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
21.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███████████
a
scholarly appreciation for ███ ████████████ ████████ ██████████████
Strongly supported. The author states that the talk-story tradition is part of an “
b
mild disappointment that ██ ███ ███ █████████████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ██████████
The author doesn’t express disappointment about anything. (Maybe we could say he’s disappointed in how critics have misunderstood Kingston’s work, but even that would be a stretch. He just says the critics have overlooked something. There’s no value-laden language there.) The author also doesn’t suggest that the talk-story tradition has failed to distinguish itself.
c
tentative approval of ███ ██████████ ██ ████████ ███████████
The author doesn’t think the talk-story tradition resists critical evaluations. He just thinks critics are wrong about one particular aspect of one specific writer’s work (Kingston’s).
d
clear respect for ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ███ ████████ ███████████
The author has respect for Kingston’s work, which he argues is a cultural derivation (i.e., a cultural product) of the talk-story tradition. So we can say he has respect for one cultural derivation of the talk-story tradition. But what about the “diversity of its ancient sources”? The author doesn’t suggest that there’s any diversity within those sources. He only identifies one generalized source:
e
open admiration for ███ ███ ██ ████ ████ ██ ███████ █████████
The author notes that the talk-story tradition uses song, but he doesn’t express any admiration over that particular fact. Where he expresses admiration, it’s either much more general (he admires its