Mohja Kahf + Suheir Hammad questions

Serena writes:

Mohja Kahf, "The Spiced Chicken Queen..."

Why does Kahf include the Altonjays’ in the story? Why is it important to show a much earlier representation of immigrants?

 

Why does Kahf keep providing the instant contrast between Rana’s life and Mzayyan’s?

“Appaled, Rana did not translate ‘She’s not dropping charges,’ she said to Hecotr a little curtly. Then she went home and climbed into the dual-control fully adjustable king-sized bed with Emad, who was ling since sound asleep.” (page 147)

Suheir Hammad, "First Writing Since"

These lines stood out...

• “I’ve never been so hungry as to yield hunger.”
• “This was bound to happen, lets not forget U.S. transgressions. Hold up, I live her. These are my friends and fam, me in those buildings, and we’re not bad people, do not support America’s bullying.”
• “Big white woman and her embrace only people with flesh can offer”
• “One more person asked me if I knew the hijackers.”
• “In America, it’ll be those amongst us who refuse blanket attacks on the shivering, who work towards social justice and opposing hateful policies.”
• “Never felt less American and more Brooklyn these days.”
• “Affirm life. Affirm life. We got to carry each other now. You are either with life or against it”

Discuss!

Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears questions

Jatnna writes:

1)Why have Stephanos's ambitions changed since he came to America? "I was poor, black and wore the anonymity that came with that as a shield against all of the early ambitions of the immigrant, which had long since abandoned me, assuming they had ever really been mine to begin with." (41)

2) Is Stephanos considering going back to his country?  Does he feel satisfied with what he has accomplished in the United States?  Why do Stephanos, Kenneth and Joseph identify themselves as "children of the Revolution"?

3) What were Judith's intentions when she invites Stephanos for dinner on November 28?  Why does Naomi see herself as an adult and not as a child?  She is 11 years old.  How can she understand what is happening around the world with that age?

The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears Questions:

Could the Loneliness that Sepha feels be due to the fact that in America he has completely removed himself from anything that reminds him of his homeland?

Is this a story of immigration or displacement?

Is race an underlying factor in the stagnation Sepha is experiencing in America?

Questions - The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears

Komal S writes:

1. How does the political aspect of the novel make it different from the previous works that we have read?

2. How does the game that Sepha Stephanos and his other Ethiopian friends play contribute to their ideas regarding the place they immigrated from? Does it portray a sense of mockery or a sense of nostalgia?

3. Why does Stephanos choose to remain resistant to change and growth despite living in America for seventeen years? 

Questions for Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy, 11-16-16

1) On page 96, Mariah says to Lucy,"You are a very angry person, aren't you?" and Lucy replies with, "Of course I am. What do you expect?" Why is Lucy such an angry person? Is she angry at the fact that she left the West Indies to come to North America and her immigrant experience has been hard, or is it something else? 
 
2) Lucy forms her own opinion of Dinah and isn't very fond of her. But on page 105, Lucy was overcome with jealousy when Myrna tells her her story with Mr. Thomas. Lucy wishes she were in Myrna' s place. She thinks to herself, "Why had such an extraordinary thing happened to her and not me?" In what ways are Dinah and Lucy similar? 

3) Peggy and Lucy always talk about men and look at the size of their hands a lot; and when Lucy meets Paul, Peggy warns her that he is a pervert. Lucy claims she likes Paul and thinks to herself that she wants to be alone in a room with him naked. What is a possible reason that this is one of the first things that comes to her mind? Earlier on in the book, Lucy has an encounter with Hugh, and speaks about Tanner and their relationship. Does Lucy feel love, lust, or both? 

Questions on Jamaica Kincaid's Lucy

1) How does romanticization of both the past and the future influence Lucy's immigrant experience?

2) In what ways do Mariah and Lucy differ? How do these differences contribute to their seemingly opposite world views?

3) Lucy speaks of tongues with such detail and frequency in the third chapter. What do they represent to her?

Listening Project Assignment

Eng 3165/AmSt 3004 The Immigrant Experience in Fiction, Film, & Photography, Fall ’16 Listening Project, due Tue. Dec. 20

Assignment

Identify two people willing to talk with you about their experiences as immigrants to the U.S. and record your conversations with them as .wav files.  If your interview subjects consent, you may upload the recording to the Brooklyn College Listening Project, an oral history archive.  If not, you may simply submit the recording to me.  Each interview should be at least 20 minutes.  Along with these two audio files, please submit a reflection of 3-4 typed, double-spaced pages in which you summarize what you heard and offer your thoughts about how the interviews resonate with or diverge from other materials we have studied this semester.

There are three main steps to completing this project. Each will be discussed in class on Nov. 29.

1.      Identify your interview subjects, schedule a time & place to conduct the interviews, and prepare your questions. 

2.      Conduct the interviews and obtain signatures on the consent form.  If submitting to the BC Listening Project, also complete two deed-of-gift forms for each interview: one for you, and one for your interview subject.

3.      Upload the interview to a computer, so that you can submit it to me as an audio file.  If submitting to the BC Listening Project, complete the Interview Log Form, make pdf scans or jpg photos of the consent and deed-of-gift forms.  These should be submitted to me, too.

Resources and Support: https://brooklynlistening.wordpress.com/project-documents/

FAQ

How do I record the interviews?  Use either a smartphone or a Tascam DR-5 recorder, available from the BC New Media Center (Library, 2^nd floor).  Be sure to record using .wav format.

What should I ask?  Ask questions that invite your interviewee to discuss his or her experiences as a newcomer to NYC, reasons for the move, aspects of the transition, the adjustments, hopes, dreams, and challenges.  Questions should be specific enough for your interviewee to address without feeling lost, but they should be open-ended rather than yes/no questions.  See the document entitled “Pointers-Strategies About Interviewing” at https://brooklynlistening.wordpress.com/project-documents/

How do I submit the recording to my professor?  From your smartphone or Tascam DR-5 recorder, upload the recording to a computer.  Then go to http://wetransfer.com, upload your audio file, and enter my email address when prompted.

Can I listen to other examples of interviews by BC students?  Go to http://www.sscommons.org/openlibrary/welcome.html#1, click BROWSE Collections, and double-click Brooklyn College Listening Project from the alphabetical list that appears.

Nuyorican & Latino Poetry

Xavier Martinez wrote:

- Considering the label “Nuyorican” was originally an insult, until artists transformed its meaning, how does this alteration of language carry through Nuyorican poetry?

- Similarly to the film Lone Star, Latino poetry highlights the blurred lines between multiculturalism and intersectionality. How do the works of Laviera, Morales, and Baca convey these complexities?

 

- How does Algarin’s use of the term “moonlighting” in the poem “Latero Story”, or Pietri’s central focus on the “dead Puerto Ricans” in “Puerto Rican Obituary” help address the Latino communities faulty view of “the American dream?”

Nuyorican and Latino Poetry Questions

Both the Baca and the Laviera pieces deal with issues surrounding the space Latinx people navigate. This space can be physical, intellectual, or metaphorical. In what ways do the poets depict how Latinx people occupy or are denied these spaces? How are these spaces important to immigrant communities? Keep in mind the imperial/colonial history of the United States, and that history is not limited to physical land.

All of the poems in this week's reading portray feelings of pain. In fact, I would argue every piece we have read in "The Immigrant Experience" have dealt with pain. Do you think that emotional pain is an integral part of the immigrant experience in America?

Lone Star Question

1. What was the sheriff that racist and bigoted in the movie? In what way and why?

2. Is the Texas borderland one big melting pot?

Lone Star Questions

In what ways is the depiction of the Texas borderland as "multi-cultural and multi-racial" ironic, seeing as there is a patriarchal white savior narrative that dictates the plot?

Rio County is structured by the hierarchies of race and power and it’s most centralized vehicle of systemic power is the sheriff’s department; in what ways does hegemonic whiteness (and privilege) rear itself in Mexican/Tejano spaces and narratives within the movie?

The interactions between three distinct racialized groups account for the tension within the town: the “anglo’s,” the black people, and the Mexicans. How does the representation of the interactions between the Anglos and the Mexicans, the Anglos and Black people, and the nonexistent interactions between the Mexicans and Black people express the racial separatism present in this movie?

Brooklyn Questions 2.0

Is Jim an actual temptation for Eilis, or is he simply more convenient and comfortable, a simple way to stay home and solve a lot of problems all at once (such as who will take care of her mother, being somewhat friendless in Brooklyn, leaving her exhausting job behind, etc.)?

Eilis leaves Ireland very abruptly. Do you think this was out of shame or because she wanted to avoid the small-town gossip? Another reason?

In the beginning of the novel, Eilis is very much an Irish immigrant. She comments on food, the weather, crowds, mannerisms. It is clear she feels very far from her home. By the end, she is married, leaves behind her mother almost happily (that small smile on the journey back) and seems almost distressed by the small town she grew up in. At the end of the novel, is Eilis still an Irish immigrant, or an Irish-American? Another way to phrase this would be - Where does Eilis feel most at home now, Ireland or America?

Essay 2 assignment sheet

The Immigrant Experience (Eng 3165/AmSt 3304)

Fall 2016, Prof. Davis

Essay 2, due Tue Nov. 8

Option A

In an essay of 5 or more double-spaced pages, analyze the theme of remembering and forgetting in any two of the following: No-No Boy, Brooklyn, and Lone Star.  How is the tension between remembering and forgetting developed in the two works you’ve chosen, and how does it relate to immigration?

 

Option B

Rewrite the ending of Brooklyn or No-No Boy.  In 5 or more double-spaced pages, give the novel an alternate conclusion.  Make every effort to imitate the author’s narrative style and tone, even as you alter the content.  Indicate where in the original novel your revision begins.  Attach to your revised ending a brief account (1 page) of why you made the choices you did in rewriting the ending.  Your work will be evaluated on your fidelity to the style and tone of the original, and on the insight your discussion demonstrates into the issues raised by the novel.

 

 

 

Guidelines (Option A)

• Early in your essay, include an organizing statement – a sentence or two that expresses the main ideas you’ll discuss and offers a “road-map” of your essay.
• Quote from the texts in order to illustrate your ideas.  When you quote, place the page number from the original text in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
• This is not a research paper.  You need not consult or refer to any additional sources.  If you borrow ideas or language from others, be sure to attribute properly and include a list of works cited at the end of your essay.

 

Brooklyn Questions

"And tell me something: if you hadn’t married him, would you still be going back?” “I don’t know,” Eilis said. “But you are getting the train in the morning?” her mother said.  (p. 258)

As the reader, what do you believe Eilis would have decided to do if she had left America and arrived in Ireland without actually having married Tony?

What does it say about her mother that she went to her bedroom and refused to spend any time with Eilis the night before she left, or the next morning?

Eilis left without really knowing whether her mother knew about Tony before she arrived back in Ireland.  How do you think Rose handled the information in Eilis’s letters, and why? 

Brooklyn Part 1 Questions

1)    In what ways does Brooklyn differ from the previous texts we have read thus far about the immigrant experience?

2)    What does Georgina represent and how is her character important? How does she effect change or influence Eilis?

3)    How does Eilis’s environment influence her decision to go to America?

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, Part 1 Question

America is portrays itself and some of the time in literature as a place where you can work your way up, have higher pay and where there are a lot of opportunities. In Part I, Father Flood influences Eilis in coming to America. How does Father Flood's idea of coming to America influences Eilis' family of her coming to America rather than England?

No-No Boy Chapters 8-11 Discussion Questions

In chapter 8, we catch a glimpse of the past from Ichiro’s dad. He recalls the day that his relationship with his wife was on the descent. Does this memory explain why he is submissive to his wife? 

Generally, death is a terrible and traumatizing experience. However, John Okada uses death as a way to uplift Ichiro. Why do you think Okada does this? 

No-No Boy Questions: Ch 6-7

From the beginning of the novel, Okada writes in a close third perspective centered around Ichiro; on the other hand, chapter six  starts and continues in a close third that focuses on Kenji. How does the switch to Kenji’s family arc add to the conversation about the relationship between the issei and nissei that Ichiro presents?

What does Mr. Carrick represent in the novel? Is his function in the narrative problematic?

How does Ichiro and Kenji’s pasts affect their discussion on the concept of “the American,” race, and ethnically congregated communities?

“The Jews, the Italians, the Poles, the Armenians, they’ve all got their communities.” (147)

No-No Boy Questions

1. What similarities can be drawn between No-No Boy and Bread Givers in regards to the generational conflicts of immigrant families?


2. What do you think this novel is trying to say about patriotism and being American?


3. What do you think Kenji and his injuries represent and is he a "good" American?

Johnson-Reed Act (1924) aka Immigration Restriction Act

The full text of the restrictive 1924 legislation is available here.

The U.S. State Department synopsis is available here.

Ripley: Race Progress and Immigration

1. Why does Ripley fear an American future in which Europeans are “divided, permanently, into groups of different nationalities”(135)?


2. How might the social programs that Ripley proposes contribute to the "nurture" he feels immigrant populations need?


3. Why was the "physical preservation" of European immigrant populations of importance to Ripley?


4. Micheal Omni and Howard Winant in their "Racial Formation Theory" reject the concrete biological definition of race and argue that race is instead more of a fluid concept who’s meaning and understanding morphs based on the socio-political atmosphere of the time. How does Ripley’s argument for including European immigrants into the “white” racial group affirm Omni & Winant's “Racial Formation Theory?




Link to Omni/Winant article.

Give the kids some books, because prisons are getting pricey. Cat's Questions!

Diego Rivera, Pan-American Unity

• Both Ripley and Bourne assert that there is an understood ascendancy of Anglo-Saxon "native born" Americans over that of the European immigrants entering the United States at the turn of the 20th century. There is a blatant negation of the inherent value of the cultures which these immigrants represent insofar as what they could add to the existing Anglo culture of the US, but instead stresses their value for how they can work toward growing a healthy and intelligent servant class of individuals. Yet, Bourne understands that there is a sort of sensational American surface culture in which the immigrants tend to cling. In which ways does he think that the sensational culture at the time tend to deteriorate the Anglo ideal, and how is it that the growth of this sensational culture by the large immigrant community further deteriorate the existing dominant culture of the US at the turn of the century?
• Ripley's article repeatedly makes use of dendrological metaphors in relation to the immigrant class. (Hewing wood, graft {here graft has both horticultural and political dual meanings} and greed, all sorts of references to the relative fruitfulness of women.) Given that the idea of relocating and settling permanently somewhere is often referred to as "setting down roots," in which ways do you think Ripley's article is suggesting that the Americans do that very thing? How could the notion of "the family tree" be related to both the article and the metaphor?
• There is a notion in both articles of a sort of radical racial purity among the Anglo-Saxon majority of the US. Conversely, as Ripley suggests, there is a plurality of cultures and racial intermixing prevalent among immigrant communities in the United States. How does this separation of cultures propagate the very problems Bourne and Ripley are addressing? (a culture of excessively sensational mediums, decreased birth rate, criminal activities, etc.)  

Cat Tan

Claude McKay poems - Kevin's discussion Q's

Kevin Bresnan writes:

America and The White House are complementary poems, America being one about his love for a place that drives him mad and treats him poorly (because of his race, although he never mentions that), and The White House which is what I see as the breaking point of this tension found in America. 

I don't know how closely in time America and The White House were written, but for my arguments sake lets home America was written first. Does the optimism found in the final four lines in "America" die off in the writing of "The White House"? Or is he just elaborating on that "bread of bitterness"?

In a previous class with Entin we read Claude McKay and discussed his use of Sonnet as a form. Here both America and The White house, poems in protest of the way this country treats him, are written in the traditional sonnet form, most famously used for fawning over a romantic interest. Is this re-appropriation of the sonnet a way for him to take a very Anglo-American, Western, form and turn it against them?

Essay 1 Assignment

Click here for Essay 1 assignment sheet

Immigration and Caricature Images Questions

• What information can we gather about the era, especially relating to immigration, by analyzing these caricatures? 

• What is the significance of incorporating Uncle Sam in some of these caricatures? How does his representation differ from one caricature to another?

• There is a difference in visuals/illustrations throughout the caricatures, which can be seen particularly between “The Anti-Chinese Wall” and “The Salons of New York”. Why is that? What factors could have affected the illustrators' choices in creating those visuals? 

• What were the various functions that these caricatures served? Did they exacerbate or attenuate the political climate of that time?

• Without knowledge of the historical context around these caricatures, would they still be useful or meaningful in any way?

Discussion Questions on Jacob Riis

Jensine Wharton writes:

• In regards to the “basis of opposition”, what can be said to the facts that both sides/groups/classes of people agree on the overlying issue, not wanting the government infringing on their rights to operate in a certain way? 
• What can be said to the fact that the way that  the “other side” lives is being written by a person not experiencing the struggles that the “other side” lives—this idea of history being written by the victor, and/or the oppressor. 
• What is the author’s intention or purpose of writing this essay—what is he trying to get across? Is it positive or negative?

How the Other Half Lives - Photo Reflection

Through his photojournalism, was Riis trying to arouse activism?

Riis' work was often sensationalized, yet neutralized with realism. Is his photo set reminiscent of modern day photojournalistic depictions of poverty in the third-world? Why or why not?

It is likely that Riis was able to capture American life of squalor with such intimacy because he himself had experienced poverty and tenement housing first-hand. Does this make Riis a hero? Or something less?

Theodore Roosevelt once said that Jacob Riis was "the greatest American" that he knew. According to this assignment of such a title, what made/makes one a "great" American?

The Jazz Singer Questions

Does Jakie come back in the end to sing in his father's place simply out of guilt, or are there other factors?

Jakie states at one point that his career is more important than anything else. Is this really true?

Do Jakie's parents not understand his desires, or do they understand, but reject them?

Th 9/8 Yezierska, Bread Givers Discussion Questions

How does the setting of Bread givers interfere with Reb Smolinsky's religious beliefs?

What was the most important objective for Smolinsky's daughters, getting out of poverty, or gaining independence from their religionist father?

The Jazz Singer (1927)

Click here to watch The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolsen.

Bread Givers chs VI-XVI

Brennen Johnson writes:

In what ways does the Smolinsky family accept/reject social conformity?

How does the Russian culture/heritage of the family effect the Smolinsky sisters views of America?

How does the father's religious values shape his hyper masculine views toward women?

Discussion Question Signup

Discussion Question Signup

This is when you signed up to post discussion questions on the course website one day in advance.

 

Th 9/1 Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers __________________________________________

T 9/6 Yezierska, Bread Givers ___Brennen________________________________________

Th 9/8 Yezierska, Bread Givers ____Muhammad__________________________________

 

T 9/13 The Jazz Singer (film, 1927) ____Elliott____________________________________

Th 9/15 Settlement House photos _____Viviane__________________________________

Jacob Riis, “How the Other Half Lives” essay and photos, and Lewis Hine photos __

_____Mackenzie, Jensine________________________________________________

 

T 9/20 Immigration and Caricature images ____Amira_____________________________

Th 9/22 Claude McKay, selected poem ____Kevin___________________________

 

T 9/27 William Ripley, “Race Progress and Immigration”______Dominick_____________

Randolph Bourne, “Trans-National America” ___Cat______________________

Th 10/13 John Okada, No-No Boy ___Michael K____________________________________

F 10/14 Okada, No-No Boy _________Christian__________________________________

T 10/18 Okada, No-No Boy _______William__________________________________

Th 10/20 Colm Toibin, Brooklyn_____Natalie, Viviane___________________________

T 10/25 Toibin, Brooklyn ________Kimberly_______________________________________

Th 10/27 Toibin, Brooklyn __________Karina, Melissa_______________________________

T 11/1 Lone Star (film, 1996) _______Rachel, Andrew__________________________

Th 11/3 Nuyorican & Latino poetry ___Xavier, Nicholas___________________________

Th 11/10 Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy ______Laura______________________________

T 11/15 Kincaid, Lucy _____________________________________________________

Th 11/17 Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things ____Komal, Dominick___________________

T 11/22 Mengestu, The Beautiful Things ________Jattna_________________________

Th 12/1 Mengestu, The Beautiful Things  ___Serena____________________________

T 12/6 Ocean Vuong poems _________Michael T_______________________________

Th 12/8 Philip Metres poem; Suheir Hammad, “First Writing Since”; Mohja Kahf, “The Chicken Queen” ___________________________________________________________

Syllabus - ENGL 3165 / AMST 3004

For the course syllabus, click HERE.

Suheir Hammad, Mohja Kahf, Philip Metres

Suheir Hammad, "First Writing Since" (video)

Mohja Kahf, "The Spiced Chicken Queen of of Mickaweaquah, Iowa"

Dulce Pinzón, "Superheroes" photo-essay

Dulce Pinzón, "The Real Story of the Superheroes"

Nuyorican and Latino Poetry

Poems by Miguel Algarín, Aurora Levins Morales, and Pedro Pietri

Tato Laviera poems

Jimmy Santiago Baca, "So Mexicans are Taking Jobs from Americans"

William Ripley and Randolph Bourne

William Z. Ripley, "Race Progress and Immigration"

Randolph Bourne, "Trans-National America"

Claude McKay, Selected Poems

Claude McKay, from Selected Poems

Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie, "The Danger of a Single Story"

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie TED talk, "The Danger of a Single Story"
Transcript available here.

Early American Immigration Accounts: Crevecoeur, Wheatley, Frethorne

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, Letters from an American Farmer excerpt

Phyllis Wheatley, "On Being Brought from Africa to America"

Richard Frethorne, Letter to his Parents