20th C. Literature of Immigration, Fall 2009 -- Mr Furr

Homework Page

I will post all writing assignments on this page.. You should create a 'bookmark' or 'favorite' of your own to this page, so you can go to it without having to first go to the Home Page for the course.

NOTE: BE SURE TO USE THE PROPER SUBJECT LINE ON ALL YOUR EMAILS TO ME! SEE BOTTOM OF HOME PAGE FOR EXAMPLE!

Be sure to "send a copy to yourself" of ALL your homework assignments!

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS

Assignments on Pietro Di Donato, Christ In Concrete

For Thursday, Sept. 10:
- Paper due on Di Donato, Christ in Concrete
- send me two emails, from different email accounts..
  - One of these MUST be the MSU 'mail' account. It is "free" (you've already paid for it, in your tuition), but you MUST use it for this course.
  - See the full instructions on our Home page.
  - Make sure that the Subject line of the email messages conforms to the model at the bottom of our Home Page -
    Subj: Lastname li date assignment is due
  - THIS IS A REQUIRED ASSIGNMENT. It is NOT "optional" or "extra."
For Monday, September 14.
For Thursday, September 17.
For Monday, September 21.
For Thursday, September 24.

Assignments on Thomas Bell, Out of This Furnace

NOTE: Here is a page with brief chapter summaries and a list of major (and many no-so-major) characters in this novel. Search for "Appendix A", which is a little more than 1/2 the way down the page. Characters listed first, then chapter summaries.

See "Mapping Thomas Bell's Braddock", for a Google Map with locations of the major places, homes, parks, monuments, buildings, etc., all related to the novel.

Clicking on an entry opens up a "bubble" page with specific quotations mentioning the place.
Clicking on the photograph inn the "bubble" opens an enlargement of the photograph, with a caption.
The photographs themselves, plus some related photos not used in the map above, are all here. Move your mouse over each photo to get a brief caption of what each photograph represents.
Use the scale instrument at the left of the map to move closer, move around, etc.
There's a photo of Michael Belejcak's tombstone here, but a better one is here, on a page devoted to the Monongahela Cemetery.

A play based on Out of This Furnace was staged in 2008 by The Unseam'd Shakespeare Company of Pittsburgh. Here are some articles about it from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

"Stage Preview: 'Out of This Furnace' stokes region's industrial history" June 11, 2008;
"The Diaspora Report: 'Out of This Furnace,' minus the furnace", June 6, 2008
Letter to the Editor, with photo from the play of "Kracha" and "Zuska", July 10, 2008

Homework:

For Monday, September 28: Your paper on this novel is due. Bring it to class with you.
For Thursday, October 1.
For Monday, October 5.
For Thursday, October 8. Bring the story, plus the text of the novel. We'll look at some passages in class.
+You can download the story from our FTP server or from our Blackboard space.

Also, read Mike Gold's 1933 poem "The Strange Funeral in Braddock"

This powerful poem was written long before Thomas Bell's novel. Braddock PA had long been infamous for the lack of safety at the steel plant. Gold's poem was written as an orchestral suite by Elie Siegmeister (1909-1991). See the short discussion of Siegmeister's career and this poem.

Assignments on Mike Gold, Jews Without Money

Here are some interesting links related to Jews Without Money, life in the working-class slums in the period 1890 to the First World War.

Jacob Riis, How The Other Half Lives (1890 and later editions). This is a wonderful online edition, with all the text.

Links to all the photographs. Look at some of them! They are great -- and horrifying!
Wikipedia page for How The Other Half Lives

Photos of Mike Gold: here (1920), here (older), here (younger, probably about 1920), here (1939)

"Terry McGovern the prize fighter" (p. 54) - here, here, here, here, here

Wikipedia page for Terry McGovern

"Gyp The Blood" (p. 125): real name Harry Horowitz, Jewish gangster and murderer, electrocuted at Sing Sing April 1914. Photo photo

Other Jewish gangsters of the early 20th century.

For Monday, October 12: Your paper on this novel is due. Bring it to class with you.
For Thursday, October 15.
For Monday, October 19.
For Thursday, October 22.

Assignments on Carlos Bulosan, America Is In The Heart

For Monday, October 26. Your paper on this book is due. Bring it, and the text of the book, to class with you.
For Thursday, October 29.
For Monday, November 2.
For Thursday, November 5. No class today (see schedule), but do this assignment, on Carlos Bulosan's essay "Freedom From Want."

Assignments on Piri Thomas, Down These Mean Streets

For Monday, November 9. Your paper on the novel is due. Bring it to class with you.
For Thursday, November 19.

Assignments on Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes

Interesting materials with a relation to the themes and events in Angela's Ashes

Articles and Materials about Frank McCourt and Angela's Ashes . Mainly from Limeric (Ireland) newspapers.
Report of widespread child abuse by Catholic nuns and clergy in Ireland 1930s - 1990. "Tens of thousands of Irish children were sexually, physically and emotionally abused by nuns, priests and others over 60 years in a network of church-run residential schools meant to care for the poor, the vulnerable and the unwanted, according to a report released in Dublin on Wednesday." (New York Times, May 21, 2009)
"Church Covered Up Child Abuse in Ireland, Panel Finds". New York Times November 26, 2009.

For Monday, November 23. Your paper on the novel is due. Bring it to class with you.
For Monday, November 30.
For Thursday, December 3.
For Monday, December 7. Download and study this 2001 interview with Frank McCourt (no longer on the web) and this 1997 Op-Ed article by McCourt.
No writing assignment, BUT (a) please READ both articles, very carefully; (b) bring BOTH texts to class with you. I'll check!
We'll discuss both texts. They are very interesting!

http://chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/li/lihw09.html | Email Me | created 8 Sep 09