Far from being writers—founders of their own place, heirs of the peasants of earlier ages now working on the soil of language, diggers of wells and builders of houses—readers are travelers; they move across lands belonging to someone else, like nomads poaching their way across fields they did not write, despoiling the wealth of Egypt to enjoy it themselves. ― Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life

 

UNIT 1

 

Week 0                       Introductions

Tuesday, 9/4

• Robert Frost: “Mending Wall”
• Sarah Gambito: “A Borderless Ethos Would Please Everyone”

 

Week 1                        “The Border”

Tuesday, 9/11

• Gloria Anzaldua: sel. Borderlands/La Frontera (Reading Exercise)
• Leslie Marmon Silko: “The Border Patrol State”
• Gary Soto: “Mexicans Begin Jogging”
• Francisco Alarcon: “L.A. Prayer”
• Javier Zamora: Unaccompanied (3-37)
• DUE: Write a personal narrative about one instance in your life when you confronted or crossed a border.

Thursday, 9/13

• Javier Zamora: Unaccompanied (41-91)
• FILM: Sin Nombre (2009)
• DUE: Reading Response #1 / Film Response #1

 

Week 2                       Transnational Poetics

Tuesday, 9/18

• John Yau: “First Language Lesson”
• Li Young Lee: “Persimmons” / “Immigrant Blues” / “The Cleaving”
• Marilyn Chin: “Turtle Soup”
• Shirley Geok-Lin Lim: “Learning to Love America” / “Father from Asia”
• Sarah Gambito: “Virginia” / “Getting Used to It” / “Immigration 1”
• Ocean Vuong: “Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds”
• Chen Chen: “Self Portrait as So Much Potential”
• DUE: Reading Response #2

Thursday, 9/20

• Agha Shahid Ali: “Land” / “Postcard from Kashmir” / “I See Chile in My Rearview Mirror”
• Natalie Diaz: “My Brother My Wound” / “From the Desire Field”
• Naomi Shihab Nye: “Jerusalem” / “Blood” / “Darling” / “Arabic”
• Ada Limon: “The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversations to be Bilingual”
• DUE: Paper 1 Introduction / Review 12 Elements of the Scholarly Essay

 

Week 3                       Transgressions of Self

Tuesday, 9/25

• Derek Walcott: “The Schooner Flight”
• DUE: Reading Response #3 / Peer Review Form

Thursday, 9/27

• Adrienne Rich: “What Kinds of Times Are These”
• Elizabeth Bishop: “Chemin de Fer” / “The Waiting Room” / “Questions of Travel”
• Frank O’Hara: “A Step Away from Them”
• Gwendolyn Brooks: “a song in the front yard”
• Yusef Komunyakaa: “Untitled Blues”
• Claude McKay: “America” / “The Tropics in New York”
• Allen Ginsberg: “America”
• Robert Creeley: “America”
• Michelle Tea: “The Beautiful”
• Mark Doty: “Charlie Howard’s Descent”
• Tommy Pico: sel. Nature Poem

Friday, 9/28

• DUE: Paper 1, draft 1

 

Week 4                       Visual Crossings and Intertexts

Tuesday, 10/2

• Alison Bechdel: Fun Home
• DUE: Reading Response #4 / Peer Review Form

Thursday, 10/4

• Alison Bechdel: Fun Home

*CONFERENCES 

__________________________________

 

UNIT 2

 

Week 5                       Immigrant Stories and Gender Divisions                       

Tuesday, 10/9

• Junot Diaz: sel. Drown (“Ysrael” / “Fiesta, 1980” / “Aurora” / “Drown” / “How to Date”); “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/07/23/the-cheaters-guide-to-love
• Sandra Cisneros: sel. Woman Hollering Creek (“Bread”)
• ROSS COMMONS DINNER

Thursday, 10/11

• Continued
• Alicita Rodriguez: “How to Know You’re a Woman in a Junot Diaz Novel”
• DUE: Paper 1 Revision

 

Week 6                       the Human/Animal Line

Tuesday, 10/16

• Justin Torres: We the Animals
• DUE: Reading Response #5

Thursday, 10/18

• Justin Torres: We the Animals
• FILM: Grizzly Man (2005)
• DUE: Film Response #2 (online by midnight Friday)

 

Week 7                       Expatriation, Race, and Queerness                     

Tuesday, 10/23

• James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
• DUE:
  • Reading Response #6
  • Scholarly Sources Exercise
  • Paper 2 Intro (two copies)

Thursday, 10/25

• James Baldwin: Giovanni’s Room
• FILM: Midnight Cowboy (1969)
• DUE:
  • Film Response #3 (online)
  • Peer Review Form

Friday, 10/26

• DUE: Paper 2, draft 1 (email to peer reviewer)

 

Week 8                       Boundaries of Self

Tuesday, 10/30

• Toni Morrison: Sula
• DUE: Reading Response #7

Thursday, 11/1

• Toni Morrison: Sula
• DUE: Peer Review Form

 

*CONFERENCES 

__________________________________

 

UNIT 3

 

Week 9                       Rethinking Genre                                                   

Tuesday, 11/6

• Jean Toomer: Cane
• DUE: Reading Response #8

Thursday, 11/8

• Jean Toomer: Cane
• DUE: Paper2 Revision
• LIBRARY SESSION

Week 10                      Black Art and Myths of Citizenship                                            

Tuesday, 11/13

• Claudia Rankine: Citizen
• DUE: Reading Response #9

Thursday, 11/15

• Claudia Rankine: Citizen
• POETRY: Amiri Baraka: “Black Art” / Mark Doty: “In Two Seconds” / Sarah Gambito: “Citizenship [I was so afraid.]”; “Citizenship [I’m a pipecleaner.]” / Robin Coste Lewis: “Plantation” / Tony Hoagland: “The Change” AND Claudia Rankine’s Response And Hoagland’s Letter to Rankine / WALCOTT / etc.
• FILM(S): “Lemonade” (2016) / Do the Right Thing (1989)
• DUE: Film Response(s) #4 (online)

 

THANKSGIVING WEEK

Tuesday, 11/20

• DUE: Paper 3 Intro WITH Annotated Bibliography (two copies of Intro)

Thursday, 11/22

• HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Week 11                     

Tuesday, 11/27

• TBD
• DUE: Peer Review Form

Thursday, 11/29

• TBD
• Presentations

Friday, 11/30

• DUE: Paper 3, draft 1 (email to peer reviewer)

Week 12                      Conclusions

Tuesday, 12/4

• Presentations

Thursday, 12/6

• Presentations

*OPTIONAL CONFERENCES

Friday, 12/13

• DUE: Final Portfolio, including Paper 3 Revision / Final Exam