HACU 234

HACU 234
Traveling Identities: Immigrants, Exiles and Sojourners
in Film, Literature and Culture
Spring 2001

Eva Rueschmann
Asst. Professor of
Cultural Studies
Phone: 559-5429
erHA@hampshire.edu
Office hours: ASH 107,
M 1-2:20, Th 1-3

Mon screenings at 2:30 in ASH Auditorium
Wed seminars 2:30-5:20 in FPH 107


	Online Resources

	Check out the syllabus, including details of assignments and required texts. Communicate with other students in the class using these e-mail addresses. If you would like to set up an online discussion, please contact me. Use the research center. Ask a librarian, browse background reading. Get general advice on Division I exams. Browse links to related topics. ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS WEEKS Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Week Five Week Six Week Seven Week Eight Week Nine Week Ten Week Eleven Week Twelve

Screenings/Announcements

Week Two: February 12

Picture Bride
(dir. Kayo Hatta, USA 1995, 95 min.)

Showing this Monday at 2:30p.m. in ASH Auditorium.

Click here for Film Notes and Study Questions. I suggest you use these questions to frame your journal entry on Picture Bride and to prepare for class discussion. Links on this page will lead you to other resources, including information on the making of Picture Bride, Japanese sojourners in Hawaii, field work and family work, sugar plantations in the 1800s and more.

Readings/Assignments

February 14

This week we will continue our discussion of fictional representations of historical migrations. The focus of our study are texts that recreate the experience of the so-called "picture brides" who came to Hawaii and the West Coast from Japan and Korea between 1907 and 1924, during a time of restricted immigration policies for Asian men.

1. Complete the supplemental readings in your course packet:
- Marie Hara, "1895: Honeymoon Hotel" (short story)
- Mitsuye Yamada, "I Learned to Sew" (poem)

and articles on the history of picture brides and the Japanese American family:
- Mei T. Nakato, " Immigration 1860-1924," "The Family," and "Work and Leisure"
- Harry Kitano, "The Japanese American Family"

Discussion question:

Compare how the film, short story and poem represent the experience of the issei, the first generation of Japanese immigrants. In particular, you might focus on the subjectivity of the women who are at the center of these three fictional explorations. See Film Notes for more specific questions about Picture Bride.

Comments? Questions? Feedback on this site? erHA@hampshire.edu
Copyright � 2000 Eva Rueschmann, Hampshire College