Universidad de Puerto Rico Río Piedras Campus College of Humanities Dept. of English ENGL 3228: Personal Identity: The Literature of Growing Up Inst. Zenaida Sanjurjo Rodríguez zenaida.sanjurjorodriguez@uprrp.edu zenaida.sanjurjo@upr.edu Office: P 12 Hours: Tuesdays and Thursday 9:30-11:30 a.m. (or by appointment) DESCRIPTION: Takes as its subject the theme of growing up and initiation into life. Readings will be in fiction which deals with the varying ways in which young men and women acquire identity and maturity Course Description: In this course, students will read a selection of novels of growing up to place them in sociohistorical, cultural and narrative contexts. Emphasis on the relation between literature, history and society and on genre. Includes a historical survey of the bildungsroman. Sample authors included but are not limited to: Charlotte/ Emily Bronte, Jamaica Kincaid, V.S. Naipual, Junot Díaz. Credit: 3 credit hours/45 class hours PREREQUISITES: One of the following: English 3103-3104, or English 3011-3012, or level 5 on English Department Placement Test, or advanced placement in English. Specific objectives: At the end of the course, the student should 1.Have a thorough knowledge of the texts they read in relation to the overall narrative content, strategies and effects of each text. 2. Be able to present the insights stimulated by the course in clear prose, whether as short oral reports, discussion points raised in online discussion 3. Know some basics about the historical background of the genre and the texts 4. Know the origins and historical development of the genres. 5. Understand the social and historical factors that affect the bildungsroman. 6. Analyze critically all the texts 7. Discuss the themes and social commentary often underlying the works of the texts 8. Know the relationship between novel and film s of growing up 9. Understand the effect of popular culture, current events and social issues in molding the
2 works. 10. Compose and deliver an oral report that will help build oral skills in English; and the ability to focus on one topic and illustrate the topic/hypothesis with specific textual examples 11. Write essays on and understand the basic elements of academic writing and scholarship. Be able to compile bibliographies with the professor s help. 12. Know and be able to use he basic research tools, such as the seminar room (a closed collection), the main library (an open collection) and electronic sources, such as literary databases, for delving more deeply into the subject. Specific indications: 20% of the course (9 hours) will be online through the class BLOG and email. Students must have a valid Email address to access information and send required assignments. BLOG address: Primary: Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre-Film Version Email address: zenaida.sanjurjo@upr.edu Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights- Film Version Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea VS Naipaul, Miguel Street Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John Piri Thomas, Down these Mean Streets Sandra Cisneros, House on Mango Street Junot Diaz, The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Film Texts: Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights Wide Sargasso Sea The Perks of Being a Wallflower SCHEDULE: Aug. 13 and 15 Aug. 20 Aug. 22 General introduction to course Discussion of Jamaica Kincaid s Girl / Sandra Cisnero s Eleven Discussion of Junot Diaz How to date a brown girl (black girl,
3 white girl, or halfie) Aug. 27 Aug. 29 Sept. 3 Sept. 12 Sept. 17 Sept. 19 Sept. 24 Sept. 26 Absent Group Poem analysis Presentation of Poems and analysis of the theme Coming of Age Film: Jane Eyre Film: Jane Eyre Film: Wide Sargasso Sea Film: Wide Sargasso Sea / Presentations on Jean Rhys (Jean Rhys, coming of age in the Caribbean, The crazy lady in the attic, history) Cont. of Presentations on Jean Rhys (Jean Rhys, coming of age in the Caribbean, The crazy lady in the attic, history) Presentations on Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë, Victorian Novel, Bildungsroman, Critique) Oct. 1 Oct. 3 Viewing of Wuthering Heights Film: Wuthering Heights / Presentations of Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë, Brontë vs Brontë, Gender in Victorian Socio-Historical Context, Critique) / Oct. 8 Oct. 10 Oct. 15 V.S. Naipaul Miguel Street Presentations on V.S. Naipaul (V.S. Naipual, Miguel Street in a Historical Context, Coming Age, Critique) Oct. 17 Oct. 22 Oct. 24 Oct. 29 Oct. 31 Nov. 5 Nov. 7 Nov. 12 Jamaica Kincaid s Annie John Presentations on Jamaica Kincaid Piri Thomas Down These Mean Streets Piri Thomas Down These Mean Streets / Presentations Junot Diaz The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao / Presentations
4 Nov. 14 Nov. 19 Nov. 21 Nov. 25-29 Dec. 3 Dec. 5 Sandra Cisneros House on Mango Street Descubrimiento de Puerto Rico Sandra Cisneros House on Mango Street / Presentations Thanksgiving Recess/ Film: The Perks of Being a Wallflower Film: The Perks of Being a Wallflower / Presentation EVALUATION FACTORS: --4 essay/short answer tests 50 pts each (40%) --2 oral presentations on 2 critical texts 20 pts each (20%) --2 oral presentations with written outlines of a novel 30 pts each (30%) --attendance and class participation 100 pts (10%) Total 400 pts (100%) A differentiated evaluation system is available for students with special needs. Those students who receive services from Vocational Rehabilitation should communicate with the professor at the beginning of the semester to plan the reasonable accommodation and the necessary equipment according to the recommendations of the Oficina de Asuntos para las Personas con Impedimentos (OAPI) of the Office of the Dean of Students. In addition, those students with special needs that require some type of assistance or accommodation should communicate with the professor. Formal Classroom Policies Students must have the required materials. Make every effort to arrive promptly and stay until the end of a class period. Please DO NOT walk into class if you are already 15 minutes late to class. You are disrupting class and I will not mark you as late but ABSENT! Late work will not be accepted. Quizzes, assignments, and in-class work cannot be substituted. Avoid coming in and out of class; especially, while other students are working on presentations in front of the class. Cooperative and collaborative learning while working on panel presentations and group work means that every student must participate. Teamwork means helping each other and not relying on one or two students to do the work of the whole group. Plagiarism is the act of taking and using the thoughts, writings, or ideas of another person as one s own. Copying the exact or similar words of a text and making them your own is plagiarism. You can avoid plagiarism by using documentation information on the sources used. Plagiarism is dishonest and should be avoided. Plagiarized work is unacceptable. Plagiarism and cheating are serious infractions and subject to University policy on punishing academic dishonesty. Cell phones must be set to vibrate during class unless there is a real emergency situation and you have already notified the professor about it. Otherwise, leaving the class to answer a call constitutes an absence. Attendance
5 Attendance to class is compulsory at the University of Puerto Rico. Therefore, it is inferred that your duty is to comply with the course s demands in order to obtain a satisfactory result. If you are late and I have already taken attendance make sure you come see me so I can mark you off as Late rather than Absent. Arriving late for class three times will count as one absence. You have a period of grace of up to ten minutes, which is more than reasonable before you are marked absent or late. Should you be absent due to medical reasons or any other emergency, you must present factual evidence from your medic. If you fail to justify three absences, your grade will lower 11%. Four absences will lower your grade 21%. Five absences will lower your grade 31%. There will be no make up work for unjustified or unaccounted absences, in particular if you miss any papers and/or exams. Again, medical certification will have to be provided in case you are ill. BIBLIOGRAPHY Note: The following represent some of the new perspectives on the Novel of Growing up. Most are available in the seminar room. In addition students should look up older authorcentered criticism on individual authors in the Richardson Seminar, in Lazaro through the MLA catalogue, as well as internet periodical sources such as Uncover. A search using the last name of the author will yield titles. Armstrong. Nancy (1987) Desire and Domestic Fiction, Oxford: Oxford University Press Cohen, Paula (1991), The Daughter s Dilemma, Ann Arbor: U Michigan Press. Austen, Jane. The Six Novels with critical introduction and essays NY:, Kindle 2008 *Carol J. Singley and Susan Elizabeth Sweeney. Anxious Power: Reading, writing, and ambivalence in narrative by women. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993. (809.89287 A637) *Duke, Michael S. (ed) Modern Chinese Women Writers: Critical appraisals. Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1989. (895. 1099287 M689) Crouch, Ned. Mexicans and Americans: Cracking the Cultural Code. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2004. De Valdes, Maria Elena."Verbal and Visual Representation of Women 'Like Water for Chocolate.'" World Literature Today (69.1): 78-82. 1995. *Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan (eds). Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and transnational feminist practices. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. (305.42 S287) Eliade, Mercia (1994) Bengali Nights, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
6 Gilbert, Sandra and Gubar, Susan (1979) The Madwoman in the Attic: the Woman writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination, New Haven &London: Yale University Press. Harrison, James. Reconstructing Midnight s Children and Shame. (59.3) 1990. Kakar, Sudhir (1981) The Inner World: A Psychoanalytic Study of Childhood and Society in India, Delhi: Oxford University Press. Karlekar, Malavika (1991) Voices from Within: Early Personal Narratives of Bengali Women, Delhi: Oxford University Press Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Angle We re Joined At Transition 71, 1996 (142-157) http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramse yil/kingston.htm *Kortenaar, Neil ten. Self, Nation, Text in Salmon Rushdie s Midnight s Children. Montreal: McGill-Queen s UP, 2004. (813 R953zt) Matuz, Roger, ed. "Maxine Hong Kingston" in Contemporary Literary Criticism 58. New York: Gale Research, 1990. 307 328 Niebylski, Dianna C. Heartburn, Humor and Hyperbole in Like Water for Chocolate. Performing Gender and Comedy: Theories, Texts and Contexts. Shannon Hengen (ed). Ontario: Gordon and Beach Publishers, 1998 Moretti, Franco. The Bildungsroman in European Culture. Gale: 1990 Perkins, Wendy. "Like Water for Chocolate: Magical Realism in Like Water for Chocolate." Literature of Developing Nations for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 5 Detroit: Gale, 1998. enotes.com. January 2006. 18 August 2006. <http://www.enotes.com/likewater/7752>. Reder, Michael, ed. Conversations with Salman Rusdie. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2000. Rusdie, Salman. Imaginary Homelands. New York: Granta Books, 1991. Schaefer, Claudia. Textured Lives: Women, Art, and Representation in Modern Mexico. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1992. Sanga, Jaina C. Salman Rusdie's Postcolonial Metaphors. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1964. Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Knopf, 1993.