Welcome to the blog for ENGL 5830, Multicultural Adolescent Literature. This blog is designed to serve as a resource for students enrolled in the course and for members of the Western Michigan University English Studies community who are interested in keeping up with the class. On these pages you'll find links to announcements, handouts, and student assignments. Here is a link to the syllabus: Download ENGL 5830 CP and Syllabus SuI 2012
My Children's and Adolescent Lit Blog
May 2012
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05/31/2012
05/27/2012
Course Recap for 30 May 2012
Course Recap
Walter Dean Myers' Monster formed the entirety of our discussion in class on Wednesday. For the first 40 minutes, students met in groups to discuss a series of questions, and then we gathered back as a class and spent the remainder of our time grappling with the issues raised by Myers' text. Here is a copy of the handout: Download ENGL 5830 Group Work 053012
Finally, I handed out the mid-term exam, which is due at 6pm on June 10th. You can find an electronic copy of the exam under the blog post entitled "Midterm."
Homework
For class on Monday, you should have read Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Tie Indian. Also, prior to class, could you please skim through the following handouts:
Download Basics of Visual Interpretation and McCloud
Kate Hart's amazing blog post on book covers and representation in YA lierature.
05/22/2012
Materials for 23 May 2012
Course Recap
We spent the majority of class going over the issues raised in these questions: Download ENGL 5830 Group Work 052312
Here are images from the board:
Finally, one of you noted that the WMU Bookstore is not stocking Satrapi's Persepolis. I heard from the bookstore today, and they only have 1 copy in stock. Instead of having them rush order the book themselves, I'm going to ask that you pick up a copy from an online retailer or ask your local bookshop to order it for you. Remember, you want either The Complete Persepolis or Persepolis, Vol 1 and Vol. 2 -- I've linked the titles to Amazon.
Homework
For homework, please read the following links and the lecture on African American children's literature, and view the Myers interview.
CBC Diversity Blog and Discussion
Walter Dean Myers PEN Lecture on Giving Voice to Young People:
05/21/2012
Course Recap for 21 May 2012
Course Recap
After taking a quiz, we discussed An Na's A Step From Heaven. I asked you to think about character motivation and decision-making, and I also asked you to come up with a number of adjectives that might describe each character. We used this information to drive our conversation on the novel. If you would like to formalize your notes on this exercise, you can use this sheet: Download ENGL 5830 Character Chart SFH Su I 2012
The topics we covered included a consideration of the word "rebellion" as it related to Young Ju and Joon Ho's behavior, a summary of the ways Young Ju redefines her relationship with authority figures, and a specific focus on how the text seems to privilege certain cultural values over others.
The word "rebellion" came up, as some of you used the word in relation to Joon Ho. While Joon Ho's rebellion falls along traditional lines, as he defies both parental and school authority, Young Ju's rebellion takes on a different form. Some of you noted that the 911 call serves as a moment of self assertion for Young Ju, and although she suffers short term negative consequences for her behavior, she ultimately transforms her family life.
We discussed the specific aspects of the latter half of the text that centered on the changing relationship between Young Ju and her mother. At first, Uhmma blames Young Ju for the fact that her husband leaves her, but in another central scene, she apologizes to Young Ju and states directly that "I blamed you for trying to save me." The fact that this reconciliation takes place over the rice pot underscores the way that Young Ju has been able to take on some of the qualities of assertion and individuality central to most North American conceptions of the self, while maintaining other cultural traditions (in this case domestic traditions) that are specific to her Korean heritage.
Towards the end of class, I floated the idea that North Americans in general are portrayed in uniformly positive terms (with the exception of the landlord). Characters such as Young Ju's teachers, her Uncle Tim, the government worker, the police officer, Amanda, and Amanda's family all appear to be living a happy, "normal" life that Young Ju desires but cannot attain until her father departs for Korea. Young Ju's Aunt Gomo certainly seems like a very functional and helpful figure, but it would be possible for someone who made a cursory reading of the text to walk away with the perception that North American middle class life is not only the ideal, but that it is the only ideal.
This topic lead us to a discussion of the difficult position that some authors find themselves in when they wish to write about a cultural minority but know that their readership will be comprised of primarily white readers. If these authors focus on a realistic portrayal of day-to-day life as they have experienced it, many of them fear that their depiction will be viewed as representing the entirety of lived experience for that minority population. I noted that at the turn of the last century, a number of African American women authors avoided incorporating realism into their texts, in part because they were trying to demonstrate to a mainstream audience that African Americans belonged in the middle class.
I also referenced Monica Chiu's article when suggesting that we think about how and why Uhmma encourages Young Ju to feel a measure of empathy regarding Apa. The idea that Young Ju reconciles, at least in her own mind, with her father might point to the idea that Trites puts forward regarding the way that power works in a YA novel -- in the end, the break from authority is tempered by a possible reconciliation.
Homework
Please bring An Na's A Step From Heaven to class, as well as an electronic or a paper copy of Monica Chiu's article. For the first part of class, you will work in pairs to go over a series of questions regarding the novel and the essay. Then, after a final discussion on the topic, I will give a brief lecture on Walter Dean Myers' career. Finally, I'd like you to read this short article: Salon article on "white washing."
05/20/2012
Course Recap for 16 May 2012
Course Recap
During class on Wednesday, we finished our discussion of Judith Ortiz Cofer's An Island Like You, focusing primarily upon the way that conflicts were quickly resolved in the stories. We thought about how the text's quick resolutions mirrored mid-1990s YA literature in general, and I asked you to think about the way that a more contemporary text such as An Na's A Step From Heaven complicates its depiction of the immigrant experience. By the way, I mentioned Esmerelda Santiago's book When I Was Puerto Rican as a non-fiction text that you might wish to explore.
In addition to our class discussion, Catherine gave a talk on writing essay answers -- if you were not in class, be sure to ask her for a copy of the talk. Catherine also mentioned many of the benefits involved in using our university's Writing Center. To learn more, click here.
Finally, you wrote short responses to some practice essay prompts. Here is a copy if you were not able to attend class: Download ENGL 5830 Significance Practice
Homework
We will discuss An Na's novel, A Step From Heaven during class on Monday. Also don't forget to read Monica Chiu's essay.
05/14/2012
Course Recap for 14 May 2012
Course Recap
First, here is a link to Judith Ortiz Cofer's home page, so that you can learn more about her background.
After finishing our discussion of Trites' chapter, I introduced you to a type of writing that I will ask you to produce this semester: the significance paragraph: Download ENGL 5830 Significance Paragraph Examples Su I 2012
After discussing the examples, I asked you to practice writing a paragraph: Download ENGL 5830 Significance Practice
For the rest of the class period, we discussed the questions contained in this handout: Download Ortiz Cofer Questions Su I 2012
Most of us agreed that Ortiz Cofer's text included the sort of overt didacticism that was typical of YA literature in the 1990s; in fact, I suggested that in today's YA market, An Island Like You would probably be designated "intermediate fiction." That said, within its own time period, a story such as "White Balloons" would have been pushing the envelope, given its stance on AIDs.
Another point that we focused on in depth was the way that Ortiz Cofer used language to indicate her intended audience. For instance, while the subject matter itself -- biculturalism -- might be intended to appeal to and to represent Puerto Rican Americans, the way that narrators were shown to use Spanish words and follow them up with English translations suggests that Ortiz Cofer was also writing to English speakers -- whether those speakers were Puerto Ricans who never learned Spanish or other readers who were not of Puerto Rican origin.
Finally, we considered the neat resolutions that predominate in the stories -- a fact that we will return to next week.
Please be sure to bring your text to class again on Wednesday!
05/09/2012
Course Recap for 9 May 2012
Course Recap
I wanted to spend a few moments having us remember the life and contributions of Maurice Sendak, so we watched this interview that he gave on Now with Bill Moyers a few years back. Even if you already viewed the program in class, you might want to click on the link because it includes a complete transcript. When we regrouped to discuss what we had seen, I underscored the importance of how Sendak saw his role as an author of children's literature. As he notes in the interview, "...if I've done anything, I've had kids express themselves as they are, impolitely, lovingly... they don't mean any harm. They just don't know what the right way is. And as it turns out sometimes the so-called 'right way' is utterly the wrong way. What a monstrous confusion." Note Sendak's apparent suspicion regarding didacticism, as well as his unwillingness to pander to children or to create child characters who behave unrealistically. Later in the interview, Sendak implies that he used the form of children's literature to get across subversive messages, but note that these messages are not simply his ideas about how children should behave (as in the "hidden adult") -- instead, he claims to write about his own concerns, anxieties, and observations, without concern for molding young readers in any traditional sense.
Next, I showed you a clip from YA author Sharon G. Flake's interview on a program sponsored by Indiana University of Pennsylvania entitled The Teaching Landscape. I selected a short segment that began at 3 minutes and 18 seconds into the video, when Flake discusses the reasons that she chooses to write about urban life and the ways that young people from non-urban areas still enjoy her books:
This point was one that we talked about in tandem with the ideas put forward in Bluemle and Elliott's blog posts regarding the view that minority children need to see themselves represented in children's texts. As I noted in class, these two ideas are not mutually exclusive. We also talked about contrasting ideas regarding the purposes of art -- ideas that have long characterized scholarly discussions -- art for art's sake vs. art for utilitarian purposes.
Our final video clip was an interview with children's poet and book author Nikki Grimes, who spoke about the need for teachers and librarians reassess their assumptions about sharing books with children. The interview segment is entitled "Marginalizing Multicultural Books," and can be found at this link by scrolling through the sessions. As with the Sendak excerpt, a transcript is included on the website.
The other major discussion we had in class surrounded Roberta Seelinger Trites' chapter from Disturbing the Universe. Here is a copy of what we talked about: Download ENGL 5830 Trites Lecture 2012
Finally, we talked about the assignments for the course. If you were not in class, please be sure to review these carefully:
Download ENGL 5830 Mid-term Take Home Exam Guide Su I 2012
Download ENGL 5830 AB Assignment Guide Su I 2012
Download ENGL 5830 Final Exam Guide Su I 2012
Download ENGL 5830 Article Finding Guide Su I 2012
Homework
For homework, please read Cofer's An Island Like You in its entirety.
05/08/2012
Course Recap for 7 May 2012
Course Recap
After introducing ourselves at the beginning of class, we spent the majority of our time discussing the materials and approaches that we will use this semester to discuss young adult literature.
As you probably remember, I brought an incorrect version of the syllabus to class; I placed the correct copy in the Welcome post at the top of the page. You will note that the mid-term exam will be a take home and that Cofer's An Island Like You will be the first text that we will discuss.
In order to emphasize key ideas regarding the author/reader relationship in YA literature, I asked you to remember what it was like to "lose yourself" in a book. I explained that one of the key features of contemporary YA literature is that it is often focalized through first-person narrators whose language seems age appropriate. I noted that whether young readers identify with a protagonist because she reminds them of themselves or if they learn about new subjectivities by identifying with a character who seems to be different from themselves, the goal for most authors is to create characters who seem believeable. These characters appear to encourage readers to "get lost" in a text, and literary critics term this process engaging narration. To give you an example of how a contemporary author creates a relatable protagonist, I read you excerpts from Judy Blume's Forever and Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, as well as from Meg Rosoff's How I Live Now. I also mentioned Paul Curtis' The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963, a novel that is set in Flint, Michigan.
Next, I introduced you to the concept of "the hidden adult," which refers to the fact that behind any work of children's literature is an adult author who may often choose to voice his or her didactic ideas through the voice of a first person child narrator. I noted that this concept is best expressed in Perry Nodelman's aptly-named study, The Hidden Adult.
In the last segment of class, I turned our discussion towards themes in multicultural literature, a topic that we will take up in great depth on Wednesday. I showed you an excerpt from the television program Moyers and Company in which Bill Moyers interviews noted author Luis Alberto Urrea. Here is a link to the program; the segment that I showed you began at around the 30 minute mark.
Homework
For homework, please print out and read these two short blog pieces:
Elizabeth Bluemle's "The Elephant in the Room" and Zetta Elliott's “Something Like an Open Letter to the Children’s Publishing Industry.”
Also, you will need to set aside an appropriate block of time to read the Roberta Seelinger Trites chapter that I handed out in class yesterday. Here is a set of questions that you can use to guide your reading: Download Trites Study Questions Chapter One
05/01/2012
The Atlantic Series "YA for Grownups": Focus on Diversity in YA Literature
I can think of no better introduction to issue of diversity in YA literature than this essay by Jen Doll, available in The Atlantic: click here for link. We will be discussing it in class on Monday. As always, the comments after the article are interesting, as well. I'm just not sure why the stock photo shows very young kids, as the focus is very much on literature for readers over the age 12.
Doll's essay is part of a larger series that began last week with a general entry on YA literature.
