CHILDHOOD’INCANADIANCULTURE’(HUMA4140’B ...apps.eso.yorku.ca › domino › html › outlines...

1

CHILDHOOD IN CANADIAN CULTURE (HUMA 4140 B) Course Outline and Schedule: F/W 2016-‐17

York University – Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies Department of Humanities; Children’s Studies

Course Director: Gurbir Singh Jolly, [email protected] Office hours: To Be Announced

Course Description This course explores a range of complementary and competing constructions of childhood within Canadian cultural contexts. This course contends that our critical comprehension of Canadian culture is fundamentally informed by our comprehension of the diverse childhoods within it. Similarly, this course contends that our attitudes towards the childhoods we study are powerfully contoured by our attempts to contextualize them within Canadian cultural milieus. This course explores the far-‐reaching consequences of the implicit, explicit, and sometimes paradoxical connections between our constructions of “Canadian cultures” and “Canadian childhoods.”

Pedagogic Approach

Our study relies on films, histories, ethnographies, picture books, and literary fiction. The role of photography/visual culture, a central theme that runs throughout the course, helps focus our methodological approach when engaging the staggering diversity of Canadian childhoods. Most of our first semester takes a broadly historical approach, surveying representations of Canadian childhood from the early 18th to the late the 20th century. What are some of the key tropes that distinguish the cultures of Canadian childhoods, and how do these tropes challenge stereotypes we may have about children’s places in Canadian culture? After this historical survey of key tropes, our course begins a series of “units” or “case studies” regarding cultural forces and factors that can shape

Canadian childhood. Most of these units focus on late 20th century or early 21st century representations of Canadian childhoods. These units are not discrete: each cross-‐fades into the other, and every unit anticipates themes explored in future units while echoing themes explored in previous units. One of our key goals in this course is to discover critical connections between units. These are the unit/case-‐studies: 1) Narrating Culture: Empires, Refugees, and Rebels, 2) Children, Rights, and Canadian Culture, 3) Schools and Canadian Children, 4) Childhood and Cultures of Intervention, 5) You Might Be Done With Your Childhood, But Your Childhood Isn’t Done With You, and 6) The Futuristic and Fantastical Canadian Child. This is a reading-‐intensive course that demands considerable in-‐class writing.

Grades

In-‐Class Reading Response Papers: 30%

Rather than writing a mid-‐term and/or final exams, you will write several in-‐class, open-‐book, open resource “response papers” (which is just a euphemism for quizzes, or mini in-‐class exams, or whatever you feel comfortable calling them – but let’s just call them quizzes from now on). These quizzes are differently weighted, usually depending on the volume of preparation required for a class. Your reading schedule (see page 8) explains this in detail in the far-‐right column.

At the beginning of most classes, you will write a short, open book, open resource, approximately 15-‐minute quiz that demonstrates your engagement with the assigned readings for that class. If you look on Moodle, you will notice that I have posted a list of discussion questions for most of our classes this year. The quiz question for each class will be selected from this list of posted questions.

2

So, in case you didn’t get it: each quiz will be an open-‐book test on a question or questions you have very likely already seen. That should be enough to calm your nerves, but if the idea of writing a test every class still stresses you out consider the following:

You will be writing 22 quizzes for a total of 30% of your final grade, which is just another way of saying that it is quite possible to do poorly on (or even miss) one or two of these quizzes without significantly weakening your final grade. If you're still not convinced, let me break down the numbers for you: the quizzes are worth 30% of your final grade, and there are 2525 quiz grades to be won over our course, so that means 50 quiz grades equals less than 1% of your final grade. To put that into perspective, the difference between getting an 80% (A) or a 60% (C) on most quizzes will increase or reduce your final course grade by a fraction of 1%. If that is not reassurance enough, I will provide a 25-‐point bonus to students who complete at least 22 quizzes.

Having said that, doing poorly on several quizzes, especially when combined with missing more than two of these quizzes, will discernably damage your final grade. Trust me. The consequences of doing poorly on, or missing, more heavily weighted quizzes are obviously more severe. And finally, when you do the math, you will realize that earning a strong grade in this course is nearly impossible without performing respectably well on these quizzes.

How do you do well on a quiz? When presenting your response to a quiz question, be as specific as possible. When answering a question about an essay from Depicting Canada’s Children, substantiate your position by making about 3-‐5 specific references to the assigned readings, including page numbers. If the assigned reading is a novel, especially a heavily weighted one, substantiate your answer by making about 8-‐12 specific references from across the novel. When writing about a film, photograph, picture book, or other heavily visual medium, liberally include descriptions of specific visual details (colours, angles, shadows, etc.) that help illustrate

your analyses. In other words, when it comes to these quizzes, vague musings on the issues that a reading addresses will not get you very far. You need details. Specific ones.

Individual In-‐Class Presentation: 10%

The purpose of your presentation is to generate discussion. A more detailed rubric for this assignment has been posted on Moodle; please follow it carefully. For now, here are some basic details regarding the assignment. Each class in which we are not watching a film, one or two students will deliver individual presentations based principally on the novel and critical readings assigned for that class. The presentation will require about 1-‐2 hours of external research (at most), and is fairly straightforward: you need to 1) answer one of the discussion questions that has been posted on Moodle and in bold typeface, and 2) pose one discussion question for the class on Moodle about a week before your presentation. Your presentation should last about 15 minutes, in terms of how long you will be “formally” addressing the class, but the discussion your presentation generates should last considerably longer. Once again, there is much more to the In-‐Class Presentation than I have summarized here, so make sure you consult the Presentation Rubric on Moodle.

Participation in Colleagues’ Presentations: 5%

Student presenters are trying to stoke a class discussion, so this participation grade will be awarded to students who help encourage, enliven, and sustain presentation-‐oriented class discussions. To earn a strong grade here, all you really to do is be responsive, engaging, and encouraging when your fellow students are giving their presentations. Presenting in front of a class can be nerve-‐racking for many students, and this grade will be awarded based on how thoughtfully and effectively you helped make your fellow students’ presentations a positive experience for them.

3

General In-‐Class Participation: 5%

This grade will be awarded for your general participation, professionalism, and preparedness in class. More simply put, this is a grade awarded for how well you enrich the learning atmosphere in the classroom not only through your contributions, but also through your general demeanour. It is quite possible to be a somewhat quiet student who can, simply through body language, convey attentiveness, encouragement, and interest. Behaving discourteously to your fellow students (texting, whispering, talking, etc.) is a sure-‐fire way to tank this otherwise easy grade.

Some of our work this year will be conducted in small groups, and those of you who may not feel as comfortable engaging the larger class are stronger encouraged to earn participation grades when given these small-‐group opportunities.

Major Assignments

Essay 1, 15% -‐ DUE: Thursday, November 4

Essay 2, 25% -‐ DUE either on either:

1. Thursday, March 24 (2017) if you want comments/feeback 2. End of Year (Friday, April 10 -‐ via email) if you do not want

comments/feedback

Photo Archive Assignment, 10% -‐ Due either on:

1. Thursday, March 10 if you want comments/feedback

2. End of Year (Friday, April 10 -‐ via email) if you do not want comments/feedback

More details regarding the essays and archive research project will be made available very soon.

Office Hours and Email Policy:

I am happy to meet with you during my office hours, but I ask that you book our appointment in advance by sending me an email. If you cannot meet me during my office hours, I would be happy to schedule a phone or Skype appointment with you. I only use email to book office hour or phone appointments; I do not use email to discuss course materials or course issues.

Critical Readings

1. Depicting Canada’s Children. Lorren Lerner, Editor. Wilfred Laurier Press, 2009

ALL OTHER CRITICAL READINGS FOR THIS COURSE ARE AVAILABLE FOR FREE, ON-‐LINE, THROUGH THE YORK LIBRARY OR VIA LINKS ON MOODLE. I know it can be tedious to have to download and print out these documents, but this is much less costly than having to purchase a course kit. See the “Course Readings” document on Moodle for a complete list of the assigned Principal Readings for this course.

4

Date Focus/ Unit Some Key Themes Principal Text Critical Text Quiz Value

1) Sept 9

Unit 1

: Narratin

g Cu

lture:

Refugees, R

ebels, Childho

od, and

“Ca

nadian

-‐ness”

INTRODUCTION

2) Sept 16

Canadian History written for children. -‐ Refugees and rebels in Canadian history -‐ Dominant “myths” of Canadian culture

1.Daniel Francis’s “Introduction: The Story of Canada” in National Dreams: Myth, Memory, and Canadian History. (on-‐line via York libary/moodle) 2. Mookerjea, Szeman, and Fauschou. “Introduction: Between Empires: On cultural Studies in Canada in Canadian Cultural Studies” in Canadian Cultural Studies: A Reader. (on-‐line via York libary/moodle)

Quiz value: 50

3) Sept 23

-‐ narratives of national origin for children

1. The Loyal Refugees 2. The Rebels

1. “A Child’s Place in Ottawa’s Commemorative Landscape” by Susan Hart in Depicting Canada’s Children

2. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (2 documents).

Quiz value: 100

4) Sept 30

-‐ childhood as metaphor for nationhood -‐ how might children witness, experience, and participate in culture differently than adults? -‐ an East Coast childhood

Up Home

1. “A Land of Youth: Nationhood and the Image of

the Child” by Carol Payne in Depicting Canada’s Children

2. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (2 documents).

3. The Child in Me: A Figure of Photographic Creation” by Martha Langford in Depicting Canada’s Children

Quiz value: 100

Monday, May 23: Victoria Day (no classes)

5

5) Oct 7

U nit 2: Children, Rights, and

Can

adian Cu

lture –

Childho

od and

the Suba

ltern in Con

text

-‐ girlhood in New France -‐ child soldiers in Canadian history -‐ childhood and imprisonment: a historical perspective

Hangman in the Mirror

Quiz value: 100

6) Oct 14

West Coast settlement -‐ Early immigration issues -‐ Early Anglo/Native relations Children as cultural ambassadors

Counting on Hope

1. “Mapping a Canadian Girlhood Historically Through Dolls and Doll-‐Play” by Jaqueline Reid-‐Walsh and Claudia Mitchell in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (2 documents).

Quiz value: 150

7) Oct 21

-‐ Children as labour commodity -‐ Children as synecdoche for empire

Orphan at My Door

1. “The Raw Materials of Empire Building: Depicting Canada’s Home Children,”by Alena M. Buis in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. “Immigrants, Labourers, “Others”: Canada’s Home Children,” by Margaret McNay in Depicting Canada’s Children

Quiz value: 150

Oct 28 Fall Reading Week: No Classes Held

6

8) Nov 4 U nit 2: Children, Rights, and

Ca

nadian

Culture –

Childho

od and

the Suba

ltern in

Context

-‐ The Quebecois child as sacred icon -‐ Sexual identity -‐Father-‐son relationships

In-‐Class Screening: C.R.A.Z.Y.

1. “Iconography of the Child in Early Quebec Art,” by Francois-‐Marc Gagnon in Depicting Canada’s Children Quiz Value: 75

10) Nov 11

Unit 3

: Schoo

l and

Can

adian Cu

lture

-‐ Schools as sites of systemic cultural trauma -‐ “Canadian” as a culturally engineered and imposed identity? -‐ The genre of the graphic novel

In-‐Class Screening: The Experimental Eskimos

Primary Text: Sugar Falls

1.” Haunted: First Nations Children in Residential School Photography,” by Sherry Farrell Raccette in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. “Shaping Modern Boyhood: Indian Lore, Child Psychology, and the Cultural Landscape of Campt Ahmek,” by Abigail A. Van Slyck in Depicting Canada’s Children 3. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (2 documents).

Quiz Value: 100

11) Nov 18

-‐ school culture as simulacra -‐ gender, sexuality, and constructions of contemporary childhoods -‐ childhood as realist representation and childhood as cultural metaphor

When Everything

Feels Like the Movies Quiz Value:

100

7

12) Nov 25 Unit 3

: Schoo

l and

Can

adian Cu

lture

-‐ Schools as paradoxical sites of enculturation and resistance -‐ Conformity, alterity, and the dynamics of opposing institutional authority -‐ Why tie your identity to grand, historical figures such as Trotsky and Dante?

In-‐Class Screening: The Trotsky

1. “Children and School Interiors: The User-‐Material Culture-‐Environment Nexus,” by Kai Wood Mah in Depicting Canada’s Children

2. “James Wilson Morrice’s Return from School: A Modernist Image of Quebec Children” by Sandra Paikowsky in Depicting Canada’s Children

Quiz Value:

100

13) Dec 2 Inferno

1. “Re-‐Visioning the Girl’s Narrative for the 1980s: The Case of the Short Story ‘Jack of Hearts’ and Its Film Adaptation” by Elspeth Tulloch in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (2 documents)

Quiz Value: 125

14) Jan 6

Unit 4

: Childho

od and

Cultures o

f Intervention

-‐ hospitals, cultural concepts of wellness, children’s representations of wellness

1. “Pictures of Health: Sick Kids Exposed” by Annmaire Adams, David Theodore, and Patricia McKeever in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. “Healthy Bodies, Strong Citizens: Okanagan Children’s Drawings and the Canadian Junior Red Cross” by Andrea N. Walsh in Depicting Canada’s Children’ 3. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (2 documents)

Quiz Value: 75

15) Jan 13

-‐ Children and urban street space -‐ children, trauma, survival -‐ children helping

Rabbit Ears

1. “Locating Children in the Discourse of Squeegee Kids” by Derek Foster in Depicting Canada’s Children

Quiz Value: 150

8

children

16) Jan 20

Unit 4

: Childho

od and

Cu

ltures o

f Intervention

-‐ cultures of refuge and contemporary Canadian childhoods

From Bombs to Books

1. “Frocks and Bangles: The Photographic Conversion of Two Indian Girls” by Sharon Murray in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (1 document)

Quiz Value: 150

17) Jan 27 In-‐Class Screening: Monsieur Lazhar Quiz Value:

50

18) Feb 3

Unit 5

: You

May Be Do

ne W

ith You

r Childho

od, B

ut You

r Ch

ildho

od Isn’t D

one With

You

: Co

ntem

porary Can

adian Narrativ

es

-‐ what is a culturally “normal” Canadian childhood? -‐ the “carnivalesque” as a technique to explore childhood otherness

On the Outside Looking Indian

In-‐Class Screening:

Selection of short videos by JusReign and Lilly Singh

(Superwoman)

1. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (1 document)

Quiz Value: 125

19) Feb 10

-‐ remixing fact with fiction when re-‐membering childhood -‐ can one’s own childhood be discovered, uncovered, and reimagined?

In-‐Class Screening: Stories We Tell

1. Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children (1 document) 2 .“Something Resembling Childhood: Artworks by Jack Chambers, Daniel Barrow, and Rodney Graham” by Johanne Sloan in Depicting Canada’s Children 3. “Patterson Ewen’s Portrait of Vincent” by Monique Westra in Depicting Canada’s Children

Quiz Value: 100

20) Feb 17

-‐ remixing fact and fiction when re-‐membering childhood -‐ geography as a metaphor for

In-‐Class Screening: My Winnipeg

1. “George Reid’s Paintings as Narratives of a Child Nation” by Loren Lerner in Depicting Canada’s Children 2. Moodle links to contemporary writing by

Quiz Value: 100

9

childhood and culture -‐ can one feel trapped in one’s childhood?

Canadian children (3 document)

Reading Week

21) Mar 3

Unit 5

: You

May Be Do

ne W

ith You

r Childho

od, B

ut You

r Ch

ildho

od Isn’t D

one With

You

: Co

ntem

porary Can

adian Narrativ

es

-‐ almost all the course themes we have covered so far -‐ transitioning from youth to young adult -‐ children as cultural ambassadors -‐ otherness and childhood in contemporary Canadian culture -‐ coming to terms with ones childhood? -‐ geography as a metaphor for childhood and culture -‐ the “globalized” Canadian child

What We All Long For Quiz Value: 200

22) Mar 10 -‐ contemporary rural boyhood

In-‐Class Screening: Sleeping Giant

Quiz Value: 50

Optional Due Date For

Photo Archive Study

23) Mar 17

Unit 6

: The

Fantastical and

Futuristic Can

adian

Child

-‐ Canada as fantastical -‐Childhood, speculative fiction, and the “carnivalesque” -‐ an early representation of autism

Jacob Two-‐Two and The Hooded Fang

In-‐Class Screening:

Glasses

1. “Out There in Children’s Science Fiction,” by Perry Nodleman (Link via Moodle)

Quiz Value: 100

10

24) Mar 24

-‐ are we turning children into zombies? -‐ the future-‐set refugee story: historical continuity?

All Good Children

Quiz Value: 100

Optional Due Date For

Second Essay

24) Mar 31

Contem

porary

Critiqu

es and

Re

flections

-‐ contemporary writing by Native youth Moodle links to contemporary writing by Canadian children

(10 documents). Quiz Value:

125

CHILDHOOD’INCANADIANCULTURE’(HUMA4140’B ...apps.eso.yorku.ca › domino › html › outlines...

Documents

Transcript of CHILDHOOD’INCANADIANCULTURE’(HUMA4140’B ...apps.eso.yorku.ca › domino › html › outlines...