AAS 30: ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE JOURNAL GUIDELINES Mihiri Tillakaratne - Discussion Section 1I, 1K, 1L

Your journal responses are due every week in section, except for the week you are presenting. You are required to discuss all the weeks readings in your response. They are not a rehashing or regurgitation of lecture. This is a way for you to engage with the material on your own, and help you make connections among the different types of sources we will see in class. Journal responses should be typed, one page, double spaced, using 12 point Times New Roman font with one inch margins. If you want to do a deeper analysis and your response goes over one page using double spacing, please reduce spacing to 1.5 spacing or single spacing so that your response fits on one page.

Here are a few things to keep in mind while you are reading: Who is the speaker? Who are they speaking to? How does the author use metaphor/similes/imagery to illustrate a point? Who is the author? Think about the authors personal history and/or political affiliations. What is the author working toward? That is, what is the author trying to get us to care about? Why does the author use this particular format or medium (poem versus short story versus song) to get their message across? How would the message or reaction to the message be different if they were using another medium? How does the work resonate with your own experiences? Did you have an immediate reaction to a particular line or phrase, or to the work as a whole?

For your responses, look for one to two themes that come across in all the weeks readings. Some themes you can look for are: language, culture, race, gender, sexuality, class, exclusion/inclusion, family, ethnicity, etc. Do each of the authors have similar messages? How is race constructed and discussed? How are masculinity, femininity, and sexuality portrayed? How is class portrayed and discussed? Is there a particular word or words that come up in all of the weeks readings? How is this word used differently in each reading?

Note: Feel free to use your own personal experiences (if appropriate) in the journal if a particular reading/text resonates with you. Keep in mind that these responses will be read and may be shared, so try to avoid TMI.