Self-study
P1
With their recognition of Maxine Hong Kingston as a major literary figure, some critics have suggested that her works have been produced almost . ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ █ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███
Critics' perspective ·
Kingston's work doesn't seem to be based on prior Chinese American influences
Author's perspective ·
Critics overlook influence of "talk-story" on Kingston's work
Talk-story is a traditional Chinese form of oral narrative
P2
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History of talk-story ·
Ancient form of storytelling in China, rarely written, brought to U.S. by Chinese immigrants
Relevance to Kingston ·
Her literary work includes written adaptations of talk-story
P3
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Kingston's method ·
Builds narratives using key elements and themes drawn from memory
Contrast this with written storytelling traditions, in which telling a story right means getting the order of words right; Kingston seems more focused on getting the broader "shape" of the story right, rather than on the specific wording
Kingston's perspective ·
on writing down traditionally oral stories
Writing them down doesn't halt the oral tradition; stories can continue to change over time
P4
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Example of Kingston's work ·
"China Men" book
Book includes many characteristics of talk-story and can be considered a written form of talk-story
Passage Style
Critique or debate
Spotlight
16.
It can be inferred from ███ ███████ ████ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ █
a
a literary genre ██ ████████████ ████████████
“Personally remembered stories” aren’t a genre of literature; they’re the source from which Kingston draws her stories.
b
a thematically organized ████████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ████
The “personally remembered stories” that Kingston’s pulling from aren’t already thematically organized, as far as we can tell. They’re just stories that people recall, and Kingston, in line with the traditions of oral storytelling, pulls her material from those existing stories. What does she do with that material? She sifts through it and reconstructs certain elements of it according to the themes Kingston wants to explore. So the “personally remembered stories” aren’t themselves thematically organized; rather, Kingston draws certain themes out of them through her writing.
c
partially idiosyncratic memories ██ ██████████
This is the best description available. P3, which contains the referenced phrase, tells us that Kingston’s work is in line with oral traditions of storytelling, where the storyteller draws on people’s recollections and retellings of various stories. So when the author says Kingston draws on “personally remembered stories,” it sounds like Kingston is using idiosyncratic (i.e., individual and noteworthy) memories as the source of her material.
d
the retention in ██████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ █████
Anti-supported. One style of storytelling emphasizes the precise sequences of words that make up that story. But Kingston’s approach is presented as
e
easily identifiable thematic ██████ ██ ██████████
By “personally remembered stories,” the author means stories that individual people can personally recall. So he’s referring to the stories themselves (not just the “thematic issues” in those stories), and those stories exist in people’s memories (not as literature).