the function and meaning of navelless Pilate as the exiled and eccentric redemptive center of the Dead family. Or, you may have compared Milkman and Janie's long-in-coming coming of age on the exam; however, in the paper, you can tarry with the question of Milkman's development, perhaps by debating if his story should even be considered a bildungsroman.

 

You are not limited to just African-American stories covered on the exam; you may use the film and the Latino stories. Although I encourage you to analyze a story you did not discuss on your exam, you can do so if and only if you did not write both exam essays on that text. Moreover, you do not have to focus on characters as do my examples. You may analyze some specific aspect of symbolism and imagery or setting and sociocultural concerns. The point is to write an essay that digs into a particular topic with the kind of rigor that was not afforded on the in-class exam or class discussion. Take our class discussion on a specific issue as a starting point, and use your paper to conclude the analysis, to fully realize and work through the interpretive implications of the issue.

Research Paper

You've compared and contrasted stories in the exam and developed a focused reading of one story in the short paper. Now, you can add research to the mix. Select a text that we've read in class (but not the one on which you wrote your short paper, a text by an author we've read in class, or a text by a minority that we've read in class. See me if you want to pursue a text not covered in class. In a focused, thesis-driven paper, rigorously interpret and analyze that piece using specific textual evidence (i.e., quotes) and literary research (3-4 scholarly journal articles, books, or book chapters) to support your argument. Although this is a research paper, the emphasis should be on your ideas, your way of reading the text. The research is necesary but do not let it overwhelm your voice. I'll be glad to discuss paper topics with you at any time.