Category: Writing

Susan Thananopavarn
Writing 101
Fall 2019

What does it mean to be Asian American in the twenty-first century?How are Asians and Asian Americans represented in the media, and how do writers resist and complicate these narratives by telling their own stories?Asian American writers have employed various genres to make meaning of their lives and the lives of others, including autobiographical essays, creative nonfiction, graphic memoirs, and film.Through these texts and your own writing, we will examine the choices people make in framing life experiences through writing.We will also explore how life writing can help us better understand key issues in Asian American studies such as the “model minority” myth, refugee experiences, international adoption, food and culture, gender and sexuality, Asian Americans in the South, and multiracial identities. Our reading and weekly writing about these topics will culminate in three major projects for the class.In the first project, a 4-5 page essay, you will explore Asian American representation in a text of your choice.The second project will consist of a 4-5 page literary analysis that considers the form of life writing: How do writers decide what to include, what genre to use, and how to frame their life experiences? In the final assignment, “Research in the First Person,” you will draw on your own experience as a starting point to delve more deeply into a topic or issue related to Asian American studies.For the last project, you will decide the best form in which to convey these perspectives, whether an essay, a multimedia presentation, a graphic novel, or other medium.

Susan Thananopavarn
Writing 101
Spring 2019

From laws like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to anti-immigration rhetoric and acts today, Asian Americans have often been understood as “foreigners” in the United States.Asian Americans have resisted this trope through literary, historical, and personal narratives as well as through legal and social activism.This class will examine Asian American experiences through these narratives, concentrating on the relevance of Asian American studies to current policies.Through our writing projects, we will explore how understanding past Asian American resistance may pave the way for a more informed activism today.Texts for the class will include novels, short stories, poetry, and films and will address topics such as representation, the politics of immigration, nativistic or “patriotic” racism, and how Asian American demographics have been shaped by U.S. foreign policy.Our reading and weekly writing about these topics will culminate in three major projects for the class: 1) a 3-4 page analysis of how a literary text responds to an aspect of U.S. history, 2) a short (publishable) opinion essay on the relevance of Asian American history to a current event or policy, and 3) an exploration of Asian American history through narrative.For the last project, you will decide the best form –essay, multimedia presentation, graphic novel, etc. –in which to convey an aspect of Asian American history through the lens of a single person’s story.

Susan Thananopavarn
Writing 101
Spring 2020

Have we arrived at a post-racial future?Many visionaries of the twentieth century predicted a future in which race and ethnic distinctions would be eliminated through technology. Mainstream science fiction in the mid-twentieth century often confirmed this idea or reinforced racial stereotypes in novels, stories, and films. Yet not all speculative fiction has elided questions of race. Afrofuturism is a movement in literature, music, art, and film that has developed alternative visions of the future from the perspective of the African diaspora, as in the recent blockbuster film Black Panther.Other authors and artists have also articulated alternative futurisms including Latina/o, indigenous, and Asian American futurisms in novels, stories, music, comics, films, and the visual arts.

This course will examine conception sand representations of race and ethnicity in speculative fiction.We will look at alternative visions of the future as well as how contemporary authors engage with scientific theory and twentieth century classics of science fiction.Authors we will read include Junot Díaz, Octavia Butler, and Ruth Ozeki. We will also watch films and examine literary criticism to ask how “ethnofuturism” may critique racism now, in the twenty-first century.Writing tasks will require you to engage with the work of others and articulate a position as a literary and cultural critic.Assignments for the class include weekly reaction papers, a 3-4 page review of a book or film of your choice, a short textual analysis, and a 6-8 page essay on one of the texts for the class.