As always, I look forward to next week's conversation.
By way of duplication of announcement, I'm also pasting below the details from the handout about the seminar paper from last night.
SEMINAR PAPER DETAILS
English
418: Travel
Per
the description on the syllabus, this 10-12 page paper will be on a topic of
your choice. While you will certainly draw on the course texts and discussions,
you are not required to write on any of the coruse texts directly. You will, however, be expected to enter into
a critical conversation, so some outside research will be required. That is, your essay should be informed by
your careful reading of key secondary materials, but you should use these
secondary sources as a means to enter into an ongoing scholarly conversation
surrounding the text or issue you choose rather than as "support" for
your position.
Here
are some of the steps that will make this paper process more productive.
Tuesday Nov 10. Prospectus. (optional, but HIGHLY
recommended)
The
prospectus should be a very quick (no more than a page in length) summary of
what you imagine will be the main points of your paper. It should gesture toward a scholarly
conversation you imagine you might enter, noting the key questions at issue. It should also indicate your position, and
outline or hint at some of the textual evidence you might use to defend your
position.
Tuesday Nov
17. Annotated Bibliography.
The
annotated bibliography should include a mostly complete bibliography with at least
4 secondary texts (properly formatted following MLA style guidelines); 2 items
in this bibliography should be annotated.
These annotations must be no longer than 150 words and should
contain: a clear articulation of the
argument of the essay or book, a brief explanation of this argument, and a
quick sentence or two that explains its relevance to your own argument. (As a point of reference this paragraph
contains 85 words—concision is key).
Tuesday Nov
24. Conference.
This formal
5-minute conference presentation should be a preview of the key ideas for the seminar
paper you will complete in the following weeks.
While literary studies disciplinary practice generally entails writing a
2.5 to 3-page paper to be read out-loud—notably, writing to be read out-loud is
different than just writing a paper—you are welcome to approach this
presentation according to your own preferences.
However you present your ideas, you will compose a 3-page paper to
submit with your presentation. It will
work best if you think of this as a preliminary version of your final seminar
paper.
Tuesday Dec 1.
Full draft workshop. Entire
session will be dedicated to a peer review workshop of your papers. You should have at least 7 pages.
Tuesday Dec 8. Final paper due to my office by
5:30pm
Please
submit the final version of your paper with the prospectus (if completed), annotated
bibliography, and peer review drafts.
This weeks reading was interesting. I was intrigued by the idea of how land contributes to history. It was very similar to the reading from two weeks ago and looking how land is related to identity. In her reflection of life, Hayes kept returning to the idea of identity in relation to names and family. In Tom's story, land was related to identity as well but much more related to how it was initially taken away. Travel is about self-discovery, but it is also about keeping your identity overall which seemed to be a struggle in both narratives of this book. It is interesting balance to be sure, but I feel as though this is still a central part of the story.
ReplyDeleteHow does one discuss this book? Although there are so many experiences within it that I can’t quite identify with, I absolutely loved reading the passages from the perspective of the animals and anything describing the physical landscape of Southeast. I may not have any heritage here – I’m not even a second generation Alaskan-born – but I did grow up here. Stories about making noise while picking berries to keep the bears away and playing on the beach really made me reminisce about my childhood.
ReplyDeleteIn light of the other books we’ve read during this class, it reminded me of Wild the most. Both are tales of the extreme courage of woman, and while Strayed is very different from Hayes, the realities they detail are relatable and the struggles they face are terrifyingly real. However, while Strayed’s book is about finding her roots, Hayes’ is about returning home.
In addition, Blonde Indian is an example of how one travel narrative can span a lifetime – even perhaps an entire culture and that cultures’ lifetimes. Would you agree? Can Hayes’ book fit into this class not just through the physical, mental, and spiritual journeys of one person, but of Tlingit culture as a whole? She gives many examples of her culture’s journeys throughout the book; with their land stolen, their children indoctrinated, and their livelihoods made impossible, an entire group of people was forced to adapt. How can we discuss this idea through the other readings we’ve explored during this class and what does this mean for our continually evolving and expanding definition of travel writing?
“The bear feels fat (p. 64).” Professor Hayes has a brilliant way of being both concise in her word choice and maintaining a sense of whimsy. Her exploration of place, particularly in terms of the animals and the land itself, is original to the genre we’ve been reading about. I’m taking Memoir this semester, and we are reading this book in order to investigate its scope within that genre. So I will put on my Travel hat here and not parrot what I’ve read in that class about movement, personal truth, and the difference between figurative meaning and literal meaning. Two lines of questions came to me when reading Blonde Indian for Travel – one is, can travel (however mundane) change a person once they return home? What do we bring with us when we travel, and what do we bring home? Are they positive things? Negative?
ReplyDeleteWe’ve talked a lot about how travelers (especially from dominant colonial countries or higher socioeconomic standing) bringing beliefs (faith, stereotypes, judgements, etc.). We’ve seen this in London, Orientalism, etc. We’ve discussed a lot of negative effects of globalization. We’ve talked about the privileged “white people” and joked about, “look what I did in (insert third world country)! They’ve probably never even seen an iPad before!” Blond Indian, for me, was very refreshing. It’s very clear what she carried with her when she moved away from home, and it’s very clear what she brought home with her from her travels.
The other line of thought I had while reading was much more ideological - if a non-Native were to write in the voice of indigenous creatures and flora, would they be essentially appropriating or anthropomorphizing? We spoke about this type of tension a bit a couple weeks ago, and I’d like to explore it more. I see that Professor Hayes is holding an Alaskan Lit class next semester – I wonder of these points of confusion for some will be addressed in that class.
What distinguishes the journey home from other forms of travel?
ReplyDeleteI think Ernestine Hayes' "Blonde Indian" brings us a travel narrative that is unlike any of our earlier readings in that it depicts the journey home. The other books we've read in this class have been about individuals leaving their home and seeking new places in which to find themselves. As Leesha wrote in her post, much of travel is about self-discovery—coming to know yourself through a sense of place. In the other travel narratives we've looked at, particularly the "Best American Travel Writing," finding oneself comes through an interaction with new people, cultures, and landscapes. But in "Blonde Indian," what we see is Hayes' account of returning to her own land and culture after a period of wandering in California. She is not trying to adopt a foreign culture, but trying to reconnect to the culture she grew up in but now feels distanced from. I think this yearning for a return is seen very clearly on page 58, where Hayes reminisces about the food of her childhood. I think this travel that takes someone back to their home, to the place of their beginning, differs from the other forms of travel because it isn't about "escaping". It's about remaining in place.
Jessika (Bambi) Caudy
ReplyDeleteEnglish 418
This week’s reading was an interesting one. I suppose I was most interested in the first section about Ernestine’s childhood because it reminded me of stories my dad used to tell me from when he grew up in Eagle. He would talk about the different day to day struggles native peoples faced compared to white people. For most of the semester, we have primarily focused on how a traveler perceives their situation and not so much how indigenous people are affected by travel. This book flips the script I suppose. I don’t really have a question but I guess I’m interested in discussing how colonization and contact with western settlers affected Ernestine’s sense of place and people as a child.
She idolized some aspects of the western world such as bake sales and lavish clothing. She often mentioned how as a child she took pleasure in sharing in her aunt’s home cooking and playing in her house. On the other side, however, she noted that even at a very young age she was going to be marginalized based on her race/background. We saw this in the first section when she talked about how she was a better reader than the blonde white girls in the Bluebird section of the class but the teacher still kept her at the Seagull level. This is a common story when it comes to colonization. Often white people keep others at arm’s length and down in the lowest strata allowable.
It’s somewhat heartbreaking to realize that even as a child, Ernestine was very proud of her family and culture but still longed to be “like” the white girls in her class. She knew plenty of native stories and history but was more enamored at the European princess stories. I feel as though when she was young, Ernestine had to grapple with holding onto who she was and who the world wanted her to be/treated her like she should be.
I’m reminded of a psychology experiment in which a teacher divided her class into two sections, those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes, and then treated the blue eyed section with slightly less dignity than the brown eyed section. After a while the blue eyed students began to feel as though they were actually less human and respectable than the brown eyed group. This seems analogous to what Ernestine was noticing and feeling. Her clothes were different, her skin was different, and she was different. When colonization happens, the indigenous groups are often treated lower and less human, and thus begin to feel it themselves.
Ernestine Hayes is a very important indigenous intellectual leader. Her achievements and experience merits a great deal of intellectual authority, but we live in a colonial time, and we are currently being instructed in a colonial environment. Ideally, a university should simply be about learning, exploring and questioning, but I think UAS requires some direct action, direct questioning as well. Ernestine has contributed to a dialogue on campus about decolonization. I wonder what university leadership--which, I must note, includes our wonderful professor in this course, who, after all, has been a good supporter of these types of conversations as far as I know--thinks of the term, and, more importantly, I wonder what direct course the university would take as a result of those dialogues.
ReplyDeleteI love Ernestine's scene where she was a tour guide for whale watching tours, and they came upon "eternity" with the killer whales surrounding them. All the scaffolding, all the background and history of Ernestine's life, has contributed to that experience of eternity. Beautiful! Don't we all want that kind of connection? Is it limited to those who are ethnically indigenous? I don't think so. I think we can all get there, in our own way. That's where I'm traveling to, though I have a hunch that I've always been there in the first place.
"Every day is the same, every passenger is the same. Every captain is the same. Ever moment is unique." (pg 145)
ReplyDeleteEach existing thing is equal in its existence. It is in our experiencing this existence in which we distinguish ourselves. This is very broad and can grow in many directions. There are so many ways in which things come together to create a life, a glacier, a rock. It seams we have created numerous ways in which to talk about this phenomenon, but yet we still feel lost? We continue to seek out knew ways of sharing our experience. Here is were I hit a wall. The extent to which we have become complicated social beings is incredible. It is crazy and erratic and incredible. Yet, in this explosion of human existence just as much is lost as is gained. Where do we go from here? Up the wall, around the wall, or through the wall?
A more specific realm of this thought is in what we gain from each generation. It is in education that our culture grows. These days the ways in which we learn are wide spread and there is so much information to gain about everything and it is always growing. Before this globalization cultures communicated on a smaller scale. When I say a smaller scale I do not mean less influential or less complex. It was just a smaller population and more specific to an area and to a specific way of life. I think this effects our experience to a great extent. It is easier to get lost in the global world. When the previous generation that is open to you is 7 billion people what do you take away compared to learning from a oder generation of 500 people.
Dang! Rosie, you asked my question among one of yours! haha.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm also not really sure what to make of this book, I really like that Leesha brought us back to that, because that's what this was about for me. I also thought it was interesting in the inherent motion in the Tlingit stories that Hayes tells; I've never heard of most of them. But the allusions to time and song make me thing of the overarching movement she tells of herself and of her culture. The stories relation to the nature and its movements also added to the sense of motion that the piece gave me. It made me think of the way I would write a travel narrative, and I have a feeling that my greatest sense of self-discovery would be, like Hayes', upon returning home and re-entering my own story. It makes me think that maybe a "staying" narrative would offer just as much insight, movement, and discovery as a "travel" narrative.
I really enjoyed reading this book. As an Alaskan transplant, I really related to the details about Juneau and appreciated it even more than I did prior.
ReplyDeleteOne quote that really stood out to me was
“When I walked to school one cloudy morning, the dirt street where in the evenings I played kick the can with other village children was dotted with puddles. Plain, unpainted old houses faced one another along the way; here and there a rack of deerskin leaned against the steps to someone else’s uninviting front door” (11).
“At the end of Village Street I could climb stairs up a steep, berry-filled hill, which would let me turn around at the top of the stairs for a look down at the village” (11).
Going back to last week, this novel really gives you a sense of place. The detail and descriptive words used in this novel really put you in the novel; they put you in Juneau, Alaska. Though this novel is not primarily about travel, one could argue that just reading it can cause the feeling of traveling to Alaska.
Can reading a novel and being put in a place count as travel or travel writing? Have Ernestine’s experience through her life count as a way of travel? (Meaning, traveling through life)
Ernestine Hayes’ memoir gives an introspective look into the inner travel of the soul. “Not much allows itself to be seen in the cold white snowcovered day-light. Not much movement. Not much life. The glacier is still. It bides its own time and it keeps its own secrets,” (Hayes Pg. 130). As she travels, so does her soul. So I was wondering: Do we only find a sense of place when we return? Is leaving the cause of understanding ourselves? Or is it that culture ultimately defines us? I think in this book that it’s a complicated yes, because Ernestine is exploring what it means to be in Alaska and to be part of the place. In Young Tom’s story, that Leesha brought up, and how he struggles in finding himself as he moves around and has to re-find himself, just as Ernestine does as she’s in California. It does present both an exploration of oneself and oneself within a culture they at first feel divided from.
ReplyDeleteBlonde Indian was an interesting read! As far as its writing style went, I liked the contrast of personal biography and the more fictional (?) biography of the Toms. I was especially interested in the opening of the book. One quote on page 7 caught my eye in particular: " 'You should never kill spiders. They're good luck. They protect you. They tell you secrets. ...Never kill a spider. It's lucky when they live in your house" (Hayes, 7). This got me thinking about things I dislike in relation to travel, which brings me to my question for this post: how does this concept apply to travel?
ReplyDeleteI guess that needs a little more clarification. By "this concept," I was referring to things we dislike and find inherently unpleasant about travel. Are these things actually good for us? The obvious answer of "yes" springs to mind - TSA is there for our protection, suitcases are a hassle to drag around but they hold our stuff, etc. But what about the bigger scheme of things - things like what we've discussed earlier in this class, about the struggles of travel and how it's "not a good story" if you didn't suffer on your trip? In her book, Ernestine mentions disliking her time in California, but it seems clear that even though she didn't necessarily enjoy it, it played a large part in helping her become the person she is today. We complain about our travel struggles in order to make for a better story, but in the end, are the struggles ultimately good for us? I think we should begin to embrace them not as struggles, but as part of the experience. Let's not kill the travel spiders - let's keep them, and hope they bring us luck.
Blonde Indian is beautifully and simply written – her writing style allows the reader to make connections between past, present, and future from different perspectives. I find myself thinking about the problems that the people in this book have and how their experiences and influences led to their troubles. The journey of the Toms, young and old, as well as the authors, relates with many of the people in the Alaskan communities today as many of the same issues are still prevalent. I felt that one of the main messages of this book was the overarching heartbeat of the land. If someone was drunk, lost, and without proper care, the bear still ate the salmon. When a child was taken away or had a parent leave, the baby Raven gave light to the world. Despite all the misery and issues in this book, the land still remains and is still a huge part of the Native life and traditions.
ReplyDeleteBlonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir by Ernestine Hayes was an interesting read, looking strictly as a memoir piece as a travel narrative. While reading the piece one thought really stuck out among the rest. Normally with travel writing we feel and see a sense of adventure with the writer. We, as readers, see the writer thoroughly enjoying what they’re writing about. Readers fear for the writer when they face struggles in their travel. There was a different sort of feeling while reading Blonde Indian. There wasn’t so much as a feeling of adventure, but a sense of sympathy. I’m sure not many of us can attest to the hardship written in this book, but it was gripping. It kept us on the edge of our seat. Maybe not for the travel aspect of the memoir, but for certain the story. This narrative is similar to the readings on place and how place affects the people. We see this strong longing for place in the writer’s drive to return to Alaska. My question then would be: does place based travel, or the longing to return home further define travel writing or give a new definition?
ReplyDeleteSimply put, this book was a wonderful read! Hays’s writing from the perspective of the animals (what?!) to her raw decriptions of my home town; this book made me feel right at home! It’s hard though to qualify her prose because I found myself saying “yep/ uh huh/ right” all the time, constantly agreeing with her and walking through this journey of hers, side by side. For me, this book is a piece of my Alaska. The decriptions of the fishing boats (I’ve literally seen those in action!) to her detailed accounts of what the animals around her were feeling (I’ve been guilty of anthpamorphization so many times) was so visceral to me that I felt like I was guiding again. The best thing hands down about guiding in Alaska is when you see the light come on in the face of those in your party. When finally the New York lawyer or the NFL Linebacker suddenly “looks up” and sees Alaska and gets it, that’s literally why people guide. The expression on their faces lifts you up and you too share in that realization with them, being reminded of the first time you really saw this place and understood how stupid-lucky you were to call this place home. That’s. what I felt when I read this book, and that’s why I liked it so much!
ReplyDeleteReal talk – Within the class we’ve talked exstensivly about the traveler, but what about the local?
Isn’t it a fact that whenever you travel you try to “do as the romans do?” The “local” is what we as travelers try to epitomize, right? By asking about where the locals eat to ascertaining where they “hang out” we try very hard to fit in. Never do we want to be the fanny-pack toting tourist who has little to no regard for those who live “there.” An interesting thought for a paper perhaps!
This is Alex btw....
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