1. EWRT 1B

2. Agenda
Presentation: Terms
Discussion: Far and Film
How and why does Far resist? What are the
social implications of her doing so? Why do
people reverse pass?
Assessing Blogging Responses
Discussion/Writing: Essay #4

3. Terms
 Transsexuals: People who indicate that they are of one gender
trapped in the body of the other gender. A person who has
altered or intends to alter her/hir/his anatomy, either through
surgery, hormones, or other means, to better match her/hir/his
chosen gender identity. This group of people is often divided into
pre-op (operative), post-op, or non-op transsexuals. Due to cost,
not all transsexuals can have genital surgery. Others do not feel
that surgery is necessary, but still remain a transsexual identity.
 a. Non-operative: People who do not intend to change their primary sex
characteristics, either because of a lack of a desire or the inability to do
so. They may or may not alter their secondary sex characteristics
through the use of hormones.
 b. Pre-operative: People who have started the procedure to reassign
their primary sex characteristics, but have not yet had the surgery. This
covers both those people who have just begun the procedure and those
who are very close to the actual surgery.
 c. Post-operative: People who have had the actual genital surgery

4. Transphobia:
 The fear or hatred of transgender and
transsexual people. Like biphobia, this term
was created to call attention to the ways
prejudice against trans people differs from
prejudice against other queer people. There is
often transphobia in lesbian, gay and bisexual
communities, as well as heterosexual or
straight communities.

5.  Persona: a character in drama or fiction or the part
any one sustains in the world or in a book. Persona
also denotes the “I” who speaks in a poem or novel.
 Plot: a plan or scheme to accomplish a purpose. In
literature, this is the arrangement of events to
achieve an intended effect consisting of a series of
carefully devised and interrelated actions that
progresses through a struggle of opposing forces,
called conflict, to a climax and a denouement (final
resolution). This is different from story or story line,
which is the order of events as they occur.

6.  Point of view: a specified position or method of consideration
and appraisal. It may also be an attitude, judgment, or opinion.
In literature, physical point of view has to do with the position
in time and space from which a writer approaches, views, and
describes his or her material. Mental point of view involves an
author’s feeling and attitude toward his or her subject.
Personal point of view concerns the relation through which a
writer narrates or discusses a subject, whether first, second, or
third person.
 Prose : the ordinary form of spoken and written language
whose unit is the sentence, rather than the line as it is in
poetry. The term applies to all expressions in language that do
not have a regular rhythmic pattern.

7.  Scenario: an outline of the plot of a dramatic
work, which provides particulars about
characters, settings, and situation. The term is
most often used for the detailed script of a film
or a treatment setting forth the action in the
sequence it is to follow with detailed
descriptions of scenes and characters, and
actual works. Sometimes the plot of a film or
television show is loosely called a scenario.
 Simile: a figure of speech in which two things,
essentially different but thought to be alike in
one or more respects, are compared using
“like,” “as,” “as if,” or “such” for the purpose of
explanation, allusion, or ornament.

8.  Style: a manner of putting thoughts into words or the
characteristic mode of construction and expression in writing
and speaking. The term is also used for the characteristics of a
literary selection that concern the form of expression rather
than the thought conveyed. Style is usually defined by the
writer’s choice of words, figures of speech, devices, and the
shaping of the sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes, styles
are classified according to time period or individual writers.
 Theme : the central and dominating idea in a literary work. A
theme may also be a short essay such as a composition. In
addition, the term means a message or moral implicit in any
work of art.

9. Discuss Far and
Gentleman’s
Agreement

10. Spring Fragrance
and Other
Writings
By Sui Sin Far
This text includes “Leaves
from the Mental Portfolio
of an Eurasian”

11. Passing and Sui Sin Far
“Ah, indeed!” he exclaims. “Who would have thought it at first
glance? Yet now I see the difference between her and other
children. What a peculiar coloring! Her mother’s eyes and hair and
her father’s features, I presume. Very interesting little creature!”
I had been called from play for the purpose of inspection. I do not
return to it. For the rest of the evening I hide myself behind a hall
door and refuse to show myself until it is time to go home.
Why does Far hide after this experience?
How does this moment contribute to her identity development?

12. “Look!” says Charlie. “Those men in there are Chinese!” Eagerly I gaze into the
long low room. With the exception of my mother, who is English bred with
English ways and manner of dress, I have never seen a Chinese person. The
two men within the store are uncouth specimens of their race, drest in working
blouses and pantaloons with queues hanging down their backs. I recoil with a
sense of shock.
“Oh, Charlie,” I cry. “Are we like that?”
“Well, we’re Chinese, and they’re Chinese, too, so we must be!” returns my
seven year old brother.
“Of course you are,” puts in a boy who has followed us down the street, and
who lives near us and has seen my mother: “Chinky, Chinky, Chinaman, yellow-
face, pig-tail, rat-eater.” A number of other boys and several little girls join in
with him.
“Better than you,” shouts my brother, facing the crowd. He is younger and
smaller than any there, and I am even more insignificant than he; but my spirit
revives.
“I’d rather be Chinese than anything else in the world,” I scream.
Why does Far fight after this experience?
How does this moment contribute to her identity development?

13. The greatest temptation was in the thought of getting far away from where I was
known, to where no mocking cries of “Chinese!” “Chinese!” could reach.
Here Sui seems to want to disappear. Given her desire to escape prejudice, why does
she become a champion of the Chinese instead of “passing” as we know so many
others do during this time? In other words, which of her life experiences compel her to
refuse to pass as white? How does she become the woman who speaks the lines
below?
With a great effort I raise my eyes from my plate. “Mr. K.,” I say, addressing my
employer, “the Chinese people may have no souls, no expression on their faces, be
altogether beyond the pale of civilization, but whatever they are, I want you to
understand that I am—I am a Chinese.”

14. How and why does Far resist
passing?
• Far refuses to pass as white. Why? What
convinces her to consciously and intentionally
reveal her racial identity?
• Consider how Far resists passing. Which
behaviors can you specifically identify?

16. In this movie, the main
character both reverse
passes and refuses to
pass. How is this possible?

17. How does his behavior
affect his identity, his
family, and his intimate
relationship?

18. How can we compare Phil
Green to Sui Sin Far?
 How does each
resist passing?
 What behaviors
can you
specifically
identify?
 Consider the time
periods:
 Far wrote “Leaves”
in 1890
 Hobson wrote
Gentlemen’s
Agreement in 1946
 Do their
motivations differ?

19. Thinking
about
Passing
What is it exactly?
 What is
Identity?
 When is
Identity “real”
and when is it
constructed”

20. Consider the identity of Dr. Lieberman, the
Jewish physicist in Gentleman’s Agreement,
who says,
“I have no religion so I am not Jewish by religion. Further, I am a
scientist, so I must rely on science, which tells me I am not Jewish
by race, since there is no such thing as a distinct Jewish race.
There is not even such a thing as a Jewish type. Well, my crusade
will have a certain charm. I will simply go forth and state that I am
not a Jew. With my face, that becomes not an evasion but a new
principle, a scientific principle“?
What is his fixed identity category?
Would he be passing if he simply stated he was not a Jew based
on his lack of religion and his scientific assertion that there is no
Jewish race?

21. Are our identities on the inside
or the outside?
 Are transgender people passing?
 If so, what is the fixed identity
category?
 What is the passing category?

22. Can a bio male or female
person have the identity of
“trans” without being called
a passer?

23. How, then, can we parallel this trans
identity and trans passing scenario to
racial identity and racial passing?
Is a person who looks white but is of African
American lineage, also “trans”? When can this
person be “white” without being called a passer?
OR should he or she identify as trans (racial)?

24. Is Race “Real” or Constructed?
• If race is constructed, is Jack
passing?
• Is Coleman Silk?
• Can Sui Sin Far refuse to pass if
race is constructed?

25. Disruption or Stabilization?
 Does this ability to identify as trans
(sexual, gender, racial, ethnic) and pass
or not pass disrupt identity categories or
does it destroy them? How?
 Does “Passing” disrupt or stabilize the
status quo? Can it do both? How?

26. The blogging post points (150) require self-
assessment. Consider three aspects of your
responses:
• First, how many of the posts did you make?
• Second, what was the quality of your
response?
• Third, how timely were your submissions?
Write a brief argument justifying your grade.
This is due before the final. Email me your
self-assessment.
Posting: Self-Assessment

28. Homework
 Writing: Finish your research paper! Submit your
essay electronically before our next class by emailing a
copy saved in MS word to
palmoreessaysubmission@gmail.com
 Evaluate your blogging responses. Submit your
evaluation by email before our next class.
 Prepare revision of essay #2 or #3 Submit your
essay electronically before our next class by emailing a
copy saved in MS word to
palmoreessaysubmission@gmail.com
 Studying: Terms
 In preparation for the final essay: Think about reverse
passing and refusing to pass. Think about identity
categories. Think about what you have learned about
passing and identity during the course.