380 syllabusf2020

English 380: Studies in Ethnic American Literature:
Resisting Historical Amnesia
Fall 2020
Prof. Jan Johnson, PhD
Email: janson@uidaho.edu
Office: Brink 224
Office Hours: T & Th 10-11:00 and by appointment Zoom Office Hours Link
Welcome! Our course will explore a small selection of ethnic American literature and film and the
cultural and social contexts in which they were written and now exist. This semester we’re reading
Native North American, African American, and Latino/a literary works.
We will read these texts through the lens of historical amnesia and ethnic writers’ resistance to it.
Historical amnesia is the collective forgetting of selective parts of history, and "the tendency of
American people to ignore history and precedent when responding to the present or informing the
future.” In her book, Against Amnesia: Contemporary Women Writers and the Crises of Historical
Memory (2001), Nancy J. Peterson claims that women and multicultural writers engage in the “double
burden” of writing history and literature, and that for many, history is a painful wound. Theirs is a
literature of witness that attempts to fill the gaps created by official histories that marginalize or
completely omit minority (often ethnic American) voices. Peterson argues that in telling history through
literature, minority writers provide counterhistories to the official ones from which they have been
erased. These counterhistories intervene in the amnesia that marks American society; they ask us to
become “consciously historical,” and they give us resources to resist amnesia. We will explore
Peterson’s claims, asking
~What is historical nostalgia and/or amnesia and what cultural work does it perform?
~How do multicultural and ethnic writers resist the historical amnesia and nostalgia of mainstream
literature and culture?
~Why do these writers feel compelled to take on the double burden of writing both fiction and history?
~What is a "just" ethics of remembering?
~In what ways is the lived experience of minoritized writers so disturbing that it is often omitted from
history texts and thus must be told through literary ones?
~How might literary texts function as activism to make change in "the real world"?

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Note that this is not a lecture course. Students learn through active participation, careful reading and
consideration on their own, discussion of their ideas with their peers and instructors, and exploratory
writing. So while it is my job to provide a supportive environment and appropriate learning tasks, it is
each student’s responsibility to attend class having read (and thought about) the texts and ready to
participate in discussion, and to use the writing assignments as an opportunity to develop his or her
understanding and ideas.
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to illustrate the importance of aesthetic,
cultural and historical contexts in the study of ethnic American literature through oral and written
close reading, analysis, and interpretation of a variety of ethnic American-authored literary texts,
and
• Frame a thesis about a text(s) and argue it in writing, using relevant supporting evidence.
• Participate effectively in written and oral discussions of literature, making well-supported claims
about ideas, issues, and problems.
• Explain and account for the rise of ethnic American literature as a canon of texts and appreciate
its place within twentieth- and twentieth-century literature.
Basic Rules
Be thoughtful and respectful, be prepared, bring the assigned text to class with you, keep an open mind,
and have fun. The daily schedule, writing assignments and bonus materials are all on our Bblearn site.
Consult it often.
Course Texts
The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline
The Book of Unknown Americans, Cristina Henriquez
There There, Tommy Orange
The Street, Ann Petry
We’ll also watch one or two films
Remote Delivery: Zoom and Bblearn
Because I am at elevated risk of contracting COVID19, this class will be delivered remotely. We will
meet both synchronously and asynchronously. On Tuesdays we will have video lectures, readings and
other assignments. We will meet synchronously on Zoom on Thursdays, occasionally as a full group and
often in small breakout groups that I will assign.
Requirements and Responsibilities
▪ Contribution (20%)
▪ Active, informed contribution is crucial to your learning, as well as to our enjoyment of the
course. For this reason, I give it substantial weighting. I will keep one central question in mind
when determining your contribution to this course: do I think that you are an adult with
respect to the material that I’ve assigned and, if not, then what share of adult are you? I
want to be sure that we’re on the same page in terms of your final contribution grade, and thus
will ask you to submit a self-assessment of your contribution to the course at mid-term. I will use

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this self-assessment and my own measure of your adultness with respect to the material on the
syllabus as the foundation for your final contribution grade.
▪ Throughout the course I will endeavour to ensure that all students have opportunities to try out
ideas and give considered or spontaneous responses in person and online. As this is a discussion-
based class, I expect you to contribute regularly, both in person and online. I understand,
however, that schedules and circumstances stand to be especially complicated this semester. If
you need to miss class or cannot complete the tasks that I have assigned for a given session,
please be in touch. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll assume that you’re not taking this course
seriously and remember this when I finalize your contribution grade. In addition to monitoring in
person and online discussions, I will also consider any one-on-one conversations we have this
semester.
Assessment
20% Contribution (asynchronous discussion boards and journals, synchronous Zoom
discussions, one-on-one consultations)—monitored throughout semester with mid-semester
self-assessment
30% Pitches (three x 500 words each; 10% each)—regular optional deadlines
10% Film Review Video Essay (5 minutes max)—due Nov 20
15% Critical Article Assignment (1000 words)—due Nov 30
25% Persuasive Essay (2000 words on a topic of your choice; must cite at least two secondary
sources)—due Dec 14
Contribution (20%)
Active, informed contribution is crucial to your learning, as well as to our enjoyment of the course. For
this reason, I give it substantial weighting. I will keep one central question in mind when determining
your contribution to this course: do I think that you are an adult with respect to the material that
I’ve assigned and, if not, then what share of adult are you? I want to be sure that we’re on the same
page in terms of your final contribution grade, and thus will ask you to submit a self-assessment of your
contribution to the course at mid-term. I will use this self-assessment and my own measure of your
adultness with respect to the material on the syllabus as the foundation for your final contribution grade.
Throughout the course I will endeavour to ensure that all students have opportunities to try out ideas and
give considered or spontaneous responses in person and online. As this is a discussion-based class, I
expect you to contribute regularly, both in person and online. I understand, however, that schedules and
circumstances stand to be especially complicated this semester. If you need to miss class or cannot
complete the tasks that I have assigned for a given session, please be in touch. If I don’t hear from you,
I’ll assume that you’re not taking this course seriously and remember this when I finalize your
contribution grade. In addition to monitoring in person and online discussions, I will also consider any
one-on-one conversations we have this semester.
Our discussions will take place in three formats:
• Asynchronous Tuesdays: Each Tuesday, I will assign reading to complete, load videos for you
to watch that will frame the week’s discussion, and post a few guiding questions to a Bblearn
discussion board. Tuesday sessions will be asynchronous, meaning that I expect you to complete
the reading, watch the videos, and contribute to the relevant online discussion board before class
on Thursday.

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• Synchronous Thursdays: On Thursdays, we will meet “in-person” on Zoom during the allotted
class time to chat. We will also make active use of discussion boards on Bblearn throughout the
semester. As I explain above, I will post questions to a Bblearn discussion board in advance of
Thursday classes to prompt and guide our conversation.
• In addition, each Thursday two students will be assigned to guide our conversation in a direction
that interests them. These two students should post their discussion questions by 6 p.m. on
Wednesday to give the class time to to consider the questions before our in-person chat on
Thursday. We will dedicate the synchronous Thursday discussions to addressing questions raised
by the week’s reading and my initial discussion board prompts and the student interests.
Discussion Leaders should also be prepared to speak to their questions during the synchronous Zoom
meeting on Thursday.
I encourage you to contribute to the discussion boards before each Thursday class, but at a minimum
expect at least one discussion board comment per student per week. There is no word limit for
discussion comments. Instead, I want you to focus on original, smart, and engaging responses to the
reading that I’ve assigned.
To prepare for our discussions, you should do more than simply read the texts that I assign. While
reading, you should make note of your questions, frustrations, triumphs, and inspirations Which words
are confusing? Which passages remind you of another text? Which images are particularly striking?
How do the ideas raised in our discussions manifest themselves in this text? Allow these initial thoughts
to inform your reading responses. If you do not have any of these thoughts while you are reading you are
not reading closely enough—go back and do it again. Write on the page, circle words, get your pen out.
Stop to think while you are reading and jot your thoughts down.
Finally, please remember to keep an open mind during our discussions. Certain ideas that we discuss
will be controversial; I do not demand that you agree with them but do expect you to understand them
and be able to discuss them academically in a civil manner. You must also show respect for your
classmates and me. You may not agree with another’s position, and you may not even respect some
viewpoints offered by others, but you must respect your classmates as contributing members of the class.
Pitches (3 x 500 words, regular optional deadlines, 10% each, 30% total):
To prepare yourself for writing the end-of-semester persuasive essay, you will pitch three essay ideas to
me over the course of the term. Pitches are due by 11:59pm on the final day that we discuss a text, and
each pitch should flesh out your thoughts on that primary text, propose a viable topic for a longer essay,
and give me some idea of how you will write that essay. Indeed, the most efficient way to go about this
course is to use your pitches as quick forays into larger research projects, and then, using my feedback,
develop one of your pitches into your end-of-term persuasive essay. You may miss two pitches this
semester without facing a penalty. If you submit more than three pitches, I will only count the three that
receive the highest grades.
I will assess your pitches more for quality of thought than for style or grammar. Focus your efforts in
these assignments on demonstrating your skills at close reading and your ability to situate a primary text
within broader cultural and/or literary contexts instead of crafting a formal essay. I do not expect you to
consult secondary research in your pitches.

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Think of depth instead of width—the best pitches will focus on one thought/idea raised by your reading
and explore it in detail. Our discussions will give you ideas that you might pursue, but I also encourage
you to bring your own interests to bear on each primary text. You should think of your pitches as a
vehicle for pursuing aspects of a text that interest you.
As these are more casual assignments than the formal essays, you should feel free to use language in line
with the following: “If I were to write an essay on X text, I would begin by discussing Y.” Also feel free
to compare primary texts to each other, especially in the later weeks of the term. If you are unsure how
to begin proposing an essay topic, you might find the following approaches helpful:
• Think about the text from the perspective of some of the main ideas of this course: identity,
belonging, history, nonstandard English, performativity, resistance, cross-cultural reading, the
politics and poetics of representation, and issues of canonicity and the ethnic American response
to Western literature. What ideas are particularly relevant to the study of this text? What type of
comment on ethnic American (African American, Native American, Latinx) literature or identity
does this text offer up? What questions or challenges does it raise to theoretical ideas about
ethnic American literature and identity, and the relationship between it and the rest of the
American literature and culture?
• Perform close readings by focusing on one key passage (transcribe it in your response essay) to
analyze literary elements such as style, tone, point of view, figurative language, etc. Discuss the
significance, connotations and even etymology of particular word choices—especially those that
appear in languages other than Standard English—and think about the connections between form
and the argument of the text. In your close reading explain why this passage is important to your
interpretation of the work as a whole.
BEWARE!: Pitches are due by 11:59pm on the final day that we discuss a primary text. I will not
accept late pitches. Each pitch must provide an MLA citation for all texts that you address in the
assignment. I will grade your pitch as follows:
90 – 100%: strong work; accurate bibliographic citation; insightful and illuminating ideas;
you teach us something new about the text(s); all portions of the pitch indicate strong and clear
thinking; assignment proposes excellent essay topic
80 – 90%: good work; there may be a mistake or two in the bibliographic citation; fine
start on ideas but could use more development; some portion of the pitch seems a bit weak;
assignment proposes promising essay topic
70 – 80%: satisfactory work; some noticeable mistakes; seems like pitch was written
without much reflection; hazy grasp of the text(s), its arguments and components; not all
portions are addressed in a satisfactory manner; assignment proposes viable yet uninspiring essay
topic
60 – 70%: weak work; major mistakes in bibliography or absent altogether; poor
understanding of text(s) and its significance; most portions of pitch weak; assignment proposes
weak essay topic, or fails to do so altogether
0 points: not submitted

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Film Review Video Essay (5 minutes max, due November 20, 10%):
• To broaden our exploration of ethnic American culture, each student will submit a film review of
a film. This assignment takes the form of a video essay and will assess your skills at “public”
speaking and presenting.
• I’ll provide a list of good candidates for this assignment, many of which are available streaming
on Kanopy, our library’s streaming film library.
• Your video essay must not last more than 5 minutes—and should both summarize the film and
connect to the reading that we do this semester. I will award points for organization, subject
knowledge, and presentation style. Please consult the film review rubric on BbLearn for a better
understanding of the composition of this grade.
Critical Article Assignment (1000 words, due November 30, 15%):
To help prepare you for the persuasive essay, you will write a response to a scholarly article or book
chapter. Try to be precise and clear in your claims and avoid going over this length. The article must
comment on Nigerian literature in some capacity. I will evaluate your work, in part, for the
appropriateness of the article that you chose. DO NOT simply Google terms; this must be an
appropriate, peer-reviewed article from a scholarly journal or book. Use the library search or one of the
databases (JSTOR, MLA Bibliography, ProQuest, etc).
The assignment should include:
1. A full citation of your article or book chapter at the start of your assignment, as well as a
description of how you found the article or chapter. This will not count towards the word count.
A title is not necessary, but you can certainly include one.
2. An opening paragraph or the first 200-250 words briefly introducing/summarizing the article or
book chapter that you have decided to discuss.
3. An analysis of the article. The remaining portion of the assignment is your response to the
article. Consider: do you find the author’s claims convincing? Does it help you to read one of our
texts in a new way? Use this space to explore your ideas and engage in a scholarly conversation
with another critic. Try to be both critical and generous.
Persuasive Essay (2000 words, due December 14, 25%)
You will write one persuasive essay for this course on topic of your own choice. There are two mandates
for this assignment: your essay must discuss at least one piece of Nigerian literature and it must cite at
least two secondary sources. You should raise potential essay topics in your pitches; if you decide to
write on a topic that you haven’t already explored in a pitch, I encourage you to contact me to discuss it.
Please refer to the grading rubric below for a thorough explanation of what I expect from formal written
work. Please also ensure that you properly cite all secondary research according to MLA guidelines.
While my primary interest in these essays is original thought, I also expect an exceptional level of polish
and finesse. You should write your essay in Times, 12-point font, double-spaced. Type your name, the
date, and course number in the top left-hand of the first page, and number all pages. All essays should
have a title (feel free to be creative here), centered, on the first page. Failure to follow these instructions
may lower your grade.
Grading Rubric for Persuasive Essay
Please recognize the following descriptions are guidelines. Each essay is different and must be assessed
on its own strengths and weaknesses.

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A (93-100%)
An A essay is of outstanding quality. This essay will teach me something about a text(s) I know well; it
will be original, provocative, inspiring and make me want to share it with other readers. The scope of
this essay will be narrow enough that it will argue one point thoroughly. Even if I totally disagree with
this point, I will appreciate the beauty of its argument and appreciate its sophisticated and thoughtful
thesis. This essay will have a logical structure and be grammatically perfect. Ample evidence from
primary text(s) will be provided, and secondary research will be illuminating and smoothly integrated.
Essays earning the upper grades of this margin will be bordering on publishable.
A- (90-92%)
An A- essay is excellent and nearly lives up to the standards of the A essay but lacks the intellectual
power. While this essay demonstrates excellent close reading skills and strong integration of appropriate
secondary sources, it will have the occasional minor problem, such as questionable word choice, small
grammatical errors or the odd awkward transition between paragraphs. An A- essay has no major errors.
B+ (88-89%)
A B+ essay is very good—indeed, it is almost excellent. Like the A and A- essay, this essay will have a
logical structure and make good use of evidence and secondary research to provide a strong critical
analysis of a text(s). However, this essay will lack the intellectual adventurousness of the A and A-
essay, often choosing to play it safe instead of sticking its neck on the line to argue something
provocative and original. A B+ essay makes good use of evidence from the primary text(s) and relies on
appropriate secondary sources, although use of this research could often be more sophisticated. There
are no major errors in this essay, but often minor lapses in logic or occasional problems with word
choice, transitions, grammar and punctuation.
B (83-87%)
A B essay shows promise but falls short in one major area. Like essays awarded a higher grade, this
essay will have a strong and interesting (though perhaps not wholly original or inspiring) thesis
statement and will be generally competent in its analysis. A B essay will feature secondary research, but
will do so in a less sophisticated and critical way than a B+ or A essay. This essay may suffer from
wordiness and have minor structural faults such as weak transitions, problems with word choice or
grammatical or punctuation errors. This essay will be less engaging than essays awarded a higher grade
and will lack their stylistic flair.
B- (80-82%)
A B- essay is a good essay but lacks sophistication, originality and rigour. This essay may lack support
for key assertions (it may favour generalizations over supported claims, for example), and present an
argument that, while valid, is largely uninspiring. A B- thesis is workable but not overly creative or
insightful; B- use of research will be sound but not engaging. This essay may suffer from wordiness,
problems with word choice, awkward transitions and punctuation and grammatical errors, and may
feature short sections of plot summary.
C+ (78-79%)
A C+ essay is slightly above average. It will argue a commonplace idea and feature insufficient evidence
from a primary text(s) to make its case effectively. This essay may fail to deal with a significant
idea/issue, as well as feature plot summary instead of critical analysis. The structure of a C+ essay may
be unclear and be marred by occasional lapses in logic. This essay will not provide enough secondary
sources to support its argument and will suffer from frequent grammatical and syntactical errors such as

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the comma splice, sentence fragments or run-on sentences. This essay will be largely uninspiring and
may leave me confused at times.
C (73-77%)
A C essay is distinctly average. As such, it is uninspiring, unoriginal and unexciting. This essay will be
marred by significant weakness, such as frequent misreading of evidence or lack thereof, ample plot
summary, loose or illogical structure, lapses in logic and a lack of sufficient secondary research. A C
essay often rehashes class discussion, demonstrating little willingness to think beyond what is provided.
A C essay may also fall short of the assigned page length.
C- (70-72%)
A C- essay is below average. This essay will have a weak thesis that is unoriginal, poorly phrased and
something that might not need to be proven. This weak thesis will lead to an unsophisticated analysis
that lacks sufficient evidence from a primary text(s) and secondary research and will often descend into
blatant plot summary. The structure of the C- essay is loose, illogical or absent, leading to confusion and
more work than necessary from the reader. The meaning of this essay may be obscured by wordiness
and major errors, such as problematic word choice, awkward transitions, imprecise diction and mistakes
in grammar and punctuation.
D (60-69%)
See me immediately if you write a D essay. A D essay will attempt to argue an extremely weak thesis or
present no thesis at all. Plot summary often dominates. D essays suffer from major structural problems
and grammatical and syntactical errors that make any meaning difficult to decipher and/or follow. This
essay will make poor use of evidence from a primary text(s), present no meaningful analysis of that
text(s) and provide insufficient secondary research, if any.
F (59% and below)
F essays are unacceptable for one or more of the following readings: plagiarism (intentional or
accidental), complete misunderstanding of material, no discernable argument, complete lack of effort,
significant failure to meet required page length (by more than 20%), failure to meet the basic
communication requirements of standard written English, failure to submit.
MLA-Style Resources
All essays must follow MLA style. I will not accept any other style of citation. For help learning the
style, visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab’s MLA webpage.
Plagiarism
I will not tolerate plagiarism in this course—no exceptions. If I discover that you have cheated on any of
your assignments, I will give you a failing grade for the course and refer you to the Dean of Students.
According to university and departmental policy, plagiarism is claiming someone else’s work (either
ideas or words) as your own. Plagiarism includes:
• Copying, quoting or paraphrasing documents of any kind without proper and explicit citation of
sources.
• Use of another person’s words or ideas with attribution and explicit citation.
• Submitting another person’s work as your own.
• Cowriting work with another scholar and claiming it as solely yours.
• Submitting work for this course that you have previously submitted for a different course, in part
or in full.

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If you have any questions about what I consider plagiarism, how to cite your work, or university and
department policies on plagiarism, please see me.
Center for Disability Access and Resources Reasonable Accommodations Statement
Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have documented temporary or
permanent disabilities. All accommodations must be approved through the Center for Disability
Access and Resources located in the Pitman Center, Suite 127 in order to notify your instructor(s)
as soon as possible regarding accommodation(s) needed for the course.
Phone: 208-885‐6307
Email: cdar@uidaho.edu
Website: www.uidaho.edu/current-students/cdar
The Writing Center:
The Writing Center is located in the Idaho Commons, Rm 323. I highly recommend that you use the
Writing Center for help at any stage of the writing process, even if you are already a good writer.
University of Idaho Classroom Civility Code
In any environment in which people gather to learn, it is essential that all members feel as free and safe
as possible in their participation. To this end, it is expected that everyone in this course will be treated
with mutual respect and civility, with an understanding that all of us (students, instructors, professors,
guests, and teaching assistants) will be respectful and civil to one another in discussion, in action, in
teaching, and in learning.
Should you feel our classroom interactions do not reflect an environment of civility and respect, please
meet with me during office hours to discuss your concern. Additional resources for expression of
concern or requesting support include the Dean of Students office and staff (5-6757), the UI Counseling
& Testing Center’s confidential services (885-6716), or the UI Office of Human Rights, Access, &
Inclusion (885-4285).
Please email me if you have ANY questions or comments about our course! janson@uidaho.edu

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