READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2009

Please read Blu's Hanging by Lois-Ann Yamanaka.

Please also read "This Hawaii is Not for Tourists," by Jamie James. (Atlantic review/discussion of Yamanaka novel - simply click on link above.)

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Outside Literary Events for Which You Can Write 500-Word Reviews for Credit:

VLP Poetry Festival Reading with Carrie Helmberger and Jim Reese - Thursday, February 26, 12:00 Noon Farber Hall

VLP Poetry Festival Reading with Liz Kay and Craig Arnold - Thursday, February 26, 4:00 p.m., Farber Hall

VLP Poetry Festival Slam with Craig Arnold - Thursday, February 26, 7:00 p.m. Coffee Shop Gallery

English Department Colloquia Series, Featuring Native Americanist and Ph.D. Student Jason Murray - Thursday, February 26, 7:00 p.m. Farber Hall

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2008

For this week, please also read Junot Diaz's Drown.

Important! Blog posts will be due as per usual by midnight on Monday, February 23.

Important! Your first paper -- a 6-8 page personal essay on identity, is due in class in hard copy form on Tuesday, February 24, and should also be submitted to Turnitin.com before start of class on Tuesday, February 24. Guidelines for the assignment can be located in he blog/assignment posting directly below.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2009

Don't forget that your second round of blogging (on Baldwin, and/or Fanon, et al.) will be due by midnight on Monday, February 16.

We'll begin class on Tuesday by discussing Geeta Kothari's essay, "If You Are What You Eat . . . "

Please read James Baldwin's novel, Another Country.

Please also read the Introduction and Excerpt of Chapter 1 from Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks, linked here via Google Books.

Guidelines for 6-8 Page (1,500-2,000 Word) Identity Essay, Due February 24, 2009:

Using Kothari's essay on food as identity, and food as cultural literacy as a model/point of departure, please write a 6-8 page personal essay reflecting on your own identity/identities.

You are welcome to use food as the medium by which you think about and analyze/discuss your own sense of personal identity, but you are welcome to use other mediums to consider identity as well: religion, housing/place, apparel, you name it.

Remember that identity is not strictly limited to ethnicity, but can also be about class, orientation, ability, religion, education, vocation, place (urban vs. rural), etc.