Module on Southeast Asian Diasporic Poetry

AB Literary and Cultural Studies

Course: Introduction to Southeast Asian Literature / Literatures of Asia II

Topic: War and Trauma (Week 5)

Theme: Writing from Diaspora

Text: Ocean Vuong’s “Aubade with Burning City” and Monika Sok’s “Locked Eyes”

Method: Online Learning: Self-paced reading, discussion thread, reflection writing

Prepared by: Carlos M. Piocos III, Ph.D., De La Salle University

Objectives:

By the end of the lesson, the students should have:

Comparatively analyzed representative and contemporary diasporic poetry in Southeast Asia (particularly the Vietnam and Cambodia).
Drawn out themes of memory and writing and migration and diaspora in the analysis of Southeast Asian diasporic poetry.
Reflected on the intersections of legacies of colonial violence in the politics of gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity in understanding the poetics of memory and migration in Southeast Asian diasporic poetry.

Module for Online Session

Activity	Teacher’s Procedure or Behavior	Student’s Tasks	Online Tool Options
Pre-discussion Activity	Ask the students to watch the following videos to get to know the poets. Make them reflect about the experience of trauma and how it can be inherited by Southeast Asian poets in diaspora, even though they did not experience it firsthand. On Ocean Vuong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZIwsk9cAM On Monika Sok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhCK98P3W7w	Watch the following videos to get a brief background on the poets. Reflect about their ideas about history and trauma about their Southeast Asian origin, from their brief interviews: On Ocean Vuong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZIwsk9cAM On Monika Sok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhCK98P3W7w	Youtube
Pre-Discussion Activity	Ask the students to review the colonial histories and contemporary issues on the Vietnam and Cambodia, tracing and contextualizing diaspora and migration in these countries (ie Colonial Resistance and American War in Vietnam, Colonial Resistance and Rise of Khmer Rouge Rouge, American Colonialism in the region). You can group the students to do a brief presentation on these topics at the start of the session.	Research on the following topics and give a brief presentation: Colonial history and resistance in VietnamColonial history in Cambodia and the rise of Khmer RougeAmerican colonial legacies in Southeast Asia	Facebook Group Canvas Google Classroom Blackboard
Poetry Reading	Ask your students to record themselves reciting the poems. Choose the best audio-recorded reading and make your whole class listen to them, before you do close reading of the poems in discussion proper. Pay attention to the ways your chosen students enunciated some lines and added appropriate emotional flourish in the reading and explain it to the class, as you are doing close reading or poem analysis. Access the poems here: Ocean Vuong’s “Aubade with Burning City”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56769/aubade-with-burning-city Monika Sok’s Locked Eyes: https://aaww.org/locked-eyes-monica-sok/	Through a voice recording app, record yourself reciting the poem, demonstrating your skill with proper enunciation of the verses and emotional resonance. Submit it to your teacher via email or LMS platform before the meeting. Access the poems here: Ocean Vuong’s “Aubade with Burning City”: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56769/aubade-with-burning-city Monika Sok’s Locked Eyes: https://aaww.org/locked-eyes-monica-sok/	Canvas Google Classroom Audio-recording app in Cellphone Blackboard
Close Reading and Discussion	Students will be asked what lines from the poem/s they like, they affectively respond to and why.Students will be asked to do a close reading of at least one poem for each of the poets by examining poetic elements.Students will be asked to comparatively discuss and analyze the images and metaphors, rhetorical strategies used by each of the poet to portray how they remembered home and homelands (the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia).Students will be asked to reflect on the similarities, differences, connections and divergences of how memory shapes the imagination of homeland for diasporic poets in their respective poems.	What lines from the poem/s do you like? What particular lines drew strong emotional response/s from you? Why?Explain particular lines from the poems that you find compelling. Think about the imagery, metaphor, and other figures of speech and poetic style the author used in your chosen excepts. Why are they particularly compelling for you?How do these poets describe particular moments of history from their homelands through poetry? Why do you think their memory of homelands are described in these particular ways by the poets? Compare and analyze the similarities and differences of the images and metaphors, rhetorical strategies used by each of the poet to portray how they remembered home and homelands (Vietnam and Cambodia).Reflect on the similarities, differences, connections and divergences of how memory shapes the imagination of particular historical moments of their homeland for diasporic poets in their respective poems.	Discussion thread via FB group, email, or Canvas/ Google/Blackboard Zoom meeting
Reflection Writing	Ask the students to write a critical or creative essay (at least 1,500 words) on at least ONE POEM that forward their insights on the following: their reflection on how memory shapes diasporic writers’ experiences of colonization, imaginaries of homeland and experiences of migrationtheir reflection on how Southeast Asian literary traditions gets to be constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed through contemporary realities of globalization and diaspora	write a critical or creative essay (at least 1,500 words) on at least ONE POEM that forward their insights on the following: their reflection on how memory shapes diasporic writers’ experiences of colonization, imaginaries of homeland and experiences of migrationtheir reflection on how Southeast Asian literary traditions gets to be constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed through contemporary realities of globalization and diaspora	Facebook Group Canvas Assignment Google Classroom/ Google Docs Blackboard Online Journal or Blog

Output:

Short Class Presentation

Poetry Reading

Reflection Paper

Assessment:

On Class Presentation

Areas	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Content	Shows a full understand-ing of the topic.	Shows a good understanding of the topic.	Shows a good understanding of parts of the topic.	Does not seem to understand the topic very well.
Engagement	Makes good use of the chosen medium to engage the audience’s attention.	Makes fair use of chosen medium to engage audience attention.	Makes some use of medium to engage audience attention.	Makes little or any use of medium, or does not attempt to engage audience attention.
Preparedness	Student is completely prepared and has obviously rehearsed.	Student seems pretty prepared but might have needed a couple more rehearsals.	Student is somewhat prepared, but it is clear that rehearsal was lacking.	Student did not seem at all prepared to present.

On Poetry Reading

Areas	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Preparedness	Student is completely prepared and has obviously rehearsed. The student does not completely rely on the poem for prompting, although may refer to it from time to time.	Student is prepared and has obviously rehearsed. However, the student relies heavily on the poem for prompting.	The student is somewhat prepared, but it is clear that rehearsal was lacking and the student is almost completely dependent on the poem for prompting.	Student does not seem at all prepared to present. The student reads straight from the poem.
Tone /verbal interpretation	The student most effectively used variations in volume, tone and word emphasis to convey emotions, attitude and theme of the poem.	The student attempted a change in tone of voice to effectively convey emotions. Student successfully read the poem with feeling.	Changes in tone of voice were rarely used OR the emotion it conveyed often did not fit the content.	Tone of voice was not used to convey emotion.
Comprehension	Student is able to accurately discuss the poems using the terminology of poetry learned in class and shows a deep understanding of the poems.	Student is able to accurately discuss the poems using the terminology of poetry learned in class and shows an average understanding of the poems.	Student is able to accurately discuss the poems using little of the terminology of poetry learned in class and shows only a surface level understanding of the poems.	Student is NOT able to accurately discuss the poems using the terminology of poetry learned in class and shows only a minimal level of comprehension of the poems presented.

On Reflection Paper

Areas	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor
Interpretation and Analysis	Forwards interesting insights on concepts like memory, history, trauma, diaspora drawn from excellent analysis of the poems; quotes adequate verses from the text to support their idea/concept; and discusses extensively and insightfully the meaning of the poem.	Attempts to forward interesting ideas on concepts like memory, history, trauma, diaspora drawn by analyzing some parts of the poem/s; quotes at least one verse from the text to support their idea/concept; and discusses adequately with at least one insight the meaning of the poem.	Attempts to forward some preliminary thoughts on concepts like memory, history, trauma, and diaspora but does not connect them to the poem/s being analyzed; does not quote verses from the text to support their idea/concept; and discusses the meaning of the poem in merely one statement.	Does not have any main argument or synthesizing idea on any of the concepts like memory, history, trauma, and diaspora; does not quote verses from the text to support their idea/concept; and discusses minimally the meaning of the poem.
Communication Skills	Articulates with good grammar, cogency, and coherence of a good essay.	Articulates with adequate grammar, cogency, and coherence of a satisfactory essay.	Articulates with slight errors in grammar, adequate cogency, and coherence.	Articulates poorly with fragmented sentences, grammatical errors, and lack of cogency.
Style	Shows strong evidence of good reflection through solid writing that has a well-outlined points or ideas throughout the essay	Shows adequate evidence of satisfactory reflection in writing, has a strong outline of ideas throughout the essay.	Shows slight evidence of satisfactory reflection in the writing, some or few errors in style, and there is an attempt to follow an outline.	Shows poor evidence of reflection, the writing has many errors and the essay does not seem to follow logical outline.

Suggested References

Amanpour and Company. 2019. “Ocean Vuong on War, Sexuality and Asian-American Identity | Amanpour and Company.” Youtube, uploaded by Amanpour and Company, December 25, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZIwsk9cAM
Darma, Budi, ed. 2000. Modern literature of ASEAN. Jakarta : ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information.
De Chavez, Jeremy and Cassie Jun Lin. 2020. “The Faithful Work of Drowning.”: A Reparative Reading of Ocean Vuong’s “Telemachus”, The Explicator, 78:2, 66-70.
Ha, Quan Manh. 2016. “When Memory Speaks: Transnational Remembrances in Vietnam War Literature”, Southeast Asian Studies, 5(3): 463-489.
HigherEd Matters. 2019. “Meet Monica Sok, a Cambodian American Poet.” Youtube, uploaded by HigherEd Matters, April 12, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhCK98P3W7w
Lim, Alvin Cheng-Hin. 2012. “Reassembling memory: Rithy Panh’s S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine.” In The New Violent Cartography: Geo-analysis after the aesthetic turn, edited by Sam Okoth Opondo and Michael J. Shapira. (Routledge: London and New York), pp. 118-133.
Mahony, Philip, ed. 1998. From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of the Vietnam War and its Aftermath. New York: Scribner Poetry.
Mallari-Hall, Luisa J., ed. 1999. Texts and Contexts: Interactions Between Literature and Culture in Southeast Asia. Quezon City: UP Press.
Poolthoopya, Srisurang, ed. 2001. Asean Short Stories and Poems by S.E.A. Write Awardees 1999. Bangkok: Thai P.E.N. Centre.
Singh, Kirpal, ed. 1987. The Writer’s Sense of the Past: Essays on Southeast Asian and Australasian Literature. National University of Singapore: Singapore University Press.
Smyth, David, ed. 2000. The Canon in Southeast Asian Literatures. Great Britain: Curzon Press
Sok, Monica. 2015. “Locked Eyes: Three Poems.” The Margins: Asian American Writer’s Workshop. April 14, 2015. https://aaww.org/locked-eyes-monica-sok/
Vuong, Ocean. “Aubade with Burning City.” Poetry Foundation. February 2014. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56769/aubade-with-burning-city

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