1040 Weeks 5,6,7

On a clean sheet of paper:

Pick one place in the essay where the use of Spanish really stood out to you. This might be because you found the ideas interesting, because you found it particularly hard to understand, because the section had strong emotions etc.

Why do you think that Anzaldúa decided to include the Spanish/Spanglish/Texmex words that she did here? What message is she trying to send by doing that? Why did this section stand out to you in particular?

In your teams:

1. Discuss what you wrote. What stood out to you? Do you know any Spanish? How do you think the meaning and experience of this essay changes based on what languages and dialects the reader knows?

2. Anzladúa makes the argument that identity and language are closely related. In what ways are they related? Why do you think this is true?

3. Anzaldúa's essay relies on stories from her life (especially at the beginning and the end). How do they make the essay more effective than if she used a more distanced and impersonal forma of writing?

4. Are there any regionalisms or dialects where you come from? Do some groups use language differently than others (this might be based on class, heritage, age etc.)? Do you know anything about how these changes came to be?

What is code switching?

In your teams:

Look at your assigned paragraph.

How much Spanish/Chicana Spanis/Tex-Mex does she use?

Even if you do not speak these languages, what can you learn about these words or sentences based on context clues? What information can you not figure out based on context?

Why do you think Anzaldúa decided to write these exact words and phrases in one of the Spanish dialects? What is the rhetorical effect? What message does she send about who she is and who understands her?

Take a close look at your word:

1. What emotions or ideas do you associate with this word? If someone were to say this word randomly (not in this essay) what would pop into your head?

2. Why do you think she chose to use this word? In this section of the essay, what is Anzaldúa trying to make her reader feel? What is she trying to make her reader think? How does this word fit into that strategy?

3. You might consider why she chose to use this word and not a near synonym? How would the ideas and emotions of the sentence be subtly different if she'd used a different word?

In your teams:

Discuss the ideas you came up with about your word. Choose which ones you think are the strongest or go together the best. Write three sentences analyzing this word's use in this sentence/paragraph as if it were part of a paper.

Email me your sentences (anne-sand@uiowa.edu) when you are done.

Thursday:

In class work day! Bring what you need in order to be productive.

Spend a minute journaling on your own:

What do you think it means to be an Iowan? If you consider yourself an Iowan you might speak from experience. If you aren't you might consider what others have said or what you've noticed since coming to Iowa.

Who do you picture when you picture an "Iowan"? What do you associate with that identity? You might consider the values people hold, personalities traits they hold, things they like/dislike.

In your teams:

Discuss what you wrote. What did your definitions of being Iowan have in common? How were they different from each other?

Using a phone/laptop/tablet find an image or artifact online (could be an article/tweet/ video etc.) that represents your understanding of what it means to be "Iowan".

Be prepared to share your example with the class and tell people why you picked it.

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Paper 2:

Identity Search

Look at the list of identity markers:

On your own, just go through and mark which ones you feel apply to you, which ones are important to you, which ones are less important to you.

When you are done, take a minute to journal (you will not hand this in or be required to share). Which of these markers are important to how you think of yourself? Which ones do other people assume are important or overemphasize in how they think of you? In what situations do you feel more aware of one or another? Which ones do you have strong emotional reactions (positive or negative) to?

With a partner:

Talk a little about what you wrote or how you think about identity. What situations make us more aware of different parts of our identity? What assumptions do people make about our identities and why?

Do not share things that feel too personal or that you don't feel comfortable sharing.

As we did with "Iowan" find a cultural artifact that represents some part of your identity. This could be a song, image, tweet etc. What about this artifact do you connect with?

On a clean sheet of paper:

Both Rankine's and Biss's essays focus in large part on motherhood.

Why do you think they chose to emphasize this?

How are the ways they use motherhood to talk about race similar?

How are they different?

In your teams:

1.Both Rankine's and Biss's essays focus in large part on motherhood. Why do you think they chose to emphasize this? How are the ways they discuss motherhood similar and different?

2. Biss theorizes that the defining element of "whiteness" is debt. In what sense does she mean debt? Why does she think this? How is this related to Rankine's argument that a defining element of the black experience is mourning?

3. Rankine points out that the decision of Emmett Till's mother to have an open casket funeral was a "refusal to keep private grief private". A lot of activism is based around this idea, including most recently, the #MeToo movement. What are the strengths of these sorts of actions? What are the motivations and potential pitfalls (for the cause or for the individuals) of the strategy?

4. In some ways this essay is a blaring of trumpets for the Black Lives Matter movement (though Rankine is not officially affiliated with BLM). What does she mean at the end of the essay when she says, "Grief, then, for these deceased others might align some of us, for the first time, with the living"?

Using sources

In your teams:

1. Trace back the source as best you can. Who is the author/creator? What do they do/are they known for? When was this source created? What is it?

2. Try to find the source in the library database. How did you find it? What did you search?

3. What roll does this source play in Biss/Rankine's exploration of the white/black experience? What ideas or connections does it add that wouldn't be here otherwise? Why do you think she chose this source?

Spend some time journalling:

Take another look at the source that you and your team discussed then take a look at other essay (the one your source didn't come from).

What connections can you draw between this source and the essay?

In what ways could this source relate to the other writer's ideas?

What might this source potentially add to the other essay?

For Tuesday:

Read "Monster Glossary" by Alexander Pines

On a sheet of paper (not turning in)

Tell a story about a time when when you felt a strong emotion. It could be a big important thing or a not so important thing.

For this exercise pick a story that has at least two people involved.

Give us the play by play of what happened. Try to give us a sense of who the people involved are/what they are like.

Gender vs. Sex vs. Sexuality

In your teams:

1. At what point in the essay did you realize this narrator is trans? Why do you think he chose to reveal his gender identity this way? How would you describe our writer's persona? What sort of personality to we get on the page?

2. Our narrator is clearly exploring what it means to him to be a trans man. What are some of the questions he is implicitly asking and what answers (even partial ones) does he find? What elements of his experiences surprised or confused you?

3. Our writer is exploring ideas of monstrocity. When you think of monsters, what comes to your mind? What makes something monstrous? How is our narrator connecting to and rebelling against the monsters he reads about?

4. One of the struggles of our narrator is that all the stories around him about what it means to be a man, even a trans man, don't feel like they reflect his experiences. Why is this a struggle for him and how does he try to deal with it?

Robert De Niro as Frankenstein's Monster in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein 1994

Gustave Doré's rendering of Geryon in The Divine Comedy 1861

Strategy: How to Use Personal Stories

as Evidence

"I have a friend who uses the word 'faggot' with the ease that I say 'problematic'. Back in Michigan, we get beers to commemorate recent breakups. He has just moved back and will be here for at least a few years. I'm only visiting."

In your teams:

1. Pick a place where Pines is using a story to convey information. What information is "told" to the reader. What information is "shown". How is it shown?

2. How does the information in this scene relate to the argument of Pine's essay?

Work on your scene:

Try to use some of the strategies of "show don't tell" and concision to improve your scene. How can you help your reader understand what you are trying to tell them without telling them outright?

Feel free to work with your teammates or a partner.

For Thursday:

Read the academic article "Managing Uncertainty" in the course pack

In your teams:

1. What information or ideas more surprised you from this article? What confused you or did you have questions about?

2. Start by talking about the structure of the article. What was the purpose behind each section? Why are they included? What type of information is in each?

3. In which sections did you find the information that was the most significant or important to you? Which sections were easier or harder to understand? What questions do you have about the article? Either in terms of structure, writing style or information presented?

4. According to this article, what is "stigma" and "discrimination"? What are some of the possible psychological sources of stigma or reason for it existing?

In your teams:

1. Pick one idea or quote from the article that you see as connected to the ideas in "Monster Glossary". This could be a small detail (a particular statistic or quote) or a larger idea that this essay proves about the nature of stigma or the experiences of transgender people.

2. If Pines were to use this idea/quote in his essay, how might he weave it in? Rewrite or outline a section of Pine's essay to show how you would include the idea.

3. Be aware of the emotions and style that Pines is trying to create in that point in his essay. Is there a way to weave in the idea so that it feels continuous with his essay? So that it doesn't feel jerky or jarring?

For Tuesday:

Read: "The History of Happiness" by Peter N. Sterns

"Split Image" by Kate Fagan

TRIGGER WARING: "Split Image" includes a discussion of mental illness and suicide, read as you are able

Pay particular attention to the way photos are used as sources in "Split Image"