• Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers, edited by Jeffery Chan, Frank Chin, Lawson Inada, Shawn Wong (University of Washington Press, 3rd Edition, 2019).  Please use this edition instead of older editions, which do not contain updated material.
• To Save and Destroy: Writing as the Other, by Viet Thanh Nguyen (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2023).  The essays are also available for free as YouTube lectures (there are six lectures as The Norton Lectures given by Viet Thanh Nguyen at Harvard University): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtxVM47qfVNAMrUnIPo5SjdWVPV0fIArh
• Orphan Bachelors: A Memoir, by Fae Myenne Ng (Grove Press, 2023)

Classroom Policies and Structure:

First, I have designed this class to ensure your success.  If you complete all individual and small group assignments, you will succeed.  See grading policy below.

Second, I have divided the class randomly into small discussion groups.  This serves several purposes: (1) if you miss a class, you can contact your group members for notes and (2) your group can develop their own strategy for completing group Canvas assignments.

Discussion Groups & Group Assignments:

There will be 20 small discussion groups (they will be listed in Canvas under People).  Please exchange contact information and get to know each other since you will be working together for the entire quarter, which will hopefully make our class a little more personal.

Essay Assignment:

If you opt for the W-course credit, there will be five essay topics in Canvas Assignments to choose from for your final essay.  Those topics should be available by the second week of the quarter.  You are required to write an short one paragraph abstract of your essay topic, a first draft and a final draft of your essay (5-7 double spaced pages or 1,750 to 2,450 words). 

Pick one of the essay topics below to write about if you're opting in for W-course credit.  See syllabus for essay requirements and guidelines.

1. Select three stories from the Aiiieeeee! anthology and identify the theme, image, or motif that drives each story's meaning and compare and contrast how each of the authors bring meaning to the reader's understanding of the story.  For example, you might choose three stories that have gender as the central issue or three stories where social class is the focus, or three stories where about personal or political power imbalances within a community or between an Asian community and the dominant culture/community.  Make sure you quote and analyze sections of the writings to illustrate how the authors' accomplish delivering their message.  

2. In Viet Thanh Nguyen's book, To Save and Destroy, he often writes about his family, particularly his parents and the differences in Viet's and his parents' relationship to America.  They've all come to America as immigrants.  Viet was a child and he comments on how different their experiences are.  Compare and contrast that process of becoming American and what that means to both Viet and his parents.  In your discussion, define the difference in meaning of what it means in America to be a "refugee" and what it means to be an "immigrant."

3. In Viet Thanh Nguyen's book, he writes about the factors that influenced his identity as an Vietnamese American and/or Asian American from both the personal and political, citing everything from his college years at Berkeley to watching movies about Vietnam to his early years as a writer.  In Fae Myenne Ng's memoir, Orphan Bachelors, she also writes about the factors that influenced her identity growing up in San Francisco's Chinatown.  Write your own personal essay about the factors that make up your identity, using Viet's essays and Ng's memoir as a guide and/or inspiration.

4.  What is linguistic hegemony? Based on your definition, select examples from Viet Thanh Nguyen's To Save and Destroy that critiques and intervenes in U.S. linguistic hegemony. How does it go about generating that critique—in other words, what are some creative and political strategies that the writings employ to deliver that message?  In your response, be sure to clearly state the examples from the essays you’re working with, and to incorporate direct excerpts from the writings to analyze in support of your interpretation.

Grading Policy:

Grading policy in this class is simple.  All assignments are either marked "complete" or "incomplete" with no overall points or scores or other grades. 

For students taking the W-course option, the grade breakdown is as follows:

• Final essay is worth 30% 
• First draft of your final essay is worth 15% 
• Abstract of your chosen essay topic is worth 5%
• Mandatory peer reviews is worth 10%
• Discussion notes taken by your group and participation in group discussion of all the readings is worth 10%
• Exams or other in class work are worth 30%

For students not taking the W-course option, the grade breakdown is as follows:

• Mandatory peer reviews is worth 20%
• Group discussion questions of the reading (6 discussion questions) is worth 20%
• Discussion notes taken by your group and participation in group discussion of all the readings is worth 20%
• Exams or other in class work are worth 40% 

Discussion notes should be emailed to the instructor at homebase@uw.edu and the document should be labeled with the date and group name.

There is no make up opportunity for a missed assignment.  

Also, please remember this is an English class, so spelling, punctuation, and grammar counts.  For example, Asian requires an uppercase A and Asian American should not be hyphenated (more about that in class).  A good source for usage and grammar is the Purdue Owl website (https://owl.purdue.edu/Links to an external site.).  If there are too many typos or other grammatical errors, your assignment will be marked "incomplete."

For the first draft and final draft of your essay, you must use MLA style when submitting your essay.  Do not use quotes from any source other than our assigned reading.

You are allowed to rewrite any "incomplete" assignment for a "complete" grade provided you turned in the original version of the assignment on or before the due date.

Do not plagiarize your essay or use AI generated essays.  If you do, you will receive a zero for the assignment or, in other words, loss of a major portion of your final grade and no opportunity to make up an incomplete grade.  If you use an AI generated first draft, you will not be allowed to write a final version of the essay, which would mean you will receive a zero for 45% of your grade.

In the past I have plugged in assigned essay topics into Chat GPT and here's what I found out:  (1) it can't distinguish between the anthology we're using and other Asian American literature anthologies so it sometimes quotes from other books randomly, (2) it assigns the wrong author to a story (for example, it credited me with something that writer Chang-Rae Lee wrote--you would not know that if you were not familiar with the writing of both authors), and (3) it generally writes at the high school level, using common linguistic patterns typical of the kind of essays you would find in the essay portion of the SAT exam.

 Exam Structure: 

There will be five exams across the quarter. Two will be group exams on canvas, three will be individual exams on paper. Group exams are open book / open note, individual exams will be open book. 

If you are sick or otherwise unable to attend our group exam,  you are responsible for coordinating with your group members to attend the exam virtually (phone in, zoom, etc). 

Exam Grading Policy: 

Exams will be graded on a complete / incomplete basis. There will be five exams (2 group, 3 individual). To earn credit for the exam, you need to provide complete answers for at least 3 of 5 questions (or 2 of 3, depending on the exam length).

Complete answers will:

• Respond directly to the question being asked.
• Refer to specific details, examples, or concepts from the text(s) and discussion(s).
• Show that you have done the reading (even if your interpretation is brief).
• Be written clearly enough for your ideas to be understood.

Incomplete answers will:

• Leave the question unanswered or only partially addressed.
• Rely on vague generalizations without reference to the reading.
• Contain major inaccuracies that suggest the text was not read.
• Be so unclear or minimal that the main idea is hard to follow.

Missed Exams: If you miss an exam due to illness or another valid reason, you have one week to make it up. 

Incomplete Exams: You may retake one exam if you receive an “Incomplete.” Retakes must be completed within one week of receiving your grade.

Makeup Location/Time: All makeups and retakes will take place during Kathleen’s office hours (Monday/Wednesday, 2–3 pm in PDL B5-D). Students are responsible for reaching out to me to schedule their makeup or retake.

Statement on Non-verbalization of Racist Slurs in the Classroom

This course is committed to establishing and providing a safe classroom environment for all students.  To that end, we acknowledge that there are complex pedagogical challenges in presenting course materials that may contain racial slurs in texts and/or in various forms of media that may offend students, particularly BIPOC students.  Our course affirms a policy of the non-verbalization of racial slurs by faculty and students, recognizing that the verbalization of racial slurs may have a triggering effect on students when not heard in their own voice or read silently to themselves from their course materials. 

With respect to reading material and other media presented in class, the instructors will review and consider screening content with racial slurs based on four requirements:  (1) articulating the specific relevance to the course topic/module, (2) providing a warning about content, (3) stating that students may opt out of being physically in attendance if course content might cause pain, harm, or alienation, and (4) including a broad warning in the syllabus about course content and materials. 

University-Wide Policies

• Religious Accommodations: for the University of Washington’s policies on appropriate religious accommodation, please see: https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/ (Links to an external site.)
• For Disability Resources for Students (DRS; if you believe you may need academic accommodations), please see: https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct/
• For UW Standards of Student Conduct, please see: https://www.washington.edu/studentconduct/ (Links to an external site.)
• For the UW’s policy on Academic Misconduct, please see: https://www.washington.edu/cssc/facultystaff/academic-misconduct/ (Links to an external site.)
• For the UW's policy on Preferred Pronouns, please see: https://registrar.washington.edu/students/pronouns/ (Links to an external site.)

ENGL 257 Code of Conduct and Mutual Respect

This course aims to create an ethical, caring, reciprocal environment for safe learning about our roles as writers and students who record and observe the world at large.

To that end: recognizing and valuing diversity is essential to the learning goals of this course and the critical thinking endeavor at the heart of university education.

Respect for difference includes and is not limited to age, cultural background, ability, ethnicity, family status, gender presentation, immigration status, national origin, race, religion, political belief, sex, sexual orientation, preferred names and pronouns, socioeconomic status, and veteran status.

Your participation will require careful and ethical engagement with people and ideas reflective of diversity, including those not in alignment with your personal beliefs and values.  

To that end, you are asked to be mindful and respectful to others (and yourself) in all course interactions.   Act with best attentions, assume best intentions from your colleagues, and give each other the benefit of the doubt.  

Failure to comply with the code of conduct will result in meetings to further discuss pronoun use, respecting diversity, and other learning opportunities.  We all make mistakes, and it is from these that we often learn the most.  

Further Resources

• Husky Coronavirus Testing: https://www.washington.edu/coronavirus/testing/ (Links to an external site.)
• The UW Humanities Librarian: https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/burnsLinks to an external site.
• Odegaard Writing and Research Center: https://www.lib.washington.edu/ougl/owrc (Links to an external site.)
• Safe Campus: https://www.washington.edu/safecampus/ (Links to an external site.)
• Night Ride and Night Walk: https://www.washington.edu/ima/uw-recreation/safety/ (Links to an external site.)
• UW Police: http://police.uw.eduLinks to an external site.
• Hall Health Center, General: https://wellbeing.uw.edu/unit/hall-health/Links to an external site.
• Hall Health Center, Mental Health: https://wellbeing.uw.edu/topic/mental-health/Links to an external site.
• Resources for food and emergency aid: https://www.washington.edu/anyhungryhusky/get-food/(Links to an external site.)
  

Reading Schedule:

The readings listed below indicate the dates that we will be discussing the reading material in class, therefore you should have read the material by the date listed.

9/24:  Introductions, syllabus review, & discussion of reading material, formation of small discussion groups, definition of terms,

Part 1: Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers

9/29:   Overview of Asian American literature & history of the publication of Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers

Read:

Foreward by Tara Fickle

Preface to the First Edition

Aiiieeeee! Revisited: Preface to the 1991 Edition

Notetaker: Group 1-H Mart Group

10/1: 

Read: 

An Introduction of Chinese and Japanese American Literature

10/3: Group Exam

Notetaker: Group 20-Kimchee Group

10/6:

Diana Chang, The Frontiers of Love

Wallace Lin, Rough Notes for Mantos

Notetaker: Group 2-Pho Group

10/8: Introduction to Japanese America

Notetaker: Group 10-Bok Choy Group

Read: 

John Okada, No-No Boy

Notetaker: Group 19-Bibimbop Group

10/13:

Toshio Mori, The Woman Who Makes Swell Doughnuts

Momoko Iko, The Gold Watch

Notetaker: Group 3-Gyoza Group

10/15:

Hisaye Yamamoto, Yoneko's Earthquake

Wakako Yamauchi, And the Soul Shall Dance

10/17: Exam

Notetaker: Group 18-Spam Musubi Group

10/20: Introduction to Chinese America

Notetaker: Group 11-Fugu Group

Louis Chu, Eat a Bowl of Tea

Frank Chin, Act 1 of The Chickencoop Chinaman

Notetaker: Group 4-Eggroll Group

10/22:

An Introduction to Filipino American Literature

Carlos Bulosan, From America is in the Heart

Oscar Penaranda, Dark Fiesta

Sam Tagatac, The New Anak

Notetaker: Group 17: Teriyaki Group

Part 2: To Save and Destory: Writing as the Other by Viet Thanh Nguyen

10/27:

Prologue

On the Double, or Inauthenticity

On Speaking for the Other

Notetaker: Group 5-Tai Tung Restaurant Group

10/29:

Jeffery Chan, "The Chinese in Haifa," from Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian American Writers

On Palestine and Asia

On Crossing Borders

10/31: Exam

Notetaker: Group 16-Hot and Sour Soup Group

11/3: Lecture by Kathleen Escarcha

On Being Minor

On the Joy of Otherness

Notetaker: Group 6-Ranch 99 Market Group

Part 3: Orphan Bachelors: A Memoir by Fae Myenne Ng

11/5:

Prologue

Chapters 1-4

Notetaker: Group 15-Loco Moco Group

11/10:

Chapters 5-8

Notetaker: Group 7-The Wonton Group

11/12:

Chapters 9-12

11/14: Group Exam

Notetaker: Group 14-Poke Group

11/17: Class lecture by Kathleen Escarcha

Chapters 13-17

Notetaker: Group 8-Pad Thai Group

11/19:

Chapters 18-21

Notetaker: Group 13-Panda Express Group

11/24:

Chapters 21-Epilogue

Notetaker: Group 9-Naan Group

11/26: No class

12/1: Review or make up date

12/3: TBA

12/5: Exam