Guidelines for final project

 Your final project is a literary analysis project worth 25% of your grade, broken down into:

• 5% for the plan/proposal (your 300-word handwritten rationale by April 24)

• 10% for the process (your May 13 draft with about two-thirds of the paper)

• 10% for the final result (the June 1 submission, up to 2000 words)

What You Have to Do

1. Choose a primary literary text from your syllabus — but not the one you used for your oral presentation.

2. Select a major critical or theoretical text that engages with that literary work and a theme or question that interests you in it (for example, an essay, critical theory, or scholarly article researched in google scholar).

3. Summarize the critical author’s argument (what they say about the text and how they interpret it).

4. Respond to that critical perspective — using your understanding of both the primary text and the critical framework — to develop your own short analysis or argument.

5. Keep everything within 2000 words maximum.

The Rationale (for April 24)

You’ll need to handwrite a 300-word justification explaining:

• Why you chose this particular text and critic.

• What angle or question you want to explore.

• How this project connects to your interests or course themes.

AI Use and Academic Integrity

AI tools are discouraged for environmental reasons but their use as an auxiliary is not forbidden.
You may use them if you cite the assistance properly using APA’s guideline for generative AI citations (e.g., Perplexity, powered by GPT-5, chat on plan proposal for final assignment, April 2026, https://www.perplexity.ai/search/25-5-plan-proposal-10-process-HiAddwVBQ8qTZeF1Au0MRA).
Also, your text should remain primarily your own: less than 35% AI-typical phrasing (which the teacher will verify with an IA-pattern recognition tool)

Native-Americans in the US: Key Dates leading to "Red Power" and "Native-American Renaissance"

1824 - Creation of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs)

1830 - Indian Removal Act

July 1845 - phrase "Manifest Destiny" is coined

1851 - Indian Appropriations Act (allocating funds to move to Western reservations)

1864 - Sandy Creek Massacre

1871 - rider to Indian Appropriations Act: no recognition of additional Native tribes or subsequent treaties

1876 - Battle of Little Big Horn

1890 - Sitting Bull is killed; Wounded Knee Massacre

1907 - Charles Curtis becomes the first Native American US Senator (will later become vice-President in 1929)

mid 20th century: federal policies aimed to dissolve tribal status and move Native people into cities, producing dislocation - indeed, these were so-called termination policies— but also intertribal urban networks; meanwhile the repressed anger of Native Americans found activist echoes in the Civil Rights and Black Power movement, fueling the emergence of a "Red Power Movement"

1961: American Indian Chicago Conference and Declaration of Indian Purpose

1968 - Indian Civil Rights Act by President Lindy Johnson, proposes that "termination" be replaced by "self-determination" but authorizes governmental agency over the jurisdiction of the tribes, in order to protect individual Indians from arbitrary and unjust actions of tribal governments." This creates resentment.

In 1968, also, the AIM (American Indian Movement) is founded. 

1969: Occupation of Alcatraz; Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn wins the Pulitzer Prize and great visibility is given to. Native-American Renaissance: read more about it here http://nativeamericanlit.com/

[see powerpoint on moodle for more details on the Red Power Movement and the Native-American Renaissance]

and finally, one  century's most well-known Native American writer (Sherman Alexie) — see what he has to say about his tradition:

HW for April 8: Leslie Marmon Silko, "Storyteller" (anthology, pp. 67-86)

 To situate "Storyteller" and the groundbreaking work of the same title that launched Leslie Marmon Silko as a major US writer, you might want to know a little about the emergent acknowledgment of native-American literature in the native-American Renaissance (a controversial though widespread term) here: https://nativeamericanlit.com/.

As you read "Storyteller", please take your time to comment on one or more of these topics:

- intertwined narratives
- Focalization
- Description of natural elements
- Dramatization of cultural mediation and conflict

HW for March 23 - Hai Dang Phan's poems (anthology, pp. 59-66)

 For next class, we will have a guest teacher, Maria Caroliina Vaz de Almeida, who has kindly prepared these questions for you:

1. In a 2021 article, Hai-Dang Phan mentions the centrality of An-My Lê’s photography to his poetry, remarking that it has allowed him to “reckon with my own thoughts and feelings toward war and conflict, dislocation and exile–and above all toward our shared experience of leaving Vietnam as refugees and growing up in the United States.” Succinctly, An My-Lê’s photography can be interpreted in light of thetransposition of time and space from the Vietnam War into the American landscape through the civil reenactments of the war. Either:

a) Select and comment on one of An-My Lê’s photographs from the collection Small Wars (1999-2002), which you can find here: Small Wars — An-My Lê.

b) Discuss Hai-Dang Phan’s poem “Small Wars” in comparison with An-My Lê’s photograph entitled Rescue (for example, the significance of usingdifferent artistic mediums, the continual process of reenactments, the use of rhetorical devices like Ekphrasis, or others).You can find Phan’s article here, if you would like to read it: Speak, Reenactment | Hai-Dang Phan.

2. Hai-Dang Phan’s work also engages with the turmoil of adopting and writing in the language rooted in the cause of the exodus, seeking to connect geographical dismembering with linguistic disruption. “My Father’s Norton Introduction to Literature, Third Edition (1981)” incorporates and quotes directly from multiple sources of the American and English literary tradition. Either:

a) Identify one of the poems, short stories, or plays referenced in the poem and discuss its significance within the context of Phan’s poem.

b) Comment on the poem’s dialogue with the American and English literary tradition, namely, how the linguistic and literary hybridization further challenges the boundaries of national literature.

phtos by An-My Lê

HW for March 18: poem "Some Day I'll Love Ocean Wong"

 1. Read about Wong's life story here https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/03/ocean-vuong-forward-prize-vietnam-war-saigon-night-sky-with-exit-wounds and relate it to elements in the poem.

2. Do a close-reading analysis of the poem, with special focus on dectics, verb forms, and apostrophe.

                                         (photo by Ocean Vuong from the exhibit depicted here https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/16914/ocean-vuong-photography-show-interview-grief-song-cpw-kingston)

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)