This is the page for: Literature in Multicultural Societies, Fall 2008
(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)
For next time…
Everyone,
Here’s the question I asked you to think about for next class:
What is the relationship between “Thomas King as a Native American author”, “the white Canadians” in his story “How Corporal Colin Sterling Saved Blossom, Alberta…”, and the “Indian” characters in the same story.
I also asked you to check out The Lone Ranger. Here’s a clip I found:
I’m particularly interested in the races of the various characters in the show, which are pretty obvious from this clip:
(We’ll discuss this clip in class and try to relate it to Thomas King’s story… pay special attention to the shots of each character at the beginning, and the relationship between The Lone Ranger and Tonto.)
Here’s a clip from the animated Lone Ranger series, with a pretty standard depiction of Native Americans as primitive, exotic, primitive, magical, primitive, dangerous, primitive, superstitious, and did I mention primitive?
The dialog in this clip between Tonto and The Lone Ranger is pretty revealing:
Lustige Videos – Gratis Fun Video – Deine funny Videos bei Clipfish
Finally, for a modern response to the relationship between those two characters, and how a real Tonto might respond:
Some Interesting Stuff
Here are some things that might interest you for our class:
THOMAS KING
- The introduction to a book about Thomas King and his writing is available online for free.
- There’s an interview with Thomas King from CBC Radio here.
- Here’s another interview with King.
NALO HOPKINSON
- There are some interviews with Nalo Hopkinson on this page. The earliest interview, in May 2003 (Episode 154) includes mention of the book Skin Folk winning the World Fantasy Award. (The story we’re reading is from that book.) Also interesting is the discussion of the idea of “Code Sliding,” which Hopkinson discusses in more detail on her website, here. Code sliding is a particularly useful idea for discussing this story. (The concept in Linguistics of “Code switching” is comparable, and also useful for discussing this story.)
- Here’s the sample MP3 of Nalo Hopkinson reading from the introduction of the novel that the story we’re reading is part of (titled The Midnight Robber). we listened to (original Realaudio sample here). I’ll give you a copy of this text, too, but I’m giving you the sample now mostly so you have some idea of the sound of the language that Hopkinson uses in the book, the accent, the vocabulary, the dialect, and so on. And yes, some native speakers of English do speak like this. And yes, I had to listen to it a few times to understand it, too. (And I didn’t get it all until I read it on the page. It’s a foreign dialect to me, also. But the sound of it is just magical, isn’t it?)
- Hopkinson’s bio is worth checking out. There are a few interviews worth looking at, too, here and here. She also says things about culture and genre that are interesting here.
The Missing Page
Hi there!
I finally got the scanner to work! Long story…
Anyway, here’s the missing page from “The Lamp at Noon.”
If the PDF is hard to read, try the (big!) JPG file below:
Sorry it’s so late! This Tuesday, we’ll discuss this story some more, and we’ll also discuss your essays. Thursday, we’ll talk about “Corporal Colin Sterling…” and I’ll hand out some more reading this week so we have stuff to talk about for next week!
See you soon!
Scanner Messed Up
Hi there,
I’m fighting my scanner –Â something bad happened to it, I think — and so I am still trying to scan those pages from the story for you. In the meantime, I promised I’d post about your essay homework, so here is the information:
Our class will not have a midterm exam. Instead, we will have a midterm essay. The midterm essay is due on the Tuesday of Week 9, which I believe is October 28th.
Your essay should discuss the depiction of some “minority,” “foreign,” or “immigrant” group in a film from your own culture (or language). That is, if you are Korean, you should look at a Korean film, and if you are Taiwanese, you should look at a Taiwanese film (or, if you can’t find one appropriate, then a Chinese-language film).
I discussed one example in class, which is the movie 괴물 (The Host). I talked about how we could discuss why there are so many Americans and some Southeast Asians in the movie, and why they are significant characters in the film, as well as what their specific actions, behaviour, and clothing tell us about the characters and about their social significance.
Other examples I mentioned were ê³ ì–‘ì?´ë¥¼ 부íƒ?í•´ (Take Care of My Cat) which has some Chinese-Koreans as major characters (and I think also has a brief appearance by Southeast Asian immigrants). Another example I mentioned was the Korean SF film Yesterday (the title is the same in Korean) which has some Chinese immigrant workers/criminals in it. Another great example is 삼거리극장 (The Midnight Ballad for the Ghost Theater) — you can get a glance at the ghost in the background of that video, or in this trailer — which has several ghosts; one of them is the ghost of a Japanese soldier. I know two more examples: one is the film Welcome to Dongmakgol (the title, again, is the same in Korean) which features several American characters, and an old 1970s film called Woman Detective Mary (ì—¬ìž? 형사 마리) which depicts foreign men in some shocking ways, and also seems to depict Hong Kong drug smugglers in Seoul in 1975.
A few pointers:
- It’s not always a good film that gives you the most to talk about. In fact, of all the films above, the two that I could talk about the most are the last two, and I don’t think they’re very good movies at all. But there’s a lot to talk about in each.
- The more you surprise me, the better you’ll do. So if you go and write an essay on one of the films above, then I’ll be less surprised. For the Korean students, it might be a good idea to visit the Korean Film Archive, since they have many films you can watch at the archive, on DVD or in video tape format. (Students from abroad have an advantage here in that I know only a small number of films from Taiwan or China, but Korean students have an advantage since thereare manymore resources for them here.)
- If you have no idea where to look, you might take an afternoon to visit the KOFA archive; they even have a library in Bucheon! (I haven’t visited, though, but I do know the main collection is in West Seoul, where the excellent Cinematheque KOFA is located.
Your essay should be
- in English,
- approximately 2000 words,
- formatted appropriately (ie. 12-point Courier New font, double-spaced, 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins, page numbers, your name and the title in the header
Two last notes:
DO NOT COME TO CLASS LATE. I know some of you won’t be ready to hand it in at the beginning of class. It’s better you put it in my mailbox at 8pm than for you to come to class late to hand in your essay. I will accept the essay anytime on October 28th, so don’t miss classtime to print it out.
And DO NOT PUT OFF THIS ESSAY! You won’t be able to do any writing during exam week, so you really should start on this essay now.
I’ll try find a good example essay on depiction for you to check out soon, and keep working on getting my scanner to work today.
Homework Update
Hi there,
As I announced on Thursday, there will be no class on Tuesday, because I will be at a conference. We will next meet on Thursday, Sept. 25th.
Until then, your homework is to do two things:
- Write me a 500-word essay on the kinds of problems or tensions that we can expect to see in a suddenly multicultural society. Try to think from both a Central and a Peripheral perspective– that is, as a member of some kind of majority, and as a member of some kind of minority. (ie. consider the problem from both sides: people with more power, and people with less power.)
- Prepare to discuss “The Lamp at Noon” by Sinclair Ross.
In addition, please review this post. Some of you have sent me .doc and .hwp files. It seems you haven’t carefully reviewed the homework I assigned for Thursday. Please click this link and reread the post there carefully. You must email me an .srt file as soon as possible! There is a link to .srt making software there. The timing doesn’t need to be perfect, just close, but you do need to set up the timing. Work with your group to make the job easier.
Have a great week!
The Discussion Board You Should Join
Just in case you’ve forgotten, the Discussion Board for this class is located here. Go apply for a membership: I should get around to approving your application in a day or two!
No Subs!
Everyone! I discovered something horrible!
When I ordered my copy of the film Such a Long Journey , the website said that there were English-language subtitles. I just received the film, and it has no subtitles!
However, there is always a silver lining in every rainbow, so what I’m going to do is get you guys to make the subtitle file. You’ll split into three groups, and each group will be responsible for about 35 minutes of subtitles. There’s free software, called Jubler, that you can use to do this, and working as a team, it should be possible to get this done pretty quickly, with two people listening, one writing, and one controlling the movie. You can download the Jubler software here. Or you can use other subtitle-authoring software instead, if you like. My only requirement is that you create the file using the .srt format. (It MUST be .srt format, or else we won’t be able to connect the different parts and make one file!)
UPDATE: I was told the link above wasn’t working, so please try here. You should get a Windows-compatible program there. If you can’t find it, Google around for Jubler for Windows…
Of course, to do that, you will need copies of the film, so I’m going to get some of those made for you at the A/V Center on Monday. (I hope they’re ready for you to pick up on Tuesday; I’ll let you know in class then.)
Once you email me your part of the subtitle file, I’ll give it a quick look and try to correct any errors I see, put the differen t parts of the file together, and provide the final completed subtitle file here for you to download. Then you can re-watch the whole film with subtitles. (And any students who want to volunteer, for bonus marks, can volunteer to work as a group and translate the subtitles to their mother tongue, ie. Korean or Chinese.)
So the plan for next week is this:
Tuesday: we watch the film from beginning to end. (With no subtitles, but that’s okay; you can still get a lot out of it this way, and it certainly won’t stop us discussing the biggest question I have for you, which is: How can we understand this as part of Canadian literature?)
Hopefully Tuesday, you will pick up the .avi file copies of the film, and begin making subtitle files with your partner or group.
Thursday, we will talk about Multiculturalism and Literature some more, especially trying to find a definition for Multiculturalism. I will also be assigning some reading from our Readings Package (which will be available soon, I hope!) for our class on Sept. 16th.
Your group’s part of the subtitle file is due on Tuesday, September 16th.
Remember, your homework for Sept. 9th is:
- to spend some time with the class — go out and talk, possibly about literature, or just get to know one another.
- to prepare the ID sheets, including information on your favorite writers and films.
- to think about what “multicultural” means.
The Forum is Up!
The Discussion forum for this class is now up and running. It is located here.
You will notice that several classes use the forum for their discussions. Each class has its own “category.” You are free to look at the other classes’ forum if you like, or you can block their “category” so that you won’t see their discussion, and will only see your own class discussions.
To join the forum, click on “Sign In” in the top right corner of the window. A new page will load, and you can click “Apply for Membership” (near the middle of the window) to join the forum. (After you join, you will need to wait a little while — maybe a day or two — so that I can approve your application. Make sure you use your real name for now, so that I can know it’s a student and not a spam robot who is trying to join the forum, okay?)
I’ll discuss the forum in class next week, but feel free to experiment with it for now. You can start by replying to the discussion I’ve already started in each class. Remember, if you start a new discussion, to put it in the right “category” — that is, put the discussion into the right class!
Student Info Sheet
I will be bringing copies to class for all my classes, but in case you missed it, or lose your copy, you can download the Student Info Sheet here:
You must fill this out with a partner. If you wish to write comments on the back, fold the paper on the black line in the middle, and be sure to write your name at the top of the side you use, so I can know who wrote on which side.
Syllabus and Welcome!
Hi there!
Welcome to the class! I’m still working on setting up our discussion forum, so for now, here’s the syllabus for our class:
Literature in a Multicultural Society Syllabus (PDF)
See you next week!