Week 1

Lecture 1 (9/30)

Ralph Ellison: novel bound up with nationhood
- What/who are we?
- What has been the experience of this particular group?
- How did it become this way?
- What stops us from attaining the ideal?
American writers + artists always return to question of our national collectivity -> successes / failures
American flag is abstraction + symbol
Same painting, over and over again, different meaning/symbol
w/ rise of democracy in US, slavery happened in parallel -> cannot talk about one without the other
Use example of Asian American literature as entryway toward understanding larger American / minority literature
Otherness: radical difference -> Asian is always "foreigner", "strange", "grotesque"
- Asians come to US for labor shortage (railroads, etc)
- Perceived through 19th century and further as radically different
Assimilation: American promise of leaving behind "tradition" -> "modern life"
- Theoretical concept -> trickle into daily lives
W.E.B. DuBois -> "the problem of the color life" + "double consciousness"
- Most useful metaphor: double consciousness
Double consciousness -> hybridity: rethinking from two different distinct selves -> combination / overlapping "hybrid consciousness"
Does the arc of history bend toward progress?
On style: how do stylistic decisions (by writers) shape their thematic arguments?
- Leave things out, emphasize, etc
On realism, modernism, postmodernism
Next: read Erika Lee

What is us? -> group an individual identifies w/ and sense of belonging
Other -> (perceived) different / "out group"
Distinguishing "us" / "other" -> culture, language, behaviors, religious traits, citizenship, race, etc
Social constructs -> (may) change over time
Stereotypes, power, political policies, hegemony, etc...
Anti-Asian laws and policies
- 1875 Page Act
- 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
- 1907 Expatriation Act
- 1913 First Alien Land Law
- 1922 Cable Act (reverses Expatriation Act except for women who marry "aliens ineligible for citizenship")
- 1924 Immigration Act
Keep in mind while reading Bulosan (191X, 1930-1956)
- Attain citizenship for rights, representation, and influence
- Accumulate wealth through real estate
- Form families and establish a lasting presence