South East Asian Literature in Translation

Syllabus

Schedule

Links

Indonesian

Filipino

thai

 

SYLLABUS

OVERVIEW

Southeast Asia is a region of immense importance to the state of Hawaii whose Southeast Asian residents are more than 15% of the population.  The people of Hawaii is increasingly becoming aware of the region's presence in Hawaii through the food and exotic products being sold at various places.  However, there is no better medium than literature to understand the religious, economic, socio-cultural and political conditions of the Southeast Asians.  The selected post-World War II literatures of Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand will showcase narratives and images of the peoples of these three Southeast Asian countries.

GOALS

Through this course, students will

  1. Experience the way of life, the society, culture and worldview of the peoples of  three selected countries of Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) through literature and its closely related  art-medium, film.
  2. Develop understanding of Southeast Asian values, customs and traditions through the different stories, poems, essays, plays and novels that will be read in translation.
  3. Become conversant with the social, economic, political and religious factors affecting contemporary societies in Southeast Asia by conducting research on a variety of  SEA cultures out of which the literature emerges.
  4. Meet real writers from the three countries and listen to readings in the original languages.
  5. Develop insights and communicate these with others through oral and written  discourse.

TEXT

All readings in this course will be put together by the instructors and will be duplicated at the lowest possible cost for the students.

GRADING:

t.b.a.

WRITING REQUIREMENTS

There will be three (3) major papers in the course (one for each of the three sections). Each major paper should not be less than 10 pages each, typewritten, double spaced, using 12 font size of Times or Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif. 

The instructors for each section are : 

Dr. Chhanny Sak-Humphrey – Vietnamese
Dr. Uli Kozok – Indonesian
Dr. Ruth Mabanglo – Filipino
Dr. Yuphaphann Hoonchamlong – Thai
Dr. Stephen O'Harrow – Vietnamese

For purposes of discussion and other activities, the instructor may require shorter writing pieces from students (e.g., summary of stories, reaction papers, etc.).

Writing your Essay

Specific guidelines for writing may be provided by teachers before the writing of each paper. However, students are expected to have at least basic essay writing skills. If you are not quite sure what a 'critical essay' is, and how to cite properly, iyou must familiarize yourself with the techniques of writing an academic essay. There are numerous sites on the Internet, and it is definitely worth checking them out. Here are two fairly short, but very useful pages:

Writing a Literary Essay
How to write an essay

You may also wish to consult The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. It is in our library and you can also find the complete text online. What follows are several rules we think are particularly relevant for your term papers.

1. Use concise language. “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts” (Strunk & White, 1979, p. 23). Example: Instead of writing “there is no doubt but that” use “no doubt” or “doubtless.”
2. Revise and rewrite. “Revising is part of writing…. Remember, it is no sign of weakness or defeat that your manuscript ends up in need of major surgery. This is a common occurrence in all writing, and among the best writers” (p. 72). The best way to approach revising and rewriting is to not wait till the last minute to complete your paper. I know this is difficult to do but it will improve your paper considerably.
3. Do not use slang. Unless you believe words and phrases like, “then, you know, he said,” “cool,” etc., are appropriate do not use them in your writing. Also, do no overuse the word “like,” as in, “he was like, ‘no way.’” Do not use "don't", "he's", but "do not" and "he is".
4. Use citation marks. Make sure that if you use an author’s exact words you enclose them within quotation marks and provide proper citation. Otherwise you are technically committing plagiarism, even if this was not your intention.

Hopefully these suggestions help you as you go about preparing your term paper. If you have any questions or concerns feel free to contact us.

Source: http://web.syr.edu/~rmwise/

Academic Integrity

The integrity of a university depends upon academic honesty, which consists of independent learning and research. Academic dishonesty includes cheating and plagiarism. The following are examples of violations of the Student Conduct Code that may result in suspension or expulsion from the UH.

Cheating

Cheating includes, but is not limited to, giving unauthorized help during an examination, obtaining unauthorized information about an examination before it is administered, using inappropriate sources of information during an examination, altering the record of any grade, altering an answer after an examination has been submitted, falsifying any official UH record, and misrepresenting the facts in order to obtain exemptions from course requirements.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, submitting, to satisfy an academic requirement, any document that has been copied in whole or in part from another individual’s work without identifying that individual; neglecting to identify as a quotation a documented idea that has not been assimilated into the student’s language and style; paraphrasing a passage so closely that the reader is misled as to the source; submitting the same written or oral material in more than one course without obtaining authorization from the instructors involved.