Author: Joe Harris

I'm a writer and teacher of writing. I also like dogs, movies, chess, music, gardening, and minor league baseball.

Class, Mon, 10/07

Defining a Project

An Example: Fat Shaming

You could read or watch any combination of:

  • Roxane Gay, Hunger
  • Kiese Laymon, Heavy
  • Lindy West, Shrill
  • The Hulu series, Shrill, with Aidy Bryant
  • Other writers and artists who discuss body size
  • Reviews of any of these texts
  • Interviews with any of the writers/artists

And you could also observe/listen to people talking about body size while at school, home, work, shopping, etc.

Crowdsourcing

What issues are you thinking of exploring? What texts will you look at?

Jamaica Kincaid, Natives and Tourists

The thing you have always suspected about yourself the minute you become a tourist is true: A tourist is an ugly human being.

Kincaid, p. 14
Fastwrite

In responding to Rebecca Solnit we talked a good bit about tone, about the worries that many of us had that her criticisms were too sweeping and severe. So what do you make of Jamaica Kinkaid’s angry tone here, of her willingness to accuse you, her reader, at least in those moments when you are a tourist, of being willing to turn the “banality and boredom” of others “into a source of pleasure for yourself” (19).

Of Interest

Some Thoughts From Jamaica Kincaid Collected on Lithub 2017)

To Do

  1. Tues, 10/08, 11:00 am: Group C posts responses to Roxane Gay. The rest of us read and respond to them by 11:00 pm.
  2. Wed, 10/09, class: Discuss Gay. Questions about project proposals.
  3. Thurs, 10/10, 11:00 pm: Email me your project proposal as a Word document. Title your document “First Name Last Initial Proposal”.
  4. Fri, 10/11: No Class. Fall Break.
  5. Mon, 10/14, and Wed, 10/16: No Class. Conferences with Joe about proposals.
  6. Thurs, 10/17, 4:00 pm: Post Project Reading to this site. We will discuss them the following week.

Class, Fri, 10/04

Explaining Rebecca Solnit

Fastwrite

Please locate a passage in “Men Explain Things to Me” that you either especially admire or find especially provoking. Write a few sentences explaining why.

Proposals

Of Interest

To Do

  1. Mon, 10/07, class: Read the first section (pp. 1–19) of Jamaica Kinkaid’s A Small Place. I will lead our discussion. I am especially interested in the distinction she makes between tourist and native.
  2. Mon, 10/07, class: Come to class with two possible ideas for a project you might propose on Thursday. Be able to connect the project you are proposing to at least one of the readings we’ve discussed so far.
  3. Tues, 10/08, 11:00 am: Group C posts responses to Roxane Gay. Everyone else reads them and posts comments on at least two by 11:00 pm.
  4. Wed, 10/09, class: Discuss “Fullness” and Trevor Noah Interview”.
  5. Thurs, 10/10, 4:00 pm: Email me your proposal for your long project.
  6. Fri, 10/11: No class, fall break.
  7. Mon, 10/14, and Wed, 10/16: No class, individual conferences instead.

Class, Wed, 10/02

UD as “Literacy Sponsor”

[The President’s] priorities include: enhancing students’ success, investing in intellectual and physical capital, fostering a spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, building an environment of inclusive excellence and strengthening interdisciplinary and global programs.

“President Assanis Reviews Top Five Priorities with Faculty and Staff“, UDaily, 2/17/2017.

Nathan Heller, “The Big Uneasy”

How do the politics of inclusion play out “on the ground” of a US college campus?

Fastwrite

Go to a point in Heller’s piece where he quotes a particular individual who is speaking in a way that you either admire or find troubling. Be ready to tell us why.

Safety and Engaging with Difference (John and Jennifer)

Of Interest

EJ Dickerson, “How a Small-Town Bakery in Ohio Became a Lightning Rod in the Culture Wars“, Rolling Stone, 7/18/2019

To Do

  1. Wed, 10/02/4:00 pm: Group B responses to Solnit.
  2. Thurs, 10/03, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and comments on at least two.
  3. Fri, 10/04, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our discussion of Solnit.
  4. Mon, 10/07, class: Read Jamaica Kinkaid’s “A Small Place”. I will lead our discussion.
  5. Mon, 10/07, 4:00 pm: Group C responds to Roxane Gay.
  6. Tues, 10/08, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and comments on at least two.
  7. Wed, 10/09, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our discussion of Gay.
  8. Thurs, 10/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone emails me a one-page proposal for their final project.
  9. Fri, 10/11: Fall “Break”.
  10. Mon, 10/14, and Wed, 10/16: No class meeting. Individual conferences with me.

Class, Mon, 9/30

Baldwin and Obama

In what ways does Obama build on, revise, or disagree with Baldwin?

Deborah Brandt, Sponsors of Literacy

Sponsors, as I have come to think of them, are any agents, local or distant, concrete or abstract, enable, support, teach, model, as well as recruit, regulate, suppress or withhold literacy—and gain advantage by it in some way. Just as the ages of radio and television accustom us to having programs brought to us by various commercial sponsors, it is useful to think about who or what underwrites occasions of literacy learning and use.

Brandt (166)
Fastwrite

Let’s try to build on Brandt’s thinking. The University of Delaware is sponsoring your literacy. It is—in some way and to some degree—marketing you, as a (soon-to-be-credentialed) graduate, to prospective employers, as well as to the State that it serves as a flagship university. So if you—again, in some way and to some degree—are the “product”, what is it, exactly, that the University is selling? What kind of literacy is it sponsoring?

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/30, 4:00 pm: Group A responds to Heller.
  2. Tues, 10/01, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses and comments on at least two.
  3. Wed, 10/02, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our discussion of Heller.
  4. Wed, 10/02/4:00 pm: Group B responses to Solnit.
  5. Thurs, 10/03, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and comments on at least two.
  6. Fri, 10/04, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our discussion of Solnit.
  7. Mon, 10/07, class: Read Jamaica Kinkaid’s “A Small Place”. I will lead our discussion.
  8. Mon, 10/07, 4:00 pm: Group C responds to Roxane Gay.
  9. Tues, 10/08, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and comments on at least two.
  10. Wed, 10/09, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our discussion of Gay.
  11. Thurs, 10/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone emails me a one-page proposal for their final project.
  12. Fri, 10/11: Fall “Break”.
  13. Mon, 10/14, and Wed, 10/16: No class meeting. Individual conferences with me.

Class, Wed, 9/25

James Baldwin, Cambridge Union, 1965

Fastwrite

Does Baldwin actually manage to speak across the color line? What do you think? To what degree does he seemed trapped in the American dichotomy of black vs. white? To what degree (and where, and when? ) is he able to escape or transcend that binary?

James Balswin, Cambridge Union, UK, 1985
The Opening: One and I and You
Minutes 14:00–22:00
  • Amanda and Sarah (15:30)
  • Michael (15:30): Contrast with Anzaldua
  • Kate (18:00)
The Conclusion: The West (We?)

To Do

  1. Wed, 9/25, 4:00 pm: Group C posts responses to Barack Obama’s ” A More Perfect Union”. I’d like to ask the same question of President Obama as of James Baldwin: Does he (and, if so, how) cross the lines of division that mark our society? Does he articulate a view of a “union”, or simply of a faction in that union?
  2. Thurs, 9/26, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
  3. Fri, 9/27, NO CLASS, but . . . during class time (approx.), please post at least one “response to a response”. That is, if you are a member of Group C, respond to the comments on your post. If you are a member of Group A or B, respond to one of the other comments on a post you responded to.
  4. Mon. 9/30, class: Read Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy”. I’ll lead our discussion (or try to). I’m interested in thinking about how the various “sponsors” of literacy may hinder as well as help our attempts to talk across groups.

Class, Mon, 9/23

From Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen (1988). Oliver Reed is Vulcan; Uma Thurman is Venus.

Dolmage, Metis, Cunning

Does the fact that Hephaestus is very capable, very much able, very creative, allow people to overlook or ignore his disability? Does a valorization of his metis negate his disability, or does it require it? Might this allow for an identity for the disabled that incorporates a variety of different roles? Is Hephaestus’s presence in myth more about his ability than his disability? Is his cunning, not always used in service of “good,” a form of trickery or a kind of crafty pragmatism? What of the tension between his role as a kind of “exceptional cripple” and his labor and sweat, which seem to be a symbol of the God’s humanity? Is he a symbol of the weakness of gods or of their “normalcy”? Is he a symbol of godliness in the “normal”?

Jay Dolmage (132)
Fastwrite

Jay Dolmage defines metis as an embodied intelligence, cunning, a way of turning a seeming liability into an asset. His examples refer to tales of the Greek god Hephaestus. See if you can come up with an example of metis from another sphere. Perhaps from one of the texts we’ve read together? Or from something else you’ve read (or seen, or listened to)? Or from your own experience?

Of Interest

  • Jay Dolmage, “Metis, Metis, Mestizo, Medusa: Rhetorical Bodies across Rhetorical Traditions” (2009)
dolmage-2009-metisDownload

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/23, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to James Baldwin’s debate with William F. Buckley, Jr.
  2. Tues, 9/24, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and posts comments on at least two. We will use these responses and comments to structure our class discussion on Wednesday.
  3. Wed, 9/25, 4:00 pm: Group C posts responses to Barack Obama’s ” A More Perfect Union”.
  4. Thurs, 9/19, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and posts comments on at least two. We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion on Friday.

Class, Fri, 9/20

Richard Rodriguez

What are the losses as well as the ends of education? Can you lose or change a home (primary) discourse?

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/23, class: Read Jay Dolmage’s “Breathe Upon Us”. I will lead our discussion. I am particularly in thinking about metis as a way fo describing how less powerful people can speak back to more powerful ones.
  2. Mon, 9/23, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to James Baldwin’s debate with William F. Buckley, Jr.
  3. Tues, 9/24, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’s responses and posts comments on at least two. We will use these responses and comments to structure our class discussion on Wednesday.
  4. Wed, 9/25, 4:00 pm: Group C posts responses to Barack Obama’s ” A More Perfect Union”.
  5. Thurs, 9/19, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and posts comments on at least two. We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion on Friday.

Class, Wed, 9/18

Gloria Anzaldúa, How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Different Kinds of Difference

Gloria Anzaldúa joins Barbara Mellix and Min-Zhan Lu in a growing list of writers who describe having to shift and adjust the ways they speak and write to meet the needs of the different situations they find themselves in. (Richard Rodriguez will continue this theme.) In some ways, you can hardly imagine a more banal insight—since we all routinely change how we talk depending on who we’re speaking to and why. So I’d like to press the question I raised in class on Monday a little more strenuously now: What do these writers add to that familiar observation? How is their version of difference different? And, most important, how do they differ from one another? What does Anzaldúa say that distinguishes her from Lu and from Mellix? How might the terms and ideas raised by Pratt, Hochschild, and Gee help us notice and understand those differences? Please locate a passage in “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” that you feel will help us talk about these issues.

Donald Trump in New Mexico, Mon, 9/16
The Problem of We and Us (with thanks to Amanda G and Kyle)

To Do

Begin to think seriously about possibilities for your final project. In particular, think about the materials you might want to analyze: The books, articles, videos or music you’d like to analyze; the situations or experiences you’d like to describe. You will have a proposal due in three weeks (10/10), and will be asked to submit a text for the rest of us to read and consider in four weeks (10/17).

  1. Wed, 9/18, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire”.
  2. Thurs, 9/19, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
  3. Fri, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Rodriguez.
  4. Mon, 9/23, class: Read Jay Dolmage’s “Breathe Upon Us”. I will lead our discussion.

Class, Mon, 9/16

Gee, Discourse

James Paul Gee argues for the usefulness of thinking in terms of discourses rather than languages or codes or literacies. I’d like us to spend our time today thinking about what doing this might mean. Let’s start by trying to figure out exactly what Gee means by discourse—and what the differences between a primary and secondary discourse are. Here are some terms I highlighted in my rereading of the first half (pp. 5–9) of his essay:

social practice, saying (writing)-doing-being-valuing-believing combinations, ways of being, identity kit, second language, enculturation, apprenticeship, conflict and tension, primary or home discourse, family, clan, peer group, non-home-based institutions, secondary discourse, dominant and nondominant, interfere and transfer, literacy as mastery of a secondary discourse

Groups

With a partner (or two): See if you can use these terms to define what you think Gee might mean by discourse, primary discourse, and secondary discourse. Pay particular attention to terms that you find hard to integrate into your definitions. Why do these terms pose problems for you?

Fastwrite

Think back to your reading of Lu, Mellix, Pratt, and/or Lambeth. Are there any ways in which Gee’s idea of discourse helps you see their work in new ways? Are there any ways in which their stories and ideas pose problems for Gee?

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/16, 4:00 pm: Group C posts responses to Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”.
  2. Tues, 9/17, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
  3. Wed, 9/18, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Anzaldúa.
  4. Wed, 9/18, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire”.
  5. Thurs, 9/19, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
  6. Fri, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Rodriguez.
  7. Mon, 9/23, class: Read Jay Dolmage’s “Breathe Upon Us”. I will lead our discussion.

Class, Fri, 9/13

Relating Mellix and Lu

Fastwrite

You might see Barbara Mellix and Min Lu as telling very similar stories— stories about the gaps between the discourses of “Home” and “School”, and the struggles that they experienced in shifting between them. In such a view, the only real differences between their two stories are the details, the particulars: South Carolina or Shanghai, the speech of “country coloreds” or the language of the “great books”, the University of Pittsburgh or the Revolutionary Workers School, and so on.

But is that really the case? Are Mellix and Lu really arguing the same thing, just with different examples? Or are there differences we might point to between the stances they take toward learning to write, toward mastering the discourse of school? Take a few minutes to see if you can identify some possible points of disagreement between the two pieces.

Language, Power, and Identity
  • John and Bridget respond to Mellix
  • Kate and Amanda respond to Lu

Of Interest

“Flagships Fail on Financial Equity“, Inside Higher Education, 9/12/2019.

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/16, class: Read James Paul Gee’s “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics”. I will lead our discussion. I will want to make sure you feel you understand what Gee means by “primary” and “secondary” discourses, and to see if those concepts can help us better understand the pieces we’ve read so far
  2. Mon, 9/16, 4:00 pm: Group C posts responses to Gloria Anzaldúa’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”.
  3. Tues, 9/17, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group C’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
  4. Wed, 9/18, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Anzaldúa.
  5. Wed, 9/18, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Richard Rodriguez’s “The Achievement of Desire”.
  6. Thurs, 9/19, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses and posts comments on at least two.
  7. Fri, 9/13, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Rodriguez.

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