Hi Class,
Here is a student sample of a literary analysis essay. It was not written for an ENG 2000 class, so it has some differences to the needs of our current essay. But, it might provide some useful ways of presenting literary ideas and quoting from the text.
Hi Class,
Some help for Essay 1.
First, a recap the 4 types of homesickness that I discussed at the beginning of the semester:
Second, here is a brief definition of Transnational:
The transnational person passes over and across national and international borders, yet nations and regions also leave traces on the person. The transnational person bumps over, goes around, and passes through many natural and human-made borders which come loaded with institutions, socio-economics, politics, and feelings, all of which infuse the person with multiple connections and multiple fractures, resulting in a person who is transformed by border crossing and also transforms the border itself.
Third, in an earlier lecture (see February 24th), I provided you with four quotes about the nature of home. Those might be useful to you for Essay 1.
Best,
Sean
Mid-semester is upon us, and so we need to begin our first major essay.
In order to get a good start, I want us to read Chapter 4 and 5 in Steger. Also, please read “The Blessed House” in Lahiri.
Then, choose one story and begin drafting your essay. Bring in at least two typed pages for a peer review and a question/answer session.
Email any questions.
Best,
Sean
Hi Class,
No journal is due this Tuesday. Read Chapter 3 in Steger, and read the stories “Sexy” and “Mrs. Sen’s” in Lahiri. Highlight or write down your two favorite sentences in each of the readings.
Cheers,
Sean
A BBC documentary on India’s partition:
Colonialism:
[noun] 1. the control or governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory, or people. 2. the system or policy by which a nation maintains or advocates such control or influence. 3. the state or condition of being colonial.Postcolonialism:
Postcolonial refers to both a subject area and a theoretical framework. As a subject matter as we will study it, postcolonialism consists of texts and media in response to colonial domination, especially literature about colonial experiences from 1600 onward in which western powers extracted labor and resources from other cultures. Such texts take into account both the colonizers’ and the colonized’s responses. As a theoretical framework, postcolonialism is a way of critiquing colonialism, its practices, its ideology, and what happens when colonizers leave. Most importantly, this type of criticism attempts to examine and question texts from an upside-down position–putting the powerless into power. Decolonization is a term that refers (primarily) to the removal of British (or Dutch, French, Spanish, etc.) military forces and government officials. What remained behind is the deeply embedded, often conflicted, cultural colonization.Hi class,
Our first real quiz is tomorrow. It is a reading quiz over the first four stories in Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. No journal is due.
Best,
Sean
The Clash was an influential punk band in the 1970s and 80s. One of their songs was “Straight to Hell,” (1982)and we might consider it to be a postcolonial song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdUtborIaiU
M.I.A. released “Paper Planes” in 2007. What conversation is taking place between the two songs?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewRjZoRtu0Y
with lyrics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPQSlpOj4ls
What do you think? Music and globalization?
Four Brief Thoughts on Home:
These ideas on home will help us as we continue to wrestle with theories of homesickness and globalization in transnational literature.
Maya Angelou (American Author and Poet): “I believe that one can never leave home. I believe that one carries the shadows, the dreams, the fears and the dragons of home under one’s skin, at the extreme corners of one’s eyes and possibly in the gristle of the earlobe.” (from Letter to My Daughter, by Maya Angelou. New York: Random House, 2009).
Gaston Bachelard (French Sociologist): The home is our “first universe” and our “first world.” Such space is important, but size does not matter; a simple hut has more dream potential than a mansion. What matters is the degree of intimacy and intensity of our experience there. (from The Fate of Place, by Edward S. Casey. Berkeley: U of California P, 1998. 290)
Svetlana Boym (Russian-American Literary Critic): “To feel at home is to know that things are in their places and so are you; it is a state of mind that doesn’t depend on an actual location.” (from The Future of Nostalgia, by Svetlana Boym. New York: Basic, 2001. 251)
Immanuel Levinas (Lithuanian-French Philosopher): “The privileged role of the home does not consist in being the end of human activity but in being its condition, and in this sense its commencement.” What is accomplished by the home? These four: our ability for recollection, our ability to have intimacy, our ability to work, and our ability to make representations of the world. (from Totality and Infinity, by Immanuel Levinas. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 1969. 152-4.)
Best wishes,
Prof. Scanlan
Hi all,
First of all: Great Discussion Today! Thanks for all the conversation. I hope that next week everybody gets to contribute.
I updated the homework based on my on-the-fly changes.
Homework for Feb 24:
1. Read (or reread) chapter 2 in Steger (take notes). Pop quiz over the five phases of globalization. Names of phase, dates, and key characteristics of each.
2. Read the first two stories in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Interpreter of Maladies (take notes)
3. Find a story or news item about globalization on your own, and bring in a copy of it. You can find your story/news item anywhere (book, blog, newspaper, radio, tv, online, gossip, film, etc.). Make sure to write down the exact source. Write a 250-300 word journal (Journal 3) in which you explain how it represents globalization in action by referring to Steger. Also, be ready to discuss your story with the class for about one minute.
Cheers,
Sean
Hi Class,
Great discussion of “Assimilation” by E.L. Doctorow.
For next Tuesday:
1. Read the first two chapters in Steger’s Globalization. 2. Read Jin and Desai (OpenLab–Readings), print out and bring these to class. 3. Write Journal 2: 250-300 words explaining why Jin and Desai should be considered examples of globalization. Please use the journal template.Cheers,
Prof. Scanlan
The OpenLab is an open-source, digital platform designed to support teaching and learning at City Tech (New York City College of Technology), and to promote student and faculty engagement in the intellectual and social life of the college community.
