HW for March 16 (and 18) - Talking with Ahmad Almallah and "Fuck you" poem

 1. Think of questions you would like to ask Ahmad Almallah (they can be questions about his situation as Palestinian-American, about the endurance of genocide, about his poetry, about being a poet...)

2. Create your own "fuck you" poem of 14 lines relating what you have learnt and read so far  to the contents of this class (if you prefer, you can put the poem in one of the characters' voice, e. g. "the son" in Symbols and signs). Some exampes of possible first lines

Fuck you to "welcome"  and to coming back

Fuck you Acme Beer. We will never reach the hill.

Fuck you golden door. My people came to sweep the floor.

Fuck you Riviera. Jesus this is Gaza.

Fuck you to the line break. We don't get breaks between classes

etc.

Facts about Palestinian-Americans

 Palestinian Americans are Americans with Palestinian ancestry, forming part of the broader Arab American community. 

 

• Early presence: Small numbers from “Greater Syria” (Ottoman-era Levant) immigrated to the U.S. in the late 19th/early 20th centuries; people later identified specifically as Palestinian as national identities crystallized. 

 

• Major migration waves: Larger inflows followed key upheavals in Palestine/Israel, especially mid‑20th century onward. There are around 160 000 Palestinians in the US (0,05% of the population), according to the 2023 American Community Survey

 

• The Nakba (1948): Arabic for “catastrophe”; refers to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during/around the 1948 war and the establishment of Israel, followed by the Arab-Israeli War. This event created a large refugee diaspora.

 

• Six-Day War / June War (1967): A June 1967 war in which Israel captured the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza, among other territories; it triggered another displacement wave often called the Naksa (“setback”), further expanding diaspora communities. References. Greater quantities than before fled to the US because of the1965 Immigration and Nationality Act.

 

• Community geography in the U.S.: Palestinian Americans are concentrated in certain metro areas (like the NYC/NJ area, Chicago region, parts of California, Florida, Michigan, and others), reflecting chain migration and family networks. 

 

• Religion and diversity: The community includes Muslims and Christians (and smaller numbers of others), and is internally diverse by region-of-origin, class, and migration story. 

 

• Civic and cultural life: Palestinian Americans have built institutions (community groups, cultural organizations, student associations, advocacy organizations) and are active in U.S. civic life. 

 

• Post–Oct 7, 2023 situation: On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian nationalist and Islamist movement Hamas orchestrated a terrorist attack upon Jewish festival-goers, killing 1200 people. Israel then launched a massive counter-offensive, which continues to this day (despite two "cease-fires) and has killed 75000 Palestinians to date - which has been recognized by many international committees has a genocide (incluidng the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry and Amnisty International). This intensified among Palestinian-Americans grief for family in Gaza/Palestine. They expanded political organizing and protest, but there is also heightened fear of harassment and social/professional repercussions.

Images from the work of comics journalism by Joe Sacco, Palestine (1993)

HW for March 13 - "Holy Land-Wasted" by Ahmad Almallah

 1. If you know the poem Waste Land by T. S. Eliot, comment on how Almallah's poem homages and repurposes it.

2. Write a close-reading of the last part (part 6 of the poem)

3. Discuss the poem in comparison with other texts read in class and taking into account Mary Louise Pratt's concept of "contact zones".

HW for March 9 - image analysis

  In this blog you will find an interesting, but not very technical, analysis of some pages of Citizen 13660:

http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/journal/2010/10/27/mine-okubo-citizen-13660/

Choose one of the instances and use your skills to improve on that analysis, considering the article on moodle about approaching compositional elements of images (read especially from p. 13 onwards), and the following sum-up:

1) Sensory elements: colour, lighting and texture; 

- shadows, heavy lines, points of light, fabrics and materials

- what emotions are conveyed

2) Structural elements: axes, perspective and depth; 

- horizontal axis - left (given) and right (new)

- vertical axis - up (ideal, spiritual) and down (real, sensual...)

- prominent and secondary elements - how parts contribute to the whole

- center and background

3) Dynamic elements: orientation of figure, gaze and point of tension; 

- figure looking of us (demanding) or away, offering her/himself to our gaze?

- features and postures of characters

4) Emerging elements: directionality and focal point. 

- what is the first thing we notice

- where is the eye drawn to and what directions does it folllow

You will find the analyzed instances of the link above in the following pages of Citizen 13660

p. 74 – toilent partitions

p. 82 – Acme beer

p. 162-163 – pregnant women

Palestinian-American Poet Ahmad Almallah will be visiting our class and elsewhere

 

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HW for March 4: How to Read a Text with Images

 Start by either:

a) relating the images in your book with this archive:

https://anchoreditions.com/blog/dorothea-lange-censored-photographs

or
b) commenting on how one of the images below might complement the text that follows them, or otherwise diverge from it.

"I am often asked why am I not bitter and could this happen again? I am a realist with a creative mind, interested in people, so my thoughts are constructive. I am not bitter. I hope that things can be learned from this tragic episode, for I believe it could happen again."
                                                        (Miné Okubo, 1983)

Asian Americans in the US

- Filippinos have been in the US since he 16th century (17 October 1587, to the coast of California as part of the Galleon Trade between the Spanish Easte Indies and the Spanish American Colonies; at the end of the 18th century there was a 'Manila' colony in New Orleans)

- 1790: Naturalization Act: only "free white persons" could be citizens.

- Chinese, Korean and Japanese Immigrants arrived to the Hawai in the 19th century

- Chinese immigrants, particularly impelled to leave because of the Opium Wars, arrived on the West Coast in the mid-19th century. Forming part of the California gold rush, these early Chinese immigrants participated intensively in the mining business and later in the construction of the transcontinental railroa (1862-1869)

- 1848: first North-American Chinatown in San Francisco.

- Although the absolute numbers of Asian immigrants were small compared to that of immigrants from other regions, much of it was concentrated in the West, and the increase of wealth among the Chinese community (while earning lower wages) caused some nativist sentiment known as the "yellow peril".

- Congress passed restrictive legislation prohibiting nearly all Chinese immigration in the 1880s

- 1898: Spanish-American War initiates the US Colonial History. With the Treaty of Paris the US gain control over Cuba and ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippine Islands (the latter will regain independence in 1946, after a transition period (Commonwealth) begun in 1935.

- 1917: Asiatic Barred Immigration Act

- After Japan attacked the U.S in 1941 and China formally become an American ally, some within the American media began to criticize the various discriminatory laws against the Chinese and Chinese-Americans. However, the prejudice towards Japanese grew, which didn't help against the yellow peril mania.

- Internment: During World War II, an estimated 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals or citizens residing in the United States were forcibly interned in ten different camps across the US, mostly in the west. The internments were based on the race or ancestry rather than activities of the interned.

1942-1944: Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mine Okubo and her brother were interned to Tanforan Assembly Center and then the Topaz War Relocation Center 

1957 - John Okada, No-no Boy

1961 - Beginning of the US involvement in the War in Vietnam (withdrawal in 1973)

1970s - Asian-American Literature as Category