DR. jirousek

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LITR 440: MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE:
Immigration and Migration in America
Spring 2008 M01 3 Credits Prerequisite: WRIT 151 or 161

DR. JIROUSEK

Email: LJirouse@nyit.edu Office Location: 402A Main Building

Office Phone: (212) 261-1726 Office Hours:

Website: http://iris.nyit.edu/~LJirouse

Required Materials:

American Family Album: 28 Contemporary Ethnic Stories, ed. Bonnie TuSmith and

Gerald Bergevin. Cengage/Thomson, 2000. ISBN # 10-015507331-1

Dr. Jirousek’s LITR 440 Spring 2008 Course Packet. Available for photocopying at the

Circulation Desk of our campus library.

Selected Online Texts (links available through my website)
Course Description:

Mobility has been an integral part of the American dreammobility that is geographic, economic, social. Americans have braved the steerage of immigrant ships, landing at Ellis Island. They have left reservations for cities. They have traveled by train from Southern farms to Northern metropolises. They have climbed metaphorically “up the corporate ladder.” This course will examine mobility and ethnicity over roughly the last century, exploring the motivations and results of American immigration and migration. Issues of concern include family relationships and conflicts, interethnic/interracial interaction and discrimination, education, work and career pursuits, and intercultural conflicts and combinations. We will engage these topics in an interdisciplinary waythrough autobiography, fiction, poetry, and filmto gain a better understanding of migration and immigration issues of the period. Our inquiry will focus on the experiences of European, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and other immigrants and on the experiences of African-American and Native-American migrants. The overall goal of the course is to establish a firmer sense of the unfolding stories of American ethnicity and mobility.

COURSE POLICIES
Requirements and Grade Breakdown:

Class work consists of keeping up with the readings, completing occasional in-class writings and/or quizzes and possibly some other short homework assignments (10%), writing a family narrative paper (15%) and a comparison/contrast paper on two texts (15%), writing and presenting a brief discussion question and response paper (5%), and taking midterm (20%) and final exams (20%). Participation is also an important part of your grade (15%). This is a discussion-based class, and your voice is important. Good participants prepare thoroughly for class, attend class consistently, arrive on time, and contribute productively and enthusiastically to class activities and discussions. Always bring your reading material to class, whether it’s the textbook, a packet reading, or an online text printout. Read actively, marking the texts and taking notes, carefully thinking about the texts and asking questions to yourself, preparing to discuss and write about your ideas in class.
Attendance, Timely Arrival, and Other Protocols:

Attend class faithfully; missing more than 4 times is grounds for withdrawal from the course or automatic failure. At the very least, excessive absences and/or late arrivals will significantly lower a student’s grade. However, absences for medical reasons, with presentation of a verifiable, original copy of a medical doctor’s note immediately upon the student’s return to class, and absences for religious holidays, with written notification of the holiday before the absence, do not count against the limit of 4 absences; only these will be considered “excused” absences.
Arrive on time; 2 times late = one absence.
If you must miss a class, you are responsible for finding out what you missed and catching up; contact me or consult a classmate.
Turn off and keep out of sight (in your backpack, purse, or pocket—not on the desk) all cell phones/beepers/i-pods/radios/headphones/similar devices in my classroom.
If you must bring food or drink into the classroom, always clean up after yourself, disposing of trash and recyclables in the appropriate receptacles.
Do not leave the classroom during class, unless you have a genuine emergency; in such a rare case, make every effort to speak with me before leaving.
Bring the course materials containing the day’s readings to class.
Bring only materials/objects appropriate for class work.
Disruptive behavior is unacceptable.

Paper Submission: To be considered on time, papers must be submitted as hard copies at the beginning of class on the due date indicated on the syllabus. In addition, an email copy of your discussion question/response paper must be emailed to me by 8:00 a.m. on the day you will present it in class (you will turn in a hard copy to be graded when you arrive in class that day; no late discussion question/responses will be accepted). All printing, stapling, etc. of the papers should be done well before class begins. Late final papers will be lowered two grade increments per day late (example: B becomes C+ in one day). Not bringing a draft to workshop also will result in a 2-increment lowering of the final grade. For the family narrative and comparison/contrast papers, no paper will be accepted if I have not received an earlier/rough draft as well as the final, revised version (there must be development and improvement between one and the other). Papers will not be accepted more than two weeks late. Papers must be handed to me in person; do not place papers in my mailbox or in my office when I am not there. Extensions may be given in extreme circumstances, if requested and granted before a due date. In-class writing and quizzes will be unannounced and may not be made up.
Writing assignments done outside of class (including drafts) should be word-processed and printed legibly with one-inch margins for all edges. Double space papers and include a title centered above your text on the first page. Include your name, the course number, my name, and the date in the upper, left-hand corner of your first page, and number pages from page 2 onward in the upper right-hand corner. Papers must be stapled together before being submitted.

Conferences: See me during my office hours (or make an appointment for an alternative time), if you have questions or want to discuss anything about the course. I strongly encourage you to come in with drafts of papers to receive feedback before the final paper is due.
Plagiarism (Cheating) Vs. Integrity:

Taking someone else's published or unpublished words and turning them in as your own is plagiarism (cheating) and violates NYIT’s Student Code of Conduct. If you are caught plagiarizing, you will face serious consequences, which may include any and all of the following: failure in the course, failure on the assignment, a lowered participation grade, referral to the dean for further disciplinary action. Do not plagiarize!

Notice: Each student enrolled in a course at NYIT agrees that, by taking such course, he or she consents to the submission of all required papers for textual similarity review to any commercial service engaged by NYIT to detect plagiarism. Each student also agrees that all papers submitted to any such service may be included as source documents in the service’s database, solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers.
Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities: If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation in this course or have questions about physical access, please notify the professor as soon as possible.
* The schedule below is subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances. Any changes will be announced in class and/or through NYIT email. You are responsible for adhering to such announced changes; be sure to check your NYIT email account regularly.
SCHEDULE
OL=online (links available on website syllabus)
P=Packet
A=American Family Album (dates and author background information also in text; be sure to read author background before each story)

1/23 Course Introduction

1/28 OL: Mary Antin (1912 autobiography) The Promised Land Ch. 12 at

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/antin/land/land-12.html and
OL: Ludwig Lewisohn (1922 autobiography) Up Stream Ch. 5 at

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=RKJx7BmT_2oC&dq=%22up+stream%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=qsBluurOdx&sig=oWH9a52_BtlJKC5HeL0Iur4Qjjs#PPA104,M1

1/30 OL: Anzia Yezierska (1920 stories) “Wings” at

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/yezierska/hearts/hearts.html#I and
“How I Found America” at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/yezierska/hearts/hearts.html#X and
OL: Abraham Cahan (1898 story) “A Sweatshop Romance” at

http://www.ibiblio.org/eldritch/cahan/sweat.htm
--

2/4 Start watching 1974 film Hester Street (based on Abraham Cahan’s 1896 novella

Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto)

2/6 Continue Hester Street

2/11 Family Narrative Draft due for workshop

2/13 Family Narrative Paper Due; watch film Ethnic Notions

PRESIDENT’S DAY

2/19 OL: Booker T. Washington (1895 speech) “The Atlanta Exposition Address” at

(Tuesday) http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WASHINGTON/ch14.html and
OL: WEB Du Bois (1903 non-fiction/cultural commentary) The Souls of the

Black Folk Ch. 1 at http://www.bartleby.com/114/1.html

2/20 OL: Langston Hughes (3 poems) “The Weary Blues” (1925), “The Negro Speaks

of Rivers” (1926) (scroll down to “Rivers”) at

http://physics.lunet.edu/blues/L_Hughes.html and
“Harlem (Dream Deferred)” (1951) at

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dream-deferred/ and
P: Family Narrative Sample Student Essays
--

2/25 P: Sui Sin Far (1909 autobiographical essay) “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio

of an Eurasian” and (1912 story) “In the Land of the Free” and
OL: Zitkala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin) (1921 autobiographical essays) “The School Days of an Indian Girl” at

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/zitkala-sa/stories/school.html

2/27 P: Abraham Rihbany (1914 autobiographical excerpt) A Far Journey and

OL: Edward Bok (1920 autobiography) The Americanization of Edward Bok Chs. 38 and 39 starting at

http://www.bartleby.com/197/38.html
--

3/3 P: Michael Pupin (1923 autobio. excerpt) From Immigrant to Inventor,

Constantine Panunzio (1921 autobio. excerpt) The Soul of an Immigrant

3/5 MIDTERM EXAM

3/10 OL: Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963 speech) “I Have a Dream” at

http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=44 and
Start watching Lorraine Hansberry’s 1961 film A Raisin in the Sun)

3/12 Continue A Raisin in the Sun

SPRING BREAK!

3/24 A: Helena María Viramontes “The Moths” (15-24), Judith Ortiz Cofer “The

Witch’s Husband” (24-33)

3/26 A: Herbert Gold from Family (70-82), Salvatore La Puma “Wear it in Good

Health” (2-15)

3/31 Joseph Geha “Everything, Everything” (189-202), Fae Myenne Ng “Backdaire”

(202-213)

4/2 P: Bharati Mukherjee (1988 story) “A Wife’s Story”, A: Alice Walker

“Nineteen Fifty-Five” (346-62)
--

4/7 A: Louise Erdrich “The Red Convertible” (233-45), Vickie Sears “Grace” (328-

46)

4/9 A: Sherman Alexie “Because My Father Always Said He Was the Only Indian

Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at Woodstock” (107-

119)

4/14 Watch 1998 Alexie film Smoke Signals

4/16 Continue Smoke Signals

4/21 A: Anna Lee Walters “The Warriors” (276-89), Leslie Marmon Silko “Lullaby”

(83-95)

4/23 P: (poems) D. H. Melhem “say French,” Maria Mazziotti Gillan “Arturo” (1987),

Jesús Papaleto Melendez “OYE MUNDO/Sometimes” (1972), Nellie Wong “From a Heart of Rice Straw” (1978)

4/28 Draft of Comparison/Contrast due for workshop

4/30 Begin watching Gregory Nava film My Family

5/5 Comparison/Contrast Paper Due. Continue My Family

FINAL EXAM TBA

** Do not make summer travel plans until you know the date/time of the Final Exam!