ELIT 48C Class 21

Discrete versus Discreet

Discrete/Discreet "These two words, originally derived from the same Latin word, are pronounced identically and also share the idea of 'keeping apart.' But they have acquired quite different meanings:

A number of usage books define discreet as “prudent,” “judicious,” “tactful,” or “circumspect.”

Discrete is defined as “separate” or “distinct.”

Chair Poet?

 

'I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I'll die like a poet.'

Bob Dylan

Agenda Discussion

Maxine Hong Kingston “No Name Woman”

Lectureo The Road: The Age of

Terroro The apocalypseo Themeso Conceptso Symbols

Discussiono QHQ

The Futureo Self-Assessment o Last Chair Poet

Historical Context: Women in Chinese Society

Kingston takes revenge on centuries of Chinese female oppresion 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.

StyleKingston 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

In China, the narrator’s aunt is heavily stigmatized for her premarital affair and pregnancy, which might have even been coercive. Her family is shamed for it, leading to her suicide and her child’s death. In fact, this one incident had hurt the family so much that the aunt’s story never gets mentioned; it is erased instead. In the text, the late 1800s-early 1900s Chinese society […] had a strict patriarchal system in place. In this society, […] “women in the old China did not choose” (Kingston 3). […] They were essentially groomed for marriage and sent away to her husband’s home even though the husband usually went away to America to pursue whatever he wanted to do. […] Obedience in this society oppresses women because any action the man forces them to do, regardless of relation, always ends up hurting the women while the man gets free reign. In fact, the very man who got the aunt pregnant might have even organized the raid against her and her family

“No Name Woman” and Feminist Criticism

Much like Mina Loy’s “Parturition” (“The irresponsibility of the male / Leaves woman her superior inferiority”), the man of “No Name Woman” is allowed to enjoy the act of sex, while the woman is left to manage the aftermath and resulting pregnancy alone. The man escapes the punishment inflicted by the community, and even organizes the raid on her family’s home.Because of society in which she lives, the narrator’s aunt becomes a pariah of the community, a “ghost”. […]

The narrator says, “The real punishment was not the raid swiftly inflicted by the villagers, but the family’s deliberately forgetting her” (800). In this way, her punishment is unending. With each new generation her existence existence fades even more, and eventually no one will be left to carry her memory.

Themes and Symbols1. A major theme in this text is gender roles. Gender plays a huge

role in creating different experiences among siblings and other family members. The narrator’s aunt stayed at home in China, while her four brothers, her father, uncles, and her husband sailed to America. These are completely distinct experiences. On one hand, of those who went to America, they went with many of their family members, where they had many helping hands and familiar faces in the new country. The narrator’s aunt, on the other hand, gets left by her whole family, including her husband

2. One of the themes in “No-Name Woman” is the difficulty of growing up as a Chinese-American. The struggle of Kingston’s aunt is likely paralleled to the struggle of Kingston herself, who is attempting to make sense of the old customs and traditions that she learns from her mother.

QHQs1. Q: Why does the aunt haunt the narrator?2. Q: Why does the mother choose to tell this story to her

daughter instead of keeping it repressed like the father?

3. Q: How does the story of the aunt shape the speakers opinion on sex, love, and family?

4. Q: Why does Kingston fill in her own details when imagining her aunt’s story?

5. Q: What is the meaning of a “dead ghost”?6. In what ways does the narrator’s story about her aunt

reveal the oppression and inequality women face in patriarchal society?

7. Q: How does Maxine Hong Kingston make the story of an ‘invisible’ woman ‘visible’?

The Road

The Road Set in a conceivable future, after a global catastrophe, The

Road tells the story of a father and a son as they tread along a forsaken highway awash with marauders and cannibals.

It is perhaps the most chilling commentary of the post-9/11 world. The post-apocalyptic setting plays upon the public’s fear of terrorism, pandemics, genocide, and weapons of mass destruction.

We can also hear the poetic passages of desolation and are reminded of Dante’s descent into hell or T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

McCarthy also wrestles with the ever-present question of the existence of God: the father tells the boy, “There is no God and we are his prophets.”

The Setting The Road is set in some undetermined location. There is mention of distant mountains, several

rivers and creeks, the Piedmont (a plain that runs along the eastern side of the Appalachian Mountains), and a coastline.

The landscape and the air are soaked in thick, gray ash.

Vegetation has been destroyed. There are no fish in the water.

When snow falls, it collects the ash in the air and falls to the earth already gray.

1. 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

Discussion Questions

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

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

Examine the concept of trust and mistrust in The Road.

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

Introduce another concept or symbol

Posting: Self-Assessment

The blogging post points (100) require self-assessment. Consider three aspects of your responses: • First, how many of the posts did you make? (26

possible)• Second, what was the quality of your response? • Third, how timely were your submissions? Write a brief argument justifying your numerical grade. This is due before the final. Please submit your assessment via Kaizena’s comment feature. Do not download an attachment.

There were 28 posts assigned. We skipped 2 for the class we missed, so that leaves 26. You had one make-up opportunity, so that post isn’t included in your total, but it does count toward completed posts.

Figure your grade this way: 100/26 = 3.8 points per post minus 1.9 points for each late post (48 hours after the due time. There are no points awarded for posts more than 48 hours late). Then, multiply the total times the average grade percentage for the quality of your work.  Example Posts completed: 25 x 3.8 points = 95 pointsLate posts: 2 x 1.9= 3.8 Subtract the smaller from the larger: 95 – 3.8 = 91.2Quality of posts: A or 95%Multiply the total times the quality: 91.2 x.95= 86.64 or 87/100 points.

If I commented positively on your post, add a percentage post to your quality. So if you got two “atta girl” comments, and you did A work, give yourself a 97%. If you got negative comments, subtract points from your quality percentage.

End of Days

Class 22 The Road Self-assessment due Discuss Revision

Final Exam: Class 23 Thursday, June 23 9:15-11:15

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

HOMEWORKPost #: 28 (The last one)1. Discuss the novel as a postmodern

work2. Use a critical lens to start a

discussion3. Discuss the American Dream as it

manifests in The Road4. QHQWrite Self-AssessmentWork on Essay 2