WSP 300/ ETS 300 Feminist Voices: The Politics of Contemporary American Women's Storytelling Instructor: Beth Berila Office: 208 Bowne Hall, 443-3707 Office Hours: T 9-10:00; W 11:45-12:45 and by appointment. Email: esberila@mailbox.syr.edu "There are those who think a story is told only to reveal what is known in this world. But a good story also reveals the unknown. Of it's nature, of course, the unknown cannot be fully depicted. It is there perhaps just in the tone of voice, or a style that is loosely knit, and admits thus of other possibilities. If, when a character and a situation meet, the outcome is already determined, the story lacks dimension. For it is the unpredictable outcome, the transformation of expectations, that points us in the direction of deeper insights....the story need not follow this unpredictable course, but only indicate that it existed as a possibility, as in a tragedy, when the hero or heroine, so set on a path that we in the audience can see leads to doom, cannot or does not turn to see the opening, the patch of spontaneous space, just behind, just over the shoulder, and beautiful even in memory." --Susan Griffin, Chorus of Stones "Although American society has defined progress as a focus on the future, we must now return to the past in order to place ourselves in that history and understand how we got where we are. As we try to grasp at crucial parallels and tease new stories out of them, new alternative chronicles surface; these are the latest examples of how collective memories, those storehouses of identity, once activated, become power sites of cultural resistance." --Coco Fusco, English is Broken Here Course Description: This course will explore the rich diversity of contemporary American feminist storytelling to examine issues surrounding the social legitimacy of women's voices and the ways they are expressed. Because stories far exceed the written literary form, we will look at narratives that take the forms of quilting, film, photography, performance, and song, as well as novels and poetry. We will begin with the premise that the stories we tell about ourselves and others both reflect and construct our reality; they inform our actions, shape our relationships with others, and allow us to make sense of the world in particular ways. They are therefore absolutely central to our lived experiences, but we do not all tell the same stories, and sometimes--unfortunately often--our narratives conflict in ways that help produce power hierarchies. The feminist framework of the course will allow us to locate the material we read within social power relations and analyze the connections between gender, narrative, and social legitimacy. The title for the course comes from the idea that feminism is partly about reclaiming voices that have been historically marginalized, so we will explore why stories get told in certain ways, who tells them, and what their implications are for listeners. This course will focus specifically on the role that stories play at the intersections of identities, and will take up questions such as: what kinds of stories does one tell when one is positioned at various points on the margin? How does one claim voice when dominant narratives have historically erased that voice? What is at stake and what gets excluded in the typical formation of categories such as "woman" or "American"? What is the relationship between politics and form, especially in terms of the borders of identities? These are just a few of the issues we will explore, and I am sure we will add more questions as we progress throughout the summer session. As we study a variety of feminist stories, including those in our own lives and communities, we will locate them in the social to interrogate the relationships between form, politics, subjectivity, and voice. Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: UNDERSTAND the role stories play in the construction of identities and in making sense of the world. ANALYZE stories through a feminist lens to understand what's at stake in the telling of them. SITUATE stories on the borders of identities to understand the implications of different narratives and narrative styles. Tell our own stories and locate them in relation to the ones we read in class. Course Texts: All books are available at My Sister Words, 101 N. McBride, and Orange Bookstore. Gloria Anzaldua. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Toni Morrison. Beloved. Leslie Marmon Silko. Ceremony. Course Reader, 1333 (Check title of course to be sure) --Available at Campus Copies, Marshall Square Mall. Assignments and Grade Distribution: Part of successful learning is determining what your strengths are and learning to work from them. Anyone who feels that he or she may have a learning disability should see me immediately. There is no shame in this, and letting your professors know who you are and how you learn is the first step in advocating for yourself as a student. Journal: 25% Critical Analysis Paper #1: 20% Critical Analysis Paper #2: 25% Class Attendance and Active Participation: 15% Interview with a Storyteller: 15% Participation and Attendance: This is a discussion class about politics, identity, stories, and voice, so obviously your voice is extremely important. The participation grade will be determined based on regular attendance and active participation, which means consistently doing the assigned reading and being prepared to have thoughtful discussions about them. Students who accumulate more than 3 unexcused absences will lose a third of a letter grade on their participation grade for every additional absence. Frequent absences preclude active learning and the contribution of your voice to our discussions. The quality of your participation will also determine the grade, and your journal should help you prepare for that. Journal: Since this class is also about situating our own stories in relation to those of others, you will be asked to keep a weekly journal, which will be collected periodically throughout the course. Journaling is a powerful way of writing to knowledge, and this one should include at least two parts: 1) The writing exercises we will regularly do in and out of class. Generally, these entries will run between 2-3 handwritten pages each. 2) Two discussion questions EVERY class about the readings that will be discussed that day. The questions can be about concepts or terms that are unclear to you, connections you would like to draw between those readings and others we've done, explorations into the implications of the ideas/themes presented, and so on. The questions are designed to keep us all reading actively, and to enable you all to help direct class discussions. Thus, though we will not get to every question in every class, they should be open and thoughtful enough to spark a provocative analysis of the readings (in other words, avoid yes/no or easily answered ones). Please date your journal entries, and keep them all in a loose-leaf, two-pocket folder. Professional Ground Rules: I expect each student to attend every class session, to do every assigned reading, to keep copies of every paper that you write for this class, to turn in all assignments on time, to exchange phone numbers with at least two people in the class in case you need clarification about something, and to let me know IMMEDIATELY if you are having problems with the course material or the issues that this material may raise for you. Furthermore, I expect that each speaker will take responsibility for her or his statements and be able to distinguish between critical positions and personal opinions. Be prepared to support your positions with evidence from the readings and lived experience--and to recognize the limits of personal experience. Course Readings and Calendar: (I reserve the right to make changes in this schedule and to assign any additional reading that becomes relevant to our class. You are responsible for keeping up with the assignments and any changes to them.) R= Article in the course reader; RP= poem in the course reader. I. The Uprooting of Identity: Stories as Cultural Politics Tues. May 25: Film: Smoke Signals (in-class). Distribute syllabus. Thurs., May 27: Fusco, "Passionate Irreverence: The Cultural Politics of Identity," 25-36; "Why Identity Politics Really, Really Sucks," p. 79-88; Wong, "Where Is My Country?" (RP). II. Naming: Claiming Voice Through Stories Tues., June 1: Perrault, "Autobiography/ Transformation/ Asymmetry," p. 1-30; Wilchins, "What Does It Cost to Tell the Truth?" p. 33-40; Lorde's The Cancer Journals, ch. 1 &2; Williams, "Clan of One-Breasted Women," p. 610-617. Thurs., June 3: Maxine Hong Kingston, "The Woman Warrior," p. 1-16; Sapphire's Push, p. 4-65 (ch. 1 &2); Henderson-Holmes, "Failure of an Invention" (RP). III. Negotiating the Borders of Narratives and Identities Tues., June 8: Anzaldua, The Homeland, Aztlan/ El otro Mexico" and "Movimientos de rebeldia y las cultural que traicionan," p. 1-24 and poetry, 100-136; Fusco, "Bilingualism, Biculturalism, and Borders," p. 147-158. Thurs., June 10: Anzaldua's poetry, p. 136-153; Kingsolver poems; Griffith, "Denial," p. 1-19. Critical Analysis paper #1 Due. Tues., June 15: Morrison's Beloved; Rice, "Beloved: Narratives of the Self," p. 101-118. Thurs., June 17: Walker, "Everyday Use," p. 174-182. Rich, "Natural Resources (RP); Piercy, "Looking at Quilts" (RP). IV. Performing the Border Tues., June 22: Butler, "Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions,"p. 128-141; Fusco, "The Other History of Intercultural Performance," 37-64; Maso, The Art Lover (excerpt), p. 5-30. Interview with a storyteller due. Thurs., June 24: Bornstein, "Solving the Gender Puzzle"; Anzaldua, "Tlilli, Tlapalli: The Path of the Red and Black Ink," p. 65-76. V. Re-Envisioning the Stories Tues., June 29: Silko, Ceremony; Salyer, "Ceremony: Healing With Stories," 31-57; Silko's "Pueblo Storytelling." . Thurs., July 1: Anzaldua's "La Conciencia de la mestiza," p. 77-99 and "El Retoro,"p. 192-204. Friday, July 2: Critical Analysis #2 Due. "Each of us is here now because in one way or another we share a commitment to language and to the power of language, and to the reclaiming of that language which has been made to work against us. In the transformation of silence into language and action, it is vitally necessary for each one of us to establish or examine her function in that transformation, and to recognize her role as vital within that transformation." --Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals And in the belly of this story the rituals and the ceremony are still growing. ---Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony