Woman Warrior Greatest Hits Channel: Here is the video about Boudicca, the British warrior queen
Bonus: Jane sent this link and this one, about a dance company in Taiwan that is creating its own interpretations of Emily Dickinson's poetry.
Essay Option "Launch" #1: First Draft 4月25日 (星期天) ---> Conference 4月29日 (星期四) ---> Final Draft 5月7日 (星期五)
Essay Option "Launch" #2: First Draft 5月2日 (星期天) ---> Conference 5月7日 (星期五) ---> Final Draft 5月10日 (星期一)
Other Possibilities Negotiable!
Read: 2762-71頁 (Anzaldua bio. & excerpt from "How to Tame a Wild Tongue")... Spanish translations now posted... see comments below!
Read: 2819-27頁 (Cisneros bio. & "Woman Hollering Creek")
Read: 2791-2800頁 (Alvarez bio. & excerpt from Yo!)
162 (Zoe). I need a brief summary of the politics of language usage in Taiwan, specifically as it pertains to education. Any comparison to Anzaldua, Cisneros, and/or Alvarez would be helpful.
163 (Lucille). Why do you suppose the Norton editors do not give translation footnotes when Anzaldua uses Spanish or related languages/dialects? You may notice, for instance, that all of the Spanish in the Cisneros story is footnoted.
164 (Teresa). I will make your task even more complicated; now I want you to compare the use of allusion (another term is "intertextuality") in Fuller vs. Rich vs. Anzaldua! The question is, what function(s) do the allusions achieve or perform? What are their criteria for which allusions they choose?
165 (Ting). The concept of mexicano or raza that Anzaldua discusses on 2770頁 is a tricky one. On the one hand, she is clear that this identity is not strictly cultural... for instance she says that one can be Mexican race even if one is born in the United States and speaks only English. On the other hand, to make the identity strictly biological would seem to contradict her tendency to critique standard narratives of 'pure' origin (e.g. she questions 'pure' biological gender roles & questions the false starting points and ending points of 'pure' national/imperial histories, and she emphasizes the positive value of hybridity/diversity by celebrating her Indian and black heritage). So this is a culture, but it isn't cultural (in the sense of being arbitrary and transparently legible - "I see you"), and this is a race, but it isn't racial. So... what is it? In other words, what does she mean when she says "being Mexican is a state of the soul?" (You may find her dilemma somewhat similar to that of Kingston.)
166 (Emma). What themes do the television soap operas in "Woman Hollering Creek" present, and what function do they perform in the lives of the story's women? (I think Norton's view is somewhat oversimplified.) Compare Taiwanese soap operas (foreign or imported), in both typical theme and cultural function.
167 (Tracy). Explain the narrative technique of "Woman Hollering Creek"; actually it would be quite helpful to have a chart of the various narrators. There seems to be a third-person narrator (roughly Cisneros) and a first-person narrator (Cleofilas... I suppose we may also call this the Cisneros-narrator-using-a-free-indirect-discourse as in Austen, Joyce, Woolf?) But there seem to be other narrators as well, particularly on 2821 and 2826. And what is the function or purpose of presenting the narrative in this way?
168 (Letitia). Compare the presentation of work and working class experience that Cisneros gives to the presentation given by some other author(s) we've read (e.g. Equiano, Douglass, Dunbar, Kingston, Crane). Would this class barrier preclude intellectual or political affiliations between Cisneros and thoroughly middle class authors like Bishop, Rich, Plath, Alvarez? (Or Adams, Fuller, Stowe, Fern, Dickinson, Gilman... if we are being imagine them to be still alive).
169 (Winnie). Some questions about empire... what evidence do you see in "Yo!" of a racial caste system on the Dominican island? What evidence do you see of U.S. American power extending into the Dominican Republic? What evidence of U.S. American power in the D.R. does Alvarez de-emphasize? (Hint: consult "Rise to Power" and "Foreign Policy" in this short biography of the dictator Trujillo.)
170 (Viola). How and why does Alvarez incorporate Spanish and 'Spanglish' into her story? Compare to Anzaldua and Cisneros.
171 (Sydney). Compare the relationship between Alvarez's narrator & Yo(landa) to the relationship between Kingston's mother & Kingston's narrator/alter-ego. What does "Yo" mean in Spanish, and why might this be important? And how is the "bear" is like the "sitting ghost"?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Anzaldua Footnotes Part 1:
ReplyDelete2763
Pa'hallar buen trabajo tienes que saber hablar el ingles bien. Que vale toda tu education si todavia hablas ingles con un accent
[To find good work, you must know how to speak English well. What is all your education worth if you still speak English with an accent?]
El Anglo con cara de inocente nos arranco la lengua
[The white person with the innocent face tears out our tongue.]
Ahogadas, escupimos el oscuro,
Peleando con nuestra propia sombra
el silencio nos sepulta
[Drowned, we gag in the dark (?), fighting our own shadow, the silence buries us]
En boca cerrada no entran moscas
[Flies don't fly into a closed mouth.]
Ser habladora
[To be a talker]
Muchachitas bien criadas
[Well-bred girls]
Es una falta de respeto
[It's a lack of respect.]
hablar pa'tras, repelar
[to talk back, to repel]
Hocicona, repelona, chismosa
[I don't know the first word... the second means someone repellent, the third means a gossiper]
mal criada
[well-bred]
2764
nosotras/nosotros
[我們... feminine and masculine form]
nos quieren poner candados en la boca
[We'd like to put padlocks on our mouths]
reglas de academia
[academic rules]
Oye como ladra: el lenguaje de la frontera
Quen tiene boca se equivoca
[Whoever has a mouth, is a liar.]
evolucion, enriquecimiento de palabras nuevas por invencion o adopcion
[Evolution, enriching of new words by invention or adoption]
un nuevo lenguage
[a new language]
Un lenguaje que corresponde a un modo de vivir
[A language that corresponds to a new mode of living]
espanol ni ingles
[neither Spanish nor English]
2765
Pachucho
[the literal translation is "seedy", something like "yellow" in Chinese... you could try Wikipedia]
calo
[I think this is another word for Chicano]
los recien llegados
[the recently arrived]
tejana/tejano
["Texas-person"]
maiz
[corn]
cohete
[rocket]
lado
[side]
mojado
[wet]
2766
tirado
[discarded]
el lenguaje popular, dialectos y regionalismos
[popular language, dialects and regionalisms]
estar
[是]
estoy
[我是]
ahora
[now]
cubano
[Cuban]
puertorriqueno
[Puerto Rican... an island that is a U.S. territory but has limited sovereignty]
tortilla
[food made out of a flat corn pancake]
ella
[她]
botella
[bottle]
tocar
[to touch]
gastar
[to spend]
lavaste las vacijas
[Wash your ???]
vosotros
[你們]
imaginate
[Just imagine...]
me emociona
[I'm excited!]
Deslenguadas
[un-tongued]
Somos los del espanol deficiente
[We're the ones with defective Spanish]
mestizaje
[mixed-ness]
burla
[a joke]
somos huerfanos
[we are orphans]
2767
agringadas
[turned into gringos... turned into white Americans, i.e.]
Anzaldua Footnotes Part 2:
ReplyDelete2768
Vistas, corridos, y comida
[Movies, border songs, and food]
Vamonos a las vistas
[Let's go to the movies]
Nosotros los pobres
[We are the poor ones]
Cuando los hijos se van
[When the children leave]
bailes
[dances]
bolero
[a musical style... try Wikipedia]
rancherita
[a musical style... try Wikipedia]
2769
La cucaracha
["The Cockroach"]
la Gloria de Tejas
[The Glory of Texas]
El tango negro
[The dark dance, the black dance]
2770
mexicanos del otro lado
[Mexicans from the other side]
mexicanos de este lado
[Mexicans from this side]
Si preguntas a mi mama, Que eres? te dira, Soy mexicana.
[If you ask my mother, what are you? She will say, I am Mexican.]
A veces no soy nada ni nadie. Pero hasta cuando no lo soy, lo soy.
[Sometimes I am nothing and nobody. But
2771
tenemos que hacerla lucha. Quien esta protegiendo los ranchos de mi gente? Quien esta tratando de cerrar la fisura entre la india y el blanco en nuestra sangre? El Chicano, si, el Chicano que anda como un ladron en su propia casa.
[We must make a fight. Who is protecting the lands of my people? Who is trying to close the gap between the Indian and the white in our blood? The Chicano, yes, the Chincao that walks like a thief in his own house.]
norteamericano
[North American... meaning U.S. American]
Humildes
[humble]
quietos
[still, quiet, not moving]
This is Teresa’s answer to question 164.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the dictionary, the literary term “intertextuality” means the relationship between texts, especially literary texts. My following comparisons of Fuller, Rich, and Anzaldua would base on this identification.
It’s not hard to find in Fuller’s “The Great Lawsuit” that many writers’ names are appeared. First, Fuller mentions one author such as Mary Wolstoncraft, and then she start to introduce Wolstonecraft as well as points out the connection between the theme and Wolstonecraft (P.741). Rich chooses many male and female writers as examples to extend her theme about man vs. men, woman vs. women. By this, Rich’s essay seems more persuasive to readers.
In Snapshots of a Dauther-in-Law, as teacher has mentioned last week, Rich puts many historical sources into her poems without directly quoting authors’ words or name. A non-native English speaker as I, if the poem does not provide the footnotes for me, I would never find out that Rich does quote something in her poem. For instance, “A thinking woman sleeps with monsters”, I would never know that monsters means a giant bird not a terrible dragon. Rich’s use of allusion helps readers to get closer look in her theme of poem. However, if readers like me as well as have no footnotes to help out, the fantastic allusions would not work out for us.
Anzaldua “directly” quotes one or two lines of words of other authors, and puts these quotations right between two paragraphs of his essays. The function of the quotation is to build a bridge between two paragraphs. In other words, the quotation is like a link of two paragraphs. The quotation helps author to conclude the paragraphs above, and extends more thoughts to another paragraph below. Different from Fuller and Rich, Anzaldue also quotes a few Mexican saying to support his theme of essay.
This is Tracy to answer the question 167.
ReplyDeleteIn the story Woman Hollering Creek, Cisneros changes the point of view of narrator quite often. Aside from the third person point of view, which, is quite common in narrating fiction. Yet several first person viewpoints of the characters also intertwine in the story, for example, Cleofilas and the doctor, especially the different identities of Cleofilas herself. The monologue-like narration resembles Woolf’s and Joyce’s writing: stream of conscious. What’s more, their languages are all in “poetic prose” style, creating their particular aesthetics. Through such narrations, readers may be interrupted or their perception may be shattered. I think it may lead to readers’ chaotic perception toward the text; as a result, what’s important is not the text on the surface anymore, but the subtext between author’s words and lines, which needs readers to pay more attention to.
This is Lucille answering Q163
ReplyDeleteWhen I finished reading her article, the first answer of this question jumped in my mind is that “there are too much Spanish in her work, if all of them are noted, the footnote part may occupy at least half page of every page.”
Well, that’s kidding. I think the that Norton editors do not give translation footnotes when Anzaldua uses Spanish or related languages/dialects is because that most of the Spanish’s meaning is not important at all, some of the Spanish are used to present the sound. And most part of the longer Spanish and dialects author gives its explanation just before or after that line; there is no need to explain them again in footnote. More exactly to say, it won’t bother us when we are reading her article if there isn’t footnote of these Spanish words and sentences.
Hi this is Ting Ju to answer Q165.
ReplyDeleteI think the "state of the soul" comes from individual/personal consciousness. In other words, no matter it is regarded racial/non-racial or cultural/non-cultural, the idea occurs when those people are aware of the word mexicano/raza, and use the word to self-indicate.
Take Anazldua for example, she tried to identify herself in various phases: language, race, terrotory, movie, music, food, etc. She found out that none of the existent groups could satisfy her pursue and belonging. She had to define herself firstly by being excluded from all other groups. At this time, even being called mexicano/raza, it is still not a "state of the soul."
Then Anzaldua recognized her group of people as a new group (new in creating, not existing); they have their own mixture habits/cultures/languages... And the most important of all, they call themselves Mexicano/Raza because they are who they are, they live how they live life. They give the word its new meaning without reference to other racial/cultural/national groups. Thus this is "state of the soul." It can be racial, cultural, mental or even emotional, but it can only be actively named and defined by Mexicano/Raza themselves.
This is Sydney's answer to question 171.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Alvarez’s narrator and Yo(landa) appear as two separate individuals in the narrative, they are actually two sides of the same coins. Since “Yo” means “I” in Spanish, I think “Yo” here might be the reflection of the narrator and the author’s real thoughts and feelings. Through Yo(I)’s mouth and reaction, the inner thoughts which the narrator has hidden from others could reveal to the readers.
The similar strategy could be found in Woman Warrior, too. Kingston has used different perspectives (narrators) to tell her mother’s and others’ stories. However, these characters in her story just perform the different aspects of the same theme. For example, her mother is a fighter against the oppression and her aunt a victim.
As for the “bear” and the “sitting ghost”, I think both of them represent the oppressive power from the past, and show how this power continually haunts and affects current mental state.
This is Winnie answering Q.169.
ReplyDeleteIn “¡Yo!” the author mentions a little about the social unit, “clan,” on the Dominican island; a clan consists of a huge number of family members and a group of nanny-maids, who take care of both the babies and the elders. It is suggested in the text that those nanny-maids are people of “dark skin,” for the author says, “[Yo] seemed to like to hang around [the maids] more than she did her own kin, so that if she had been darker, I would have thought she was a changeling that got switched with my own flesh and blood.”
Alvarez’s comparing well-dressed Carlos to “a rich plantation owner in an American ad” indicates the superior power of U.S. in economy. Also, since Trujillo, the dictator, gained his political power basically because of the U.S. government, I think the Trujillo government itself could be seen as the extension of U.S. American power in Dominican Republic, and about this, Alvarez speaks of the dictatorship, people’s worries, the SIM, and the horrible things that happen on the island. However, though one can tell from “¡Yo!” how Trujillo and his power have affected the people, one is not able to see the cult of Trujillo, for Alvarez here only portrays the Trujillo government as something she’d like to get away from.
this is Letitia's Answer.
ReplyDeleteTake Kingston, Cisneros and Rich for example. They are all women writers.
The class barrier will definitely brings about the different concerns. Kingston and Cisneros’s concerns will not be the same with Rich’s. Firstly, most people in working class are immigrants. They face the complicate problems that white people don’t have, such as identity problem. Second, people who were in working class have to work hard to earn money. Life is hard. In this condition, women usually become victims of family abuse because the male worker’s bad mood and alcoholism. As the result, writers who are born in working class tend to focus on their own life experience and the problems in their life. Their works are more “personal” than middle class white writer. For example, both Kingston and Cisneros have the same problem of identity and traditional restriction on women. Cisneros even points out the family abuse problem in Mexican American family. Their works show the problems of minority to the society. However, Rich doesn’t have to worry about her identity or family abuse or poverty problem. Therefore her ambition is bigger than Kinston and Cisneros. Her poems have political aims. Her works are not sharing her experience but try to resist or proclaim political ideologies. Not born in troublesome working class family and white people identity are two keys that make her works different from Kingston and Cisneros’.
Here’s Emma’s answer to question#166.
ReplyDeleteSoap operas mentioned in "Woman Hollering Creek" are mostly about romantic love stories. The operas usually contain plots that the main characters, after undergoing all the obstacles, finally attain the great love of their life. To Cleófilas,the protagonist of “Woman Hollering Creek” , soap operas irrigate her boring life with passion. During the days she spent in her hometown, watching soap operas is her favorite pastime. She and her girlfriends would pay much attention to the dressing and hairstyle of the characters of soap operas. Characters in soap operas are the ideal projection of self-identity.
Because real life is imperfect, people desire to dive into a perfectly-designed world. Soap operas always depict a pattern of ideal love and ideal life, which provide common audience a space of imagination. And that’s the reason why Cleófilas feels so much disappointed about living without a TV set. As a Mexican immigrant in the U.S., she suffers from not only language barrier but domestic violence. What’s more, she is not independent both on economy and transportation. Is this case, a strong sense of isolation can be predicted.
Soap operas are popular in Taiwan, too. Generally speaking, there are two types: trendy drama and local drama. Trendy drama features good-looking actors or popular idols, with a typical theme of romances and a main audience group of young people. As the narrator of "Woman Hollering Creek" describes, such dramas fulfill the audience’s need of romantic fantasy. As for local drama, which is characterized by the Taiwanese language, often depicts stories of some civilians who struggle to make a living or narrates the shape of domestic life. Local drama usually has the audience of middle-age and elder women. According to my mom, who is a lover of local dramas, such kind of drama speaks out her mind. She can always identify herself with the characters in the drama, especially an unfortunate but resolute heroine, who sacrifices a great deal for her children and family.
I think the reason why local drama appeals to many women is that they are a culturally-repressed group of people. Woman is the disadvantaged gender in a patriarchal society. In the case of women from the lower class, they appear to be even more disadvantaged for their gender and economic situation. Local drama functions as a channel in which women can identify themselves with the characters and then vent their suppressed emotions.
Answer to question 170:
ReplyDeleteThe use of a different language brings readers into a different core of value that might be largely opposite to the used one. All three of Alvarez, Anzaldua and Cisneros mean to put Spanish among English wordy and also literally--- to remind to readers and themselves their double identities from rime to time and create continual cultural contrast between lines.
While Anzaldua’s huge amount of Spanish sentences and teaching by translating strictly to readers shows impulsion to prove a better existence of her Spanish identity than an English, Cisneros writes more identically with Alvarez’s style but amount to the level of Anzaldua’s. Cisneros mentions lots Spanish names, nouns and sometimes sentences. Besides a few Spanish nouns and names, “companeros” is the only adjective Alvarez used but is also the one distinguishes her Spanlish from other two. Alvarez incorporates Spanish the smallest amount comparing to the two others, but her Spanglish seems the most with fluency to me. I’ve noticed that simple English sentences mixing with some grammar error such as omitting verbs is the most seen Spanlish in Alvarez and Cisneros’ works. Why I think Alvarez is more successful in incorporating Spanish into her text is that she is more open to welcome and admit her English identity and thus uses only a little Spanish to let the story itself portrait her Spanish identity rather than Spanish words. She is confident enough in the strength of her story. The last paragraph on Page 2799 may be her explanation to such style. Besides, the use of Spanish, “Yo” in the text title has already easily won her over the other two in the double identities concept.
I could not find an exemple to Anzaldua's writing
ReplyDeletebut stories from grandma and my mother forbidden to speak Taiwanese in school was an live exemple.
The following is my research...
The Changes of Language Usage in Speech, Education, and Document on the Land of Taiwan
Dutch Formosa (Started in the Southern part of Taiwan)
1624-1662
1636 the first school in Taiwan history. The school “新港社” was for aboriginal children, men, and women. However, only the men was to be educated to read and write. (Aboriginal society used to be Matriarchal society) The teachers there taught in aboriginal languages.
The first writing system was then introduced into Taiwan and created a number of Romanization schemes for the various Formosan languages.
1648 Experiments were made with teaching native children the Dutch language, adapt Dutch names and costume and taught in Dutch.
1659 Seminary were widely spread with the use of aboriginal staff along with a well established education system.
Spanish Formosa (colonized the Northern part of Taiwan and later defeated by Dutch)
1626-1642
The Spanish was competing with the Dutch in the South. They did not introduce much education into the area. Only after father Jacinto Esquivel came that he had written 「淡水語辭彙」(Vocabularino de la lengua de los Indios Tanchui en la Isla Hermosa)以及「淡水語教理書」(Doctrina cristiana en la lengua de los Indios Tanchui en la Isla Hermosa)
There was war between Dutch and Spanish arguing for land, and the document in between was written in Latin.
Kingdom of Tungning
1662-1683
Chinese Confucius system of education was introduce along with immigrants from mainland China who spoke the early Taiwanese (泉州口音的閩南語). The Taiwanese used in this period adapt large amount of Dutch and aboriginal language pronunciation.
Economically, the Tungning traded with the English instead of China and the document in between used both English and Chinese.
Qing Dynasty (complete racism)
1684-1895
Early occupation 1684-1760
Education: Education was set for Chinese under the Confucius system and Chinese and go to mainland China to take exam and become a governor.
Government: There was a boycott for married man to come to Taiwan. And the Chinese in Taiwan was forbidden to marry Aboriginal. The governmental document was written in Mandarin.
Aboriginal: The education of Chinese was little. Aboriginal used Latin to spell their language for documents.
Latter occupation 1761-1895
Education: The part with Chinese education system remained the same but more people are educated than any time before.
Government: The government began to pay attention to rule Taiwan more. Fewer boycotts were given. The documental language was Mandarin with little effects of Taiwanese. The main spoken Language was still Taiwanese or Hakka in some area.
Aboriginal: After a conflict between Aboriginal and the Japanese Qing government started to pay attention to Aboriginal problems. The government set Aboriginal school to teach aboriginals to read and write Chinese. And the government also taught them to adapt Chinese culture.
THIS IS ZOE'S ANSWER TO 162 IN CASE THAT IS NOT CLEAR!!!
ReplyDeleteJapanese Empire
1895-1945
This part of Taiwan history is very complicated. To put it brief, both the Chinese and aboriginal were put in many ways (education, religion, culture policy, police system etc.) to learn Japanese and its culture. The later part of Japanese occupation even tried to transform Taiwan people into Japanese. The influence was massive because the amount of primary schools for both genders were more like any before, not to mention the found of universities and colleges. However, the spoke language did not change for most aboriginal, Hakka, and Taiwanese. The governmental document, educational and research papers were all written in Japanese. To notice, the education of the former Confucius system did not vanish but underwent a secret institute in the Taiwanese society.
Republic of China
1945-
After the Chinese taken held of the government in Taiwan, education of modern system were soon established but still many Confucius system education remained.
After the Nationalist party taken over Taiwan, modern education system expanded fast. Government used standard Mandarin as we see today. The language in school is standard Mandarin. And pupil who spoke Taiwanese in school would have been punished.
Nowadays, schools have class of many different mother-tongues, such as Taiwanese, Hakka, Tsou, Atayal, Amis, Paiwan, etc., for the students in purpose to remain the diversity of culture color in Taiwan.
This is Jane, Peggy and Sidney elaborate and respond to Sidney’s answer on question #171
ReplyDeleteWe all agree that since the Spanish word “yo” means I, Yo means both the mother and the daughter in Alvarez’s work. Yolanda and the narrator are both traumatized in the same way. Near the bottom of P.2799, the narrator says, “
“Yes,” I say. And suddenly, I am feeling such envy for my daughter, who is able to speak of what terrifies her. I myself can’t find the words in English—or Spanish. Only the howling of the bear I used to impersonate captures some of what I feel.”
The terrifying feeling is what Yolanda and her mother feels the same. We are thinking that whether this kind of struggle with the outside pressure passes through generations. Just like what we’ve read in Kingston’s work, the narrator also inherits her mother’s struggle with the American society. Even though both the two mothers and daughters are haunted by the past and facing the uncertainty of the American society, what the daughter experienced and what the mother faced are still very different. In Alvarez’s work, she uses Yolanda to reveal the pressure she wanted to express; in Kingston’s work, she uses her mother as the reflection of the past. Yolanda and Kingston are considered to be the second generation of the immigration while their mothers are the first generations who have to fight against the unknown coming ghost. And
We also discussed the real cause of the suffering that haunted the narrator in “Yo!”
Also on P2799, She says “What this lady can’t know is that I’m not just crying about leaving home or about everything we’ve lost, but about what is to come.”
It is the process of the Americanize that frightens her. What they have suffered in Dominica and dictatorship is no longer the greatest threat;however, foreshadowing on that she is forced to “make up a story to tell” in the future is the most unbearable things for the narrator.
This is Teresa and Sharon's further response to Teresa’s answer on 164.
ReplyDeleteAs I answered previously, “Anzaldua ‘directly’ quotes one or two lines of words of other authors, and puts these quotations right between two paragraphs of his essays.” I thought the function of the quotation is to build “a bridge” between two paragraphs. According to this metaphor of “bridge”, Sharon came out a question, “who is the passengers across the bridge?” In other words, who is the main reader of Anzaldua’s essay? We both agreed that the readers must be Mexican-American. On the English bridge everyone could easily pass to the next paragraphs. However, when the Spanish bridge appeared, only those who acquire Spanish could get the passport. The other readers like us are no way to go, but skip this bridge.
We think that quotation between paragraphs do emphasize the theme and let readers get more closer look in the main point of essay. However, the people who couldn’t read Spanish are stuck by these repeated Spanish words. For us, Anzaldua’s essay is a bit hard to read because of the use of Spanish in it.
This is Meg, Carol, Winnie posting further discussion on Q.169.
ReplyDeleteWhen Alvarez writes about the social worker, she depicts how the young woman looks like. The American social worker has “a blonde braid down her back” and “eyes so blue.” The social worker has very clear feature of white, and she also have the power, or being assumed to have the power, whether to send the family back to Dominican Republic or to stay in the United Sates. Alvarez also describes the social worker, Sally O’Brien, as “a schoolgirl dressed in an old lady’s suit.” It is the blond schoolgirl like girl that the narrator, Laura, is afraid of. I don’t usually assume a social worker to be a blond young woman in the United Sates according to my “stereotype.” Therefore, I assume that Laura is also afraid of the image of a “white person” from the United Sates since the power of the United States was helping Trujillo’s power back in Dominican Republics. The fear of facing the social worker seems to be similar to face the horror back home. When Laura answers the question O’Brien asks, she actually does not mention the word “dictatorship;” however, after she glances to the notes O’Brien makes, she decides that “this will be the story I tell in the future about those hard years.” This seems to me as the learning from the experience back home: to follow what the blonde indicates you do and your situation will be fine later on.
This is Rea and Ken elaborating Letitia’s answer to Q 168
ReplyDeleteWe agree with Letitia’s point that the writers from different classes value different notions. Writers from the middle class, like Rich, care more about the whole thing, the overall conceptual aspect, whereas writers from the working class, such as Kingston and Cisneros, devote themselves to reveal their lives to the rest of the world. Due to various concerns and living experiences, their muses (or their “genius”) are different. We believe that their motives to create are somehow different, but there’s also a shared desire: three of them all convey the difficulties for females; they want this to be read. Class may vary the aspect of idea (theoretical and practical), yet the very cause of the creation is identical. Just like the difference between lawmaker and social workers, writers from the middle class and working class actually see the same problem but write from different angles.
This is Ted, Vincent, and Lucille producing an extension answer of Q163.
ReplyDeleteAfter discussing this question, we produced a conclusion. The reason that the Norton editors do not give translation footnotes when Anzaldua uses Spanish or related languages/dialects was because “they intended to do so.” Why? In the article, Anzaldua has her own way to use Spanish. If the Spanish had been footnoted, the whole article will be meaningless and artificially modified.
Spanish in her article stand for several functions. First, she can attack Anglos who don’t understand Spanish with words they can’t realize. Her Spanish is to create irony for the mainstream / English readers so that they would feel the frustration and irritation while reading her writings, And The purpose for this is that she wants the readers to "feel" the discrimination that she felt during her childhood, in both gender and ethnic identity.
Second, she can use dialect of her mother language (Spanish) but not the language (English) that she was recommended to speak. By this way, the people who have same identity with her can easily understand her work and then identified with her idea. Also, does that mean that the people who couldn’t read Spanish and would not like to check out the word meanings discriminate against Chicana culture? Third, when the concept was vague or difficult to speak in English, or when it was originated from Spanish linguistic, she would use Spanish to explain.
On the other hand, Cisneros did not have this kind of concern. Most of her works are describing love and passion, and she didn’t mean to ask for identification or ask for people to make research on her Spanish.
To conclude, the editors of Norton decided to keep the "Spanglish" in its original way in Anzaldua, which included complex meaning of author’s intension, and cannot be footnoted.
This is the further discussion about language policy in Taiwan. (Question 162) It is from Iris, and Qian Yu.
ReplyDeleteLanguage policy is absolutely one of the strongest powers of the authorities. Also it is commonly used in Taiwan in different periods. After discussing with Zoe, we think that language policies which conduct in the period of Japanese colonization and Republic of China has still affected our using language now.
First, Japanese deeply influenced Taiwanese. Many modern words in Taiwanese were translated from Japanese. Second, Mandarin becomes the major language in Taiwan after the language policy of KMT government. Without doubt, most of Taiwanese people spoke in Taiwanese or Hakka originally; however, the education and language policies after Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan force all people to speak in Mandarin. Therefore, today Taiwanese and Hakka become the minority. Mandarin become the official language and is widely used in this island.
Language policies also lead the loss of mother tongue. Since Mandarin becomes the major language, fewer and fewer people value Taiwanese, Hakka or even aboriginal languages. There are many cases in Taiwan show that many children cannot fluently speak the language their parents usually used in their conversation. In our parents or grandparents generation, most people can speak in their mother tongue well. However, in our generation, more and more people can speak only in Mandarin. No one can deny that language policy plays a key role in this situation.
However, language policy also has positive effect. Due to the impetus of Mandarin, Mandarin becomes a mutual language in Taiwan. It is very important that people in Taiwan who belong to different groups and have different languages have a common language to communicate with each other.
This is Ting, Esther and Crystal making some changes to answer Q165.
ReplyDeleteFor Anzaldua, the concept of mexicano/raza as a group is not totally racial or cultural, but emphasizes mutual memories. We can see from Anzaldua's text that she tries to solve her delimma through linguistics and cultures. While a group of people, they share some features (ex. language, music, food, etc.) together, they are creating collective memory at the same time. The memory connects them as a whole and distincts them from others.
Indeed the idea mexicano/raza or other group titles are very hard to explain. Chicanos may share some similarities with Mexicans, while they are not at all familiar with Mexican culture themselves. They share ground and nation with white Americans, while they are thought to be "other races". If we apply Anzaldua's theory to these situations, we find it more acceptable and reasonable. It is people's own experience and memories that makes them faithful and develop their recognition with their community.