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"Brush Up on Your Sui Sin Far"
Recommended Reading from Prof. Amy Ling’s Asian American Women
Writers Course
By Amy Ling, PhD, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Looking for some good reading? Here’s the syllabus for Asian
American Women Writers, a popular course offered by Univ. of Wisconsin Asian
American Studies Director and English professor Amy Ling. When possible, titles
are linked to Amazon.com for full publication info and online purchase (usually
in paperback), and they make fine reads for Women’s History Month or any
time—and you don’t even have to take the exams!
Asian American Studies 595:
Asian American Women Writers
English/Women’s Studies/AAS
Spring Semester 1997
MWF 8:50- 9:40am
Professor Amy Ling
Description of the Course
We shall read selected novels, memoirs, and plays written in the last century by
American women writers of various Asian backgrounds—Eurasian, Chinese, Japanese,
Korean, Hmong, Indian, Filipino, and Pakistani—in the light of their cultural
and historical contexts as well as their aesthetic, textual, and structural
qualities. Said’s theory of "orientalism" and other critical theories of race,
gender and literary production will provide backgrounds for discussion, but the
emphasis will be on the primary text. We shall explore such general topics as
universality versus cultural specificity, community versus individuality, and
the ways that race, gender, and class shape identity.
Required Texts
Sui Sin Far.
Mrs. Spring Fragrance and Other Writings (Asian American Experience)
M. Evelina Galang.
Her Wild American Self: Stories.
Maxine Hong Kingston.
The Woman Warrior : Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts
Joy Kogawa.
Obasan.
Houa Vue Moua and Barbara J. Rolland. Trail Through the Mists
Bharati Mukherjee.
Jasmine.
Gish Jen.
Mona in the Promised Land.
Sara Suleri.
Meatless Days.
Roberta Uno, ed.
The Unbroken Thread : An Anthology of Plays by Asian American Women.
Recommended Historical and Critical Texts
M.M. Bakhtin.
The Dialogic Imagination.
Sucheng Chan.
Asian Americans: An Interpretive History.
King-Kok Cheung.
Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Joy Kogawa, Maxine Hong Kingston.
Amy Ling.
Between Worlds: Women Writers of Chinese Ancestry.
Lim and Ling, eds.
Reading the Literatures of Asian America.
Edward Said.
Orientalism.
Sau-ling Wong.
Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance.
Calendar Semester II, 1996-1997
Jan 20 M Martin Luther King Day
Jan 21 T Instruction Begins
Jan 22 W Introduction: Asian American Literature: Emerging Canons
Jan 23 R
Jan 24 F Du Bois, Excerpt from
Souls of Black Folk, Anzaldua, excerpt from
Borderlands, pp. 2-3, 54-5, 62-3, 78-9, 82-3, 86-7.
Jan 27 M Said, Orientalism, Introduction
and Chapter 1.
Jan 28 T IN SEARCH OF A USABLE PAST
Jan 29 W Sui Sin Far, "Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian" p.
218-230; "Mrs. Spring Fragrance, "The Inferior Woman," "The Wisdom of the New."
Jan 30 R
Jan 31 F Sui Sin Far, "The Story of One White Woman Who Married A Chinese," "Her
Chinese Husband," "In the Land of the Free."
Feb 3 M M Sui Sin Far, "the Chinese Lily," "The
Smuggling of Tie Co," "Lin Jon," "the Heart’s Desire."
Feb 4 T
Feb 5 W Genny Lim, "Paper Angels" in Unbroken Thread
Feb 6 R
Feb 7 F Kogawa, Obasan
Feb 10 M Kogawa, Obasan
Feb 11 T
Feb 12 W Kogawa, Obasan
Feb 13 R
Feb 14 F Kogawa, Obasan
Feb 17 M Kogawa, Obasan, FIRST PAPER DUE
Feb 18 T
Feb 19 W Velina Hasu Houston, "Tea" in Unbroken Thread
Feb 20 R FINDING VOICE
Feb 21 F Film: "Talking Story"
Feb 24 M Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman
Warrior
Feb 25 T
Feb 26 W Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
Feb 27 R
Feb 28 F Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior
March 3 M Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman
Warrior March 4 T
March 5 W MIDTERM Examination
March 6 R
March 7 F Sara Suleri, Meatless Days
March 10 M Sara Suleri, Meatless Days
March 11 T
March 12 W Sara Suleri, Meatless Days
March 13 R
March 14 F Sara Suleri, Meatless Days
March 17 M Sara Suleri, Meatless Days
March 18 T
March 19 W Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
March 20 R
March 21 F Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
March 22-31 M Spring Break
April 1 T
April 2 W Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine
April 3 R
April 4 F Bharati Mukherjee, Jasmine SECOND PAPER DUE
April 7 M M. Evelina Galang, Her Wild
American Self
April 8 T
April 9 W M. Evelina Galang, Her Wild American Self
April 10 R
April 11 F M. Evelina Galang, Her Wild
American Self
April 14 M Jeannie Barroga, "Walls" in Unbroken Thread
April 15 T
April 16 W Film: "Maya Lin: A Clear Strong Vision"
April 17 R
April 18 F Film: "Maya Lin: A Clear Strong Vision"
April 21 M Moua and Rolland, Trail Through
the Mists
April 22 T
April 23 W Moua and Rolland, Trail Through the Mists
April 24 R
April 25 F Class Canceled
April 28 M Moua and Rolland, Trail Through
the Mists
April 29 T
April 30 W Elizabeth Wong, "Letter to a Student Revolutionary" in Unbroken
Thread
May 1 R
May 2 F Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land
May 5 M Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land
May 6 T
May 7 W Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land
May 8 R
May 9 F Gish Jen, Mona in the Promised Land
May 11 Sun FINAL EXAM: Sunday, 2:45pm
Requirements
Undergraduates
Paper 1 (5-7 pages typed) and Midterm examination each 20%
Paper 2 (7-10 pages typed) and final examination each 25%
Attendance and Participation: 10%
Attendance and participation will be assessed by short, impromptu, in-class
written responses to the readings and discussions.
Graduate Students
One long paper (15-20 pages) due on April 28th. Additional classes for
small-group discussion of critical texts may be scheduled during the semester.
One text may be added.
Undergraduate students who prefer to write one
long paper may substitute this option for the two short papers. They may also
attend the extra classes, but will not be excused from the midterm or final
examinations.
Related Readings
Professor Amy Ling is author/editor of numerous books and anthologies in the
fields of English and Asian American literature, and the first Director of the
University of Wisconsin – Madison Asian American Studies Program.
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