ELIT 48C Class 19

Imply or Infer?

Imply / Infer

Imply means to suggest indirectly (you’re sending a subtle message).

To infer is to come to a conclusion based on information (you’re interpreting a message).

AGENDA Discussion: “Howl" Lecture

o La conciencia de la mestiza/ Towards a New Consciousness

o “El Sonavabitche” o “Warrior Woman”o Historical Contexto Themes and Style

Discussiono Intersections of identity and oppression

The American Dream Introduce Essay #2

Chair Poet?“If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.”

Emily Dickinson

DiscussSeven minutes!

Gloria Anzaldua was a self-described "chicana dyke-feminist, tejana patlache poet, writer, and cultural theorist."

Maxine Hong KingstonThrough her stories about herself and her female relatives, Kingston paints a picture of Chinese tradition that portrays women as objectified and enslaved by men.

Intersections of identity and oppression

As a Mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out; yet all countries are mine because I am every woman’s sister or potential lover. (As a lesbian I have no race, my own people disclaim me; but I am all races because there is the queer of me in all races.) I am cultureless because, as a feminist, I challenge the collective cultural/religious male-derived beliefs of Indo-Hispanics and Anglos, yet I am cultured because I am participating in the creation of yet another culture, a new story to explain the world and our participation in it, a new value system with images and symbols that connect us to each other and to the planet. Soy un amasamiento, I am an act of kneading, of uniting, and joining that not only has produced both a creature of darkness and a creature of light, but also a creature that questions the definitions of light and dark and gives them new meanings. (841)

Gloria Anzaldua is among the many feminist theorists that move into the realm of addressing postmodern identities. In her discussion of a new emerging consciousness in La conciencia de la mestiza: Towards a New Consciousness, Anzaldua suggests the construction of identities as multiple, hybrid, and more specifically, created as a result of the Borderlands, those spaces that intersect. While the people who live in the intersections are privy to a world others don’t see or understand, it is a space where cultures collide, often with incompatible values, opposing histories, and contradictory experiences. It can be difficult to be an individual, or member, of several social, classed, gendered, racialized groups but never feeling quite at home in either.

Postmodernism

An example of the contradictions of which she speaks is through a brief discussion of the identities of women of color. For instance, if an African-American woman advocates for women’s rights, does this mean that femininity and the struggle against gender oppression takes precedence over her racial identity and her struggle against colonization and racial oppression?

The inverse question can also be asked. If an African-American woman of color takes a political stance for the end of her racial oppression, does this mean that she devalues her experience as being oppressed by her gender identity?

Anzaldua makes a plea to feminists to bridge identities and to understand identities as always being constituted in the Borderlands. The sorting out the contradictions embedded between these social identities requires a tolerance for ambiguity.

Blended Identity1. Does Anzaldua feel more empowered

or marginalized by her status as a mestiza?

2. How can a person escape the inherent oppression his or her culture faces?

Discuss Postmodernism, or Feminist Theory, or Minority Theory in terms of Anzuldua

1.How is conciencia de la mestiza comparable double consciousness?

2.What is the new mestiza?3.Why does Anzaldua exclude the use of

translations to her Spanish text?

Discuss themes or meaning in “El Sonavabitche”

The most prevalent theme in this poem is the exploitation of immigrant workers. In a lot of cases such as this, illegal immigrants are screwed out of their time and money. They are treated as subhuman when coming to the country/going to their place of employment: “five days packed in the back of a pickup boarded up tight…no stops except to change drivers, to gas up no food they pissed into their shoes…slept slumped against each other sabe Dios where they shit” (860).

Discuss themes or meaning in “El Sonavabitche”

Some of the themes I noticed in the poem are power, exploitation, fear. I think these themes all fall into the category of the immigrant struggle. Many immigrant farmworkers are left to the mercy of their employers who exploit them by making them work long, laborious hours under the hot sun while paying them very little money, or in some cases, not paying them at all. The workers have no choice but to accept the working conditions because there is the constant fear of being deported looming inside their heads, which allows for the employers to hold more power over them.

Discuss themes or meaning in “El Sonavabitche”

The main themes that I can see throughout “El Sonavabitche” are themes of injustice and inequality, fear and powerlessness, the Mexican American migrant culture, and courage creating power. […] When the workers have worked enough to actually make any money, the landowner they call sonavabitche, calls immigration officials in order to deport the workers so that he wouldn’t have to pay them. Through actions like these it is even more obvious who has the power in the relationship between the workers and the owner. The fact that sonavabitche had an obvious advantage in the fact that he could call immigration services at any point tipped the scale in his direction as he could replace the workers whenever he deemed necessary, in turn, creating this great fear and obedience amongst the migrant workers.

QHQ: “La Conciencia de la Mestiza” and Patriarchy

Anzuldua says “Only gay men have had the courage to expose themselves to the woman inside them,” so does that mean all men have a “woman inside them?” If they expose themselves to this “woman inside them,” will that be a large step towards gender equality?

Q: How can men break free from being “fettered to gender roles” (Andzaldua 844)? And what can we do to make this a men’s issue while being sensitive to women, feminists and people who identify as LGBTQIA?

How has the change in the meaning of “macho” relate to the mistreatment of women?

Historical Context: Women in Chinese Society

Kingston takes revenge on centuries of Chinese female oppression in The Woman Warrior, the larger work from which “No-Name Woman” was taken. From the days of Confucius through the early twentieth century, the Chinese placed men above women and family above social order. When people married, new family ties formed, and new wives became subservient to their grooms’ parents. Women from the higher classes lived extremely secluded lives and suffered such treatments as foot-binding. The Chinese chose young girls who were especially pretty to undergo foot-binding. The binder bent the large toe backward, forever deforming the foot. Men favored women with bound feet, a sign of beauty and gentility, because it signified that they could support these women who were incapable of physical labor.

SettingThe narrator grows up in Stockton,

California, where she was born in 1940. The events that actually occur in her life take place in California. Her imagined warrior life and her mother's "talk stories," however, take place in China. For example, the story of No-Name Aunt, the ghost aunt, occurs in China from about 1924 to 1934.

Style

Kingston combines fact with fiction—relying on her own memories, her mother's "talk stories," and her own vivid imagination—to create a view of what it is like to grow up a Chinese-American female.

She reworks traditional myths and legends to modernize their messages.

Some critics argue that her dependence on inventiveness (from the myths and legends) renders her writing difficult to classify as autobiography or fiction.

Postmodern Aspects

Shrugs off old forms and limits: Her work differs from most autobiographies in that it is not a first-person narration of the author's life.

Multiple genres and approaches: memory, fantasy, speculation, translation, and point of view.

Moves away from the metanarrative: Kingston struggles to reconcile her identity as a member of two cultures, Chinese and American, who does not feel entirely at home in either culture. It is a story of an individual.

Themes: Kingston combats what Shirley Geok-Lin Lim has called "the cultural silencing of Chinese in American society and ….. the gendered silencing of women in Chinese society,” through the telling of stories about women who are either literally or mythically her ancestors. Her words are her weapons against silence, racism, and sexism.

“No Name Woman” and Feminist Criticism

Through a feminist perspective, this text provides the cultural context of oppression the female. Throughout the text, the female is portrayed as being oppressed by the social engine which appears to be controlled by the man. This is shown in the instance of the aunt’s rapist who single-handedly destroyed her live by perpetuating his misogynistic agenda on her and even asserts the consequences that come with in it onto her. Likewise, other women in the text, the mom, the ones in the raid, etc., all promote this culture by joining in the assault of the aunt and by teaching the younger generation the misogynistic ideals that the culture makes them believe.

“No Name Woman” and Feminist Criticism

The Aunt had to be disowned, forgotten, because of her tragic mistake. In the institution of marriage we can also see the restrictions women faced. On page 796 we see that, “All the married women blunt-cut their hair in flaps about their ears or pulled it back in tight buns”. Marriage is stripping them of their femininity and purity. Hair, especially in Biblical terms, represents power and innocence. Once the women are married, they lose this. For the Aunt, she has no choice or power in her life, especially once her secret is revealed, and is forced to accept death. We see that even the child could not survive because it was likely a girl, unwanted, and would receive no acceptance in such a harsh society. The narrator states, “It was probably a girl; there is some hope of forgiveness for boys” (800).

Themes and Symbols

1.A major theme in The Woman Warrior is separation of generations between first-generation Chinese immigrants and second-generation Chinese-Americans.

2.What is the significance of food and starvation in the story of “No-Name Woman”?

3.What does the No Name Woman symbolize?

QHQs

1. Who is the warrior women?2. Why does the narrator’s mother tell

her the story of her aunt?3. Is the story the narrator’s mother tells

her real or fabricated? 4. What are her thoughts about her

culture?5. How is the narrator of this story

similar to the narrator of “The Invisible Man”?

Essay #2

Prompt Introduction In this second half of our quarter, we have read and

discussed multiple texts, theories, and opinions on both literature and literary analysis, and for this reason, I offer you many choices for your first essay. In a thesis driven essay of three to six pages, respond to one of the prompts I have offered or one of your own. You need only the primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate other stories, manifestos, or critical theory as additional support. Remember, you can also draw on your own experiences and knowledge to discuss, explain, and analyze your topic.

Prompt Introduction In this second half of our quarter, we have read and

discussed multiple texts, theories, and opinions on both literature and literary analysis, and for this reason, I offer you many choices for your first essay. In a thesis driven essay of 750 to 1000 words, respond to one of the prompts I have offered or one of your own. You need only the primary text for this essay, but you may incorporate other stories, manifestos, or critical theory as additional support. Remember, you can also draw on your own experiences and knowledge to discuss, explain, and analyze your topic.

Topics for Essay #2 There are many essay topics to choose from.

On the webpage, click on “Essay Prompts” and then “Essay #2”

You will see another list of choices specific to our texts. Click on any of them to explore topics

You may write an essay on any of these topics. You may write an essay on a topic of your choice. You may use fodder from one of your posts. The essay is due before class on the day of the

final.

The RoadTopic #2Using a close reading strategy and specific textual evidence argue for how the world was most likely devastated. Consider climate change, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, the explosion of nuclear bombs, or?

Topic #15Examine both the concept and reality of cannibalism in The Road. Consider motivations and outcomes of the behavior.

“Battle Royal”One does not need to look very deeply in Ralph

Ellison's short story "Battle Royal" to find different elements and examples of racism. Use African American literary criticism to make an argument about “Battle Royal.”

Examine the theme of “American Dream” in “Battle Royal.” Consider how the story defines the concept of “success”?

Cormac McCarthyCormac McCarthy is an American novelist and playwright. He has written ten novels, ranging from the Southern Gothic, western, and post-apocalyptic genres. He has also written plays and screenplays.

He received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road, and his 2005 novel No Country for Old Men was adapted as a 2007 film of the same name, which won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He received a National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award for his 1992 novel, All the Pretty Horses.

His previous novel, Blood Meridian, (1985) was among Time Magazine's poll of the best English-language books published between 1923 and 2005 and he placed joint runner-up in a poll taken in 2006 by the New York Times of the best American fiction published in the last 25 years.

Literary critic Harold Bloom named him as one of the four major American novelists of his time, along with Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. In 2010 the London Times ranked The Road no.1 on its list of the 100 best fiction and non-fiction books of the past 10 years. He is frequently compared by modern reviewers to William Faulkner.

Postmodernism EssayDiscuss the work in terms of its postmodern

construction. Consider the postmodern manifestos or the Mary Klages article on Postmodernism to ground your argument.

Discuss two or more of the manifestos, working to define the ever-elusive idea of postmodernism. Consider using the Klages essay on postmodernism to support your argument.

Discuss the American Dream with regard to the postmodern condition.

End of Days Class 20

The Road Discuss Self-Assessment

Class 21 The Road Self-assessment due Discuss Revision

Class 22: Thursday, June 25th 9:15-11:15 Final Exam

Revision of essay #1 due before class begins Essay #2 due before class begins

HOMEWORK

Read The Road: Post #27: Choose one1. What caused the

devastation of the land? Provide the clues you used to come to your conclusion.

2. Discuss a theme from the novel: Destruction, survival, isolation, death, or hope

3. Examine the concept of trust and mistrust in The Road.

4. Analyze the symbol of innocence and how it pertains to the son in The Road.

5. Introduce another concept or symbol