Summer Projects

Since a number of you expressed interest in reading recommendations and writing projects to pursue over the summer, I’ve compiled some lists of readings and activities that might interest you. Thank you for a wonderful semester, which we weathered together despite profound difficulties! I’ve been so pleased with your development as readers, writers, and critical thinkers.

Reading Recommendations

Translated Books

• Elena Ferrante’s next three novels in the Neapolitan Quartet: Story of a New Name, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and The Story of the Lost Child, translated by Ann Goldstein
• Simone de Beauvoir’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, translated by James Kirkup
• Colette’s Claudine novels, translated by Antonia White
• Maryse Condé’s I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, translated by Richard Philcox
• Grazia Deledda’s Reeds in the Wind and Cosima, translated by Martha King
• Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, translated by Thomas and Carol Christensen
• Dacia Maraini’s The Silent Duchess, translated by Dick Kitto and Elspeth Spottiswood (e-book available through OskiCat)
• George Sand’s The Devil’s Pool, multiple translations (e-book versions – with various translators! – available through OskiCat)
• Wislawa Szymborska’s Map: Collected and Last Poems, translated by Clare Cavanaugh and Stanislaw Baranczak
• Susanna Tamaro’s Follow Your Heart, translated by John T. Cullen

English-Language Books with Similar Themes

• Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women (e-book available through OskiCat)
• Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career (e-book available through OskiCat)
• Mary Karr’s The Liars’ Club (e-book available through OskiCat)
• Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John
• Joy Kogawa’s Obasan
• Carson McCullers’ The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

• Francine Prose’s Household Saints
• Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
• Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife

Writing/Translation Projects

• Continue working on your creative translation projects! All of these were fantastic and many of you had concrete next steps planned out.
• A reading journal: I recommend that you write by hand in a notebook and record your thoughts, observations, and reactions to what you read, whether it’s online material, novels, or news articles.
• Exchange addresses with a classmate and write each other letters.
• Create your own dictionary: Whenever you come across a word you don’t know, look it up in the OED, as we did in class, and record the definition in your own file. This is something Jhumpa Lahiri does!
• Write the “missing” chapter: Think about a theme/character perspective/event that isn’t present in one of the books you’re reading and imagine that you are the author. Write the “missing” part. 
• A specific “missing” chapter: Write what you imagine Lila’s “The Blue Fairy” would be like.
• Another specific “missing” chapter: Write what you imagine the diary of M. or Miss Browne might look like, if they had kept diaries as Anne Lister did.
• Write a story or poem and then translate it into another language you speak.
• Listen to a piece of music without lyrics (or with lyrics in a language you don’t understand) and “translate” what you hear into words.
• Reverse outline articles or other short written pieces that you enjoyed reading and do a freewrite reflecting on what the structure of the article contributed to your enjoyment.
• Think of a word you like – it doesn’t have to be a logical choice! – and reflect in writing on why that word resonates with you.
• Experiment with writing “bilingually” – whether writing in multiple languages or intermixing other mediums (i.e. intersperse your writing with drawings).

Viewing Recommendations

• Two documentaries about Pina Bausch: Pina (2011), dir. by Wim Wenders and One Day Pina Asked… (1983), dir. by Chantal Akerman
• A documentary about Martha Graham: A Dancer’s World (1957)
• A documentary about Neapolitan music, including its linguistic diversity, Passione (2010), dir. by John Turturro

4/30: Our Final Class!

For our final class, we will be meeting on zoom. First, I will give you some time to fill out class evaluations.

Next, I will ask each of you to share your thoughts about our class. What was your favorite reading and what was your least favorite? Were there topics, themes, or other materials that you would have liked to work on that we didn’t? Do you have any comments about what it was like to transition to remote learning?

I will be holding office hours during RRR week on Tuesday and Thursday. If you would like to meet with me, email me and we will schedule a time.

Thank you so much for a wonderful semester! I’ve so appreciated your patience and commitment to learning, even as we have dealt with such challenging circumstances. I will also be posting a list of reading recommendations and writing projects that you could work on over the summer if you are interested!

4/28: Jhumpa Lahiri

Today, we will meet on zoom. Turn on your video if your internet connection is strong enough. First we will go over the final writing assignment, which is due May 8.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri (1967-present) is the author of The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies.

Then we will have a full-class discussion of the chapters from Jhumpa Lahiri’s In Other Words.

Do you agree that there is an impossibility to the effort to write in a new language? Why or why not? Especially for those of you who are bilingual, what has the process to learn to write in another language been like? Does Lahiri’s experience resonate with you? If so, how? What differences emerge when you write in different languages? How can we understand Lahiri’s analogy with being deaf and blind to writing in a new language?

4/23: Individual Meetings

We will not be meeting as a group today. In our individual meetings, we will be discussing your writing and your progress in the class.

Homework: Read “Impossibility” and “Plumbing the Depths” by Jhumpa Lahiri, found in the reader.

4/21: Compiling a Rough Draft

Today, we will meet on zoom and sign up for mandatory office hours. These meetings will give us a chance to workshop your writing one-on-one, concentrating on the paragraph you submit on bcourses. I will also give you updates on how the course will continue over the next few weeks.

After this meeting, use our classtime to work on the homework, listed below:

Homework:

• OPTIONAL: Read the excerpt from Valeria Luiselli’s Tell Me How It Ends in the reader. (We will not be discussing this reading together, but it might interest many of you!)
• Compile the thesis, paragraphs, and other material you have been drafting as part of our analytical essay assignments into a rough draft and submit on bcourses. Write one brief paragraph at the end, reflecting on what steps you would take next to work towards a polished first draft.

4/16: Najat El Hachmi and Igiaba Scego

We will start class on zoom with a discussion of p. 13 of Igiaba Scego’s Adua. What does it mean to be a translator? How do issues of political power, race, gender, and colonialism intersect with the practice of translation. We will try to have a full class discussion. Turn on your video if you feel comfortable and have an adequate internet connection!

Najat El Hachmi (1979-present)

Igiaba Scego (1974-present)

After our zoom discussion, we will have a bcourses discussion thread. Answer the following prompt:

Identify a moment in one of the texts, either the El Hachmi or the Scego, in which translation plays an important role. Here are a few questions to consider answering about the passage: If a word or a phrase isn’t translated, how do we understand it – what formal techniques help us understand? Why might a translator choose not to translate a particular word or phrase? Why might a translator leave a line of dialogue in a non-English language and immediately translate it? Why might a name or title be translated literally, or not? What impact did the presence of the glossary in the Scego have on the reading of your passage? What formal elements allow us to “hear” different voices, or perhaps even accents? Be as specific to your particular passage as possible.

Piazza di Minerva in Rome, with the elephant statue spoken of in Adua

Homework:

• Revise your 1-2 body paragraphs and write an additional paragraph (this can be an additional body paragraph, an introduction, or a conclusion, depending on what you want to practice working on). Submit paragraph of your choice on bcourses.
• Compile a list of strategies, techniques, or exercises that have been useful to you in the writing process. If particular strategies, techniques, or exercises have been unhelpful, consider listing those as well, and explain why you think that is. Post your list on bcourses – the thread will be a collective resource for everyone to refer to.

4/14: Anne Lister’s Diaries

Today, we will be discussing The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister. Meeting on zoom, each student will share a passage that they highlighted, describe their reactions and observations, and perhaps offer some interpretations. After that, if a majority of the students were able to watch the film version (which is optional – it’s available to stream on Amazon Prime), we will hold a brief discussion comparing the experience of reading the diaries and that of watching a narrative film adaptation. Lastly, we will talk more informally about the idea of keeping a diary: Do any of you write a diary? What purposes does it serve for you? Do you use it to record personal experiences? Do you keep different types of diaries (reading journals, etc.)? Do you write in more than one language or make use of different mediums? 

(c) Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation

Anne Lister (1791-1840), a portrait from ca. 1830 and the trailer from the film

Once we have completed our discussion on the reading, I will hold an open forum to discuss what would be most useful to you in terms of writing assignments. I am interested in hearing any concerns or questions you have. 

Homework:

• Read the excerpts from Najat El Hachmi’s The Foreign Daughter and Igiaba Scego’s Adua, found in the reader. 
• Continue writing and revising your working thesis and 1-2 body paragraphs of your Analytical Essay 2.

4/9: Peer Reviews

Email your partner your working thesis and outline by 12:30 pm, when we start class. The peer review should be emailed to your partner (cc’ Gianna!) by Friday, April 10, 5 pm. I encourage you to use classtime to work on your peer review.

Here are your assigned pairs:

Ella and Max

Sophie and Christine

Denise and Naia

Samiha and Misha

Annie and Giovanna

Alyssa and Dawn

Giselle and John

Edwin and Clara

Cecily and Emily

Alexis and Sally 

Valeria and Sofia

Margarita and Ivy

Daniel and Carolina

Howard and Carla

Next week, we will be reading a section of The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister. Anne Lister (1791-1840) was a well-to-do English woman who kept diaries throughout her life. A substantial portion of these diaries were written in a code that she invented herself. The secret parts of her writing, once deciphered over a century later, revealed that she was writing about an intense lesbian romantic and sexual life. The sentences in italics in your reader are those that were originally written in code. At the end of the excerpt in the reader, you will see a scan of an actual page of the diary, which will give you an idea of what the code looks like. There is also a film biopic, which covers a slightly different period of Anne Lister’s life, also called The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister, which can be seen on Amazon Prime if you have access to an account.

Homework:

• Read the excerpts from The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister in your reader and highlight passages with color coded markers or pencils: which passages surprise or shock you? Which passages confirm your assumptions about life for women in 19th century England? Which passages make you laugh?  
• Revise your working thesis and outline, making use of the feedback from your peer review. Submit this revision on bcourses by Saturday April 11 at midnight.
• Write 1 body paragraph of your Analytical Essay 2.

4/7: Cardella, cont. & Creating an Outline

Today, we will begin class on zoom. First and foremost, we will check in with each other and see how the class is progressing as a remotely taught course.

Then we will discuss how to create an effective outline. Together, we will go over the handout. If you have questions, use the chat function to ask them. Before we wrap up, I will invite you to share any tips for outlining that have worked for you in the past.

We will then pivot to Bcourses, where we will wrap up our discussion of Good Girls Don’t Wear Trousers. What did you find most challenging about this book and why? What did you find most interesting and why? Do you have any final questions for me? Feel free to respond to classmates’ posts with questions and comments and I will be present and able to respond as we work on the thread together.

Homework:

• Write your working thesis and outline, which you will post on Bcourses as homework (worth 15 points). The thesis should use the subordinating style and three story house model and the outline should follow the format we discussed in class today. We will be peer reviewing these two components on Thursday.

4/2: Cardella, cont.

Today, we will be discussing Good Girls Don’t Wear Trousers in small groups on zoom. Each group has a time slot of ten minutes in which we will discuss a series of questions.

The groups and time slots are as follows:

12:40-12:50 Ella, Sophie, Denise, Christine

12:50-1:00 Samiha, Annie, Alyssa, Giselle

1:00-1:10 Dawn, Max, John, Edwin

1:10-1:20 Cecily, Naia, Carolina, Clara

1:20-1:30 Misha, Alexis, Giovanna, Emily

1:30-1:40 Valeria, Margarita, Sofia, Ivy

1:40-1:50 Daniel, Howard, Sally, Carla, Alicia

We will be discussing the following questions: How could we categorize Good Girls Don’t Wear Trousers in terms of genre? What kind of readership do we imagine the book would have? Do we notice anything – especially in terms of form and language – that marks the book as a translation? What specifically and why?

This is an experiment! We’ll see how this type of discussion works and if it turns out to be effective, it may become a regular part of our classwork together.

Homework:

• Read pgs. 80-118 of Good Girls Don’t Wear Trousers.
• Freewrite 1-2 paragraphs, reflecting on the reading. After finishing the novella, what do you think the trousers signify for Annetta? On p. 118, the last page, Aunt Vannina asks Annetta a question – how do you interpret her response? In Italy, this book is widely regarded as a feminist classic – do you agree or disagree and why?
• Write down any final, unanswered questions about Good Girls Don’t Wear Trousers; have those questions ready for our next class.