American Studies - Fall 1998

Professor: A. Yvette Huginnie

Tuesday/Thursday, 2:00-3:45 p.m.
Thiman 3

Instructor: Professor A. Yvette Huginnie
Office: 333 Oakes
Phone: x5622, mess. x2813
huginnie@cats.ucsc.edu

Question: What have been the most significant events in U.S. society during the past five years? and what do they have to do with this class? Certainly, everyone in this class has her/his own answer to that question. For me, the most significant recent events have been the Rodney King verdict and subsequent L.A. revolt, the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy, the anti-Amendment 2 boycott, Proposition 187, and most recently Proposition 209.

Each of these events occurred within a specific historical context, a context which has to do with both "today" and "yesterday." For instance, today the United States is a highly urbanized nation. When did it become so? What were cities like and who lived in them during the 1870s? 1930s? 1950s? 1980s? Did Americans of all classes, races and ethnicities live in cities throughout the time period of this course? When did some groups come, and when did some groups leave? And why? What does the history of cities in the United States have to do with the L.A. revolt of 1992?

This course will examine some of the major questions and dilemmas by highlighting four ways of studying U.S. society---i.e., through the lens of race and ethnicity; class; gender and sexuality; and politics. Among central questions to keep in mind throughout the course are: How, when and to whom would the promises of Democracy be extended? What is the relationship between the individual and social groups in the U.S.? In the readings, lectures, films, and discussions, we will examine the following themes both in the past and the present: social, cultural and economic patterns; interaction among different racial or ethnic groups; the experiences of working class peoples; women and men's societal roles and experiences.

Readings include both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are letters, diaries, and other kinds of records written by people who actually experienced historical events. Scholars take these primary accounts, analyzed them, and use them to support their interpretations of a historical event or period. This course stresses the use of primary documents as a means for you to gain access to the words of the women and men whose actions and beliefs have made U.S. society. Furthermore, by studying primary documents (in conjunction with reading secondary works and attending lectures) you will begin to develop your own analytical skills and historically-informed interpretations. As you do the assigned readings, you should compare and contrast them: What is the argument? What kinds of evidence does that author cite? What kinds of assumptions does the author make? It is important not only to learn facts and information, but how to closely analyze and interpret.

Readings:

The following books have been ordered at the Literary Guillotine (204 Locust St., 457-1195) and are available on 2-hour reserve in McHenry Library.

- Randy Albelda, Nancy Folbre & the Center for Popular Economics, The War on the Poor: A Defense Manual.

- Ann Moody, Coming of Age in Mississippi.

- Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg, Negotiating Difference: Cultural Case Studies for Composition.

- Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street.

- Juliet Schor, A Sustainable Economy for the 21st Century.

Also required is a course reader; this is available at the UCSC Copy Center. No copies of the reader are available at McHenry.

Requirements:

Your narrative evaluation will directly reflect both the quality and quantity of assignments completed.

1. Attendance at every class, including sections, lectures, and films. Active participation in class discussions. Completion of mini-assignments in discussion sections.

2. Weekly response papers on starred (*) course readings; these are due AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS. These response papers should be 1-2 pages and typed. The purpose of these weekly response papers is to encourage active reading; it is a place for your to explore your thoughts to the readings, to note important themes, to informally examine issues in the readings which interest you. These need not be formal papers or summaries of the readings, but rather thoughtful explorations of some idea or issue in the readings. I want to see you thinking. This assignment also is intended to encourage more active and thoughtful participation in class discussions. Eight weekly response papers are assigned in the quarter. You must successfully complete at least 5 of them in order to pass this class. EVERYONE MUST COMPLETE THE FIRST RESPONSE PAPER ON FRANKENBURG.

3. In addition to the particular subject matter, this course emphasizes effective writing skills. In order to convey your ideas to someone else, you must write clearly and in a manner which another intelligent person can understand. Through the paper assignments you will have the opportunity to practice and improve your writing. You will write 2 papers:

a) A short paper, topic to be assigned, based on primary documents used in course.

b) A second paper based on group presentation in your discussion section.

You must successfully complete this assignment in order to pass this class.

4. Mini Assignments: During the course, you will be asked to complete small mini-assignments based on readings, lectures, or section discussions. These are intended to facilitate your learning.

FIRST MINI ASSIGNMENT

In 2-3 typewritten pages, compose your own primary document. You can answer the question: "What have been the most significant events in U.S. society during the past five years? and why? Or you can take one of the themes of the course and discuss what you remember from your high school years: labor and class relations; women and men's roles and experiences; race and ethnic relations; sexuality. Please note: there are no right and wrong answers, and this assignment is not graded. This is an opportunity for you, as a citizen in the late-twentieth century, to put down your thoughts, observations and beliefs. PLEASE SUBMIT TWO COPIES AND RETAIN A THIRD FOR YOURSELF.

5. A comprehensive final examination.

You must successfully complete all assignments in order to pass this class

From the 1840s to the 1940s, a million people from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and India emigrated to the United States and Hawaii. Why did they come? How were they regarded and treated? What contributions did they make to America? How successful was each group in adapting to life in America, in becoming Americans? These are some of the questions that will be addressed in this course on the history of Asian America from the Gold Rush through World War II. Themes such as immigration, labor, family life, community formation, and identity politics will be explored within the broad social, economic, and political contexts of American history. Special attention will be given to the effects of shifting race/ethnic, gender, and class ideologies and the multiple intersections of these ideologies on the formation and transformation of Asian American identities and experiences. Students will come away from this course with a better understanding of our collective identity and shared past as Asian/Americans.

Students will be expected to attend lectures and participate in discussion sections; complete short response papers to course readings and films, and do well in the take-home midterm essay and comprehensive final exam of identification and essay questions.

1. Ronald Takaki, Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans
2. Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Wooden Fish Songs
3. Mary Paik Lee, A Quiet Odyssey: A Pioneer Korean Woman in America
4. Carlos Bulosan, America is in the Heart
5. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Farewell to Manzanar

1.  
2. Carved in Silence
3. Act of War
4. Dollar a Day, Ten Cents a Dance
5. New Puritans
6. History and Memory

Prof. Judy Yung is a second-generation Chinese American born and raised in San Francisco. She is a baby boomer and attended SF State and UC Berkeley in the 1960s. She has worked as a librarian, journalist, and director of two Asian American women book projects. Prof. Yung graduated with a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley in 1990 and has been teaching Asian American Studies at UC Santa Cruz since. She is the author of (1) Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants at Angel Island; (2) Chinese Women of America: A Pictorial Histor; and (3) Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco.

The construction of social reality from various points of view within the sexual minority. Course explores major modern ideas about the relation of gay, lesbian, and bisexual citizens to the dominant society (in the West) and the formation of alternative cultural institutions and communities.

Prerequisites: none

General Education requirements met: (under consideration--"T" requirement?)

This upper-division course will proceed through lectures and lecture-discussions. A good deal of serious--and sometimes difficult--reading is required, together with a considerable amount of writing.

The principal theme of the course is the construction of social reality as perceived by people whose sexual desires and/or identities have until quite recently been labeled "deviant." Examples of individual adaptation and resistance to the dominant modes are taken as being serious and programmatic. Specific instances in the growth of gay, lesbian and bisexual subcultural institutions are viewed in relation to historical realities and to individual/collective strategies for the formation of a more adequate ("accepting?" "just?" "reasonable"?) social life.

The reading for the course comes from several disciplines: psychoanalysis; cultural and feminist studies; literature; film; religious studies; and, social anthropology. It is desirable for students to have some background in feminist and gender studies, especially since the reading for this class makes no attempt to provide an internal "balance" of focus on lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. A main pedagogical goal of the course is to learn to read with ease across different sorts of texts and forms of intellectual/creative presentation.

Students will be evaluated on participation in class and in sections, and on three middle-sized essays (6-8 pages each) over the course of the quarter.


TOPICS AND READING BY WEEK

Week 1 Introduction. The pros and cons of the course. What is a "social visionary?" The queer politics of Walt Whitman: "To thee, old cause." Reading:

• Walt Whitman, poems from "Song of Myself"
• Norman O. Brown, "Liberty" (LOVE'S BODY, Chapter 3)

Week 2 The problems raised by living homosexual in a straight world. Reading:

• Lillian Hellman, "The Children's Hour,"
• Tennessee Williams, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

Week 3 The development of personality and character under "straight" conditions. Psychoanalytic points of view. Reading:

• Richard Isay, BECOMING HOMOSEXUAL, GAY MEN AND THEIR DEVELOPMENT
• Recommended: Gilbert Herdt, Introduction to GAY YOUTH (Library Reserve)

Week 4 The pressure to conform. Theories of the right of freedom of association applied to sexuality. "Compulsory heterosexuality." Reading:

• Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality" (Reader)

Week 5 A social movement based on sexual experimentation? on separation of the sexes? The question of the "double stigmas," homosexuality and AIDS, or homosexuality and ethnicity. Reading:

• Leo Bersani, "Is the Rectum a Grave?" (Reader)

Week 6 "Homosexuality" as the constructed category for all forms of social and sexual "deviance." Reading:

• Guy Hocquenhem, HOMOSEXUAL DESIRE

Week 7 The individual defined as an outlaw by the state. Reading:

• John Rechy, THE SEXUAL OUTLAW

Weeks 8 and 9 The bisexual "ideal." Race, gender, and sexuality as COMPARABLE issues. Reading:

• James Baldwin, ANOTHER COUNTRY

Week 10 The queer dystopia. Back to "nature" and back to "to thee, old cause." Reading:

• William Burroughs, THE WILD BOYS

Revised 7/15/04.