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)

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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