Category: Class

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.

Class, Wed, 9/11

Barbara Mellix, “From Outside, In”

Fastwrite
  • If you wrote one of the first responses to Mellix, read through the comments on your post. Post a comment replying to what one or more of your readers have had to say.
  • If you wrote comments, pick a response that you didn’t get a chance to comment on, read through what your classmates have had to say about it, and continue the conversation.
  • In either case, find a passage in Mellix’s essay that you’d like us to talk some more about (whether you write about this passage in your comment or not).

To Do

  1. Wed, 9/11, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to Lu’s “From Silence to Words”.
  2. Thurs, 9/12, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’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 Lu.
  4. Mon, 9/16, class: Read James Paul Gee’s “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics”. I will lead our discussion.

Class, Mon, 9/09

Questions About Responding and Commenting

Arlie Hochschild, “Empathy Maps”

Fastwrite

I’m interested in thinking about Hochschild’s piece in relation to Pratt’s, especially since where Pratt talks about “contact zones”, Hochschild talks about “empathy zones”. What’s at stake in this difference? Or might “mapping empathy” possibly be considered another one of the “arts of the contact zone”?

Please try to locate a particular point or passage in Hochschild’s piece that you’d like to relate to a passage from Pratt.

Keywords in the Early Readings

keywords-in-early-readingsDownload

Grades

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/09, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Mellix’s “Outside, In”.
  2. Tues, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses (along with Mellix, of course) and posts comments on at least two.
  3. Wed, 9/11, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Mellix.
  4. Wed, 9/11, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to Lu’s “From Silence to Words”.
  5. Thurs, 9/12, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’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 Lu.

Class, Fri, 9/06

Lambeth and Pratt

In groups

Asymmetry is a keyword for both Lambeth and Pratt. Please spend a few minutes thinking and talking about how their uses of this term/concept align and how they differ.

Contact Zones, and their Arts

Fastwrite

According to Pratt, what distinguishes a contact zone from other social spaces? And what distinguishes its “arts” from other those of other social spaces?

Groups, Responses, and Comments

To Do

  1. Mon, 9/09, class: Please read Arlie Hochschild’s “Empathy Maps”. I’m interested in thinking about her work in relation to Pratt’s, especially since where Pratt talks about “contact zones”, Hochschild talks about “empathy zones”. What’s at stake in this difference? Or might “empathy” and “mapping” somehow also be considered “arts of the contact zone”?
  2. Mon, 9/09, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Mellix’s “Outside, In”.
  3. Tues, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses (along with Mellix, of course) and posts comments on at least two.
  4. Wed, 9/11, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Mellix.
  5. Wed, 9/11, 4:00 pm: Group B posts responses to Lu’s “From Silence to Words”.
  6. Thurs, 9/12, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group B’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 Lu.

Class, Wed, 9/04

Using WordPress

Please create a free account on WordPress.com. I suggest you use your first name and last initial (e.g., “Joe H”) as your “Public Display Name”.

I will send an invitation to contribute to this site to your Udel email. (The sender of the email will probably be listed as WordPress.) Please accept this invitation immediately. Stay logged in to WordPress.

Responding to Lambeth

Fastwrite

Please write a ¶ about a memory or object that holds beauty for you because of its “asymmetry and imperfection”. Then write another ¶ in which you relate your thoughts to Lambeth’s. Try to quote at least once from Lambeth’s piece. Copy and save your text.

Laurie Clements Lambeth, with Patou. Photo by Ian Lambeth.

Posting Your Response

  1. Go to this site (https://e367fall2019.home.blog/). If you have accepted my invitation to contribute, you should see a button on the upper righthand corner that says +Write. (If you don’t see this, click on the My Sites button on the upper lefthand corner, and then click on Posts.) A text box should appear.
  2. Paste your response into the text box. Check formatting (headings, italics, spacing, etc.).
  3. Think of a good title for your piece. Type that into the Title Bar.
  4. Choose Responses as your Category. Uncheck any other boxes.
  5. Think of two or three Tags that will help identify your piece from the others posted. (You’ll thus want something more specific in addition to “Wabi Sabi” and “Lambeth”.)
  6. Hit Publish. If there’s something you don’t like about your post, you can click on Edit, make changes, and Update.

This will be the process you’ll want to follow in posting your responses to readings for this course. Don’t worry. The steps quickly become routine.

Of Interest

To Do

  1. Fri, 9/06, class: Read “Arts of the Contact Zone” by Mary Louise Pratt. This is a challenging but also rewarding piece. I’ll want to discuss what Pratt means by contact zone, autoethnography, and asymmetrical relations of power. I’ll also be interested in hearing your thoughts about Pratt’s attempts to connect the experiences of Guaman Poma with those of her young son.
  2. Mon, 9/09, class: Read Arlie Hochschild’s “Empathy Maps”. I will lead our discussion.
  3. Mon, 9/09, 4:00 pm: Group A posts responses to Babara Mellix’s “From Outside, In”.
  4. Tues, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Everyone else reads Group A’s responses (along with Mellix, of course) and posts comments on at least two.
  5. Wed, 9/11, class: We will use those responses and comments to structure our class discussion of Mellix.

Class, Fri, 8/30

Fastwrite

I’d like us to begin today by considering how difference plays out closer to home. Please read the excerpt from Caitlin Larracey’s “On the Path to Fitting In?: Listening to First Gen Campus Students”. Caitlin is a graduate student at UD; her piece will appear next year in a collection of scholarly essays published by the MLA. Spoiler Alert: MU is UD; Main is this campus; City is the Associate in Arts Campus in Wilmington.

How accurately does Hannah point to differences and divisions that you’ve observed, or felt, here at UD? Do you agree that the experiences of First Gen students at Delaware are significantly different from those of the “Tylers” and “Sarahs” that Hannah and Scott observe? If so, what might be done to connect the two groups more?

Readings, and Other Info
To Do
  1. Wed, 9/04, class: Please read “The Three-Legged Dog” by Laurie Clements Lambeth. Bring your laptop with you to class. I’d like to walk you through setting up an account on WordPress and posting a response to this site. (We’ll use your responses to Lambeth as an example.)
  2. Friday, 9/06, class: Read “Arts of the Contact Zone” by Mary Louise Pratt. This is a challenging but also rewarding piece. I’ll want to discuss what Pratt means by contact zone, autoethnography, and asymmetrical relations of power. I’d also be interested in hearing your thoughts about Pratt’s attempts to connect the experiences of Guaman Poma and with those of her young son.
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