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National Imagination |
What images make people think of America? Cowboys? The flag? And are there similar icons in other cultures that help define cultural identity? In Clark's National Imagination course, offered each spring, images of three different cultures are explored not only through language, but through examining the cultural identity of these cultures — through art, music, film and national languages. But rather than just reading books and going to the library, this course uses technology, multimedia and small discussion groups to engage students and make them "active learners" in their own course experience.
The three professors who team-teach this cross-disciplinary and cross-language course help students examine three cultures through three sets of lenses. Each year the countries and teaching trio may change, but the goal is the same — "to look at the ways communities were formed and stabilized through visual culture as well as through literature and the arts," explains Professor Marvin D'Lugo, who taught the section of the course on Argentina in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, D'Lugo was joined by Professor Alice Valentine, who taught the section on Japan, and Professor Walter Schatzberg, who taught the section on Germany. In 2003, students examined France instead of Germany, courtesy of Professor Michael Spingler.
The course, which is required for all students majoring in Foreign Languages and Literature or Comparative Literature, "evolves every year" explains Valentine. "What makes it exciting for us also makes it exciting for the students. It's dynamic and we've reinvented it again this year."
According to D'Lugo, "we've tried to integrate new technologies this year. anything beyond the book...and what emerged was that we emphasized the visual cultures within the various national cultures." That means that when students are studying Japan, they examine culture through watching films such as "Tampopo," examining interactive scrolls — scrolls that students can mouseover to learn about the images and Kanji calligraphy. And when examining Argentina, students may look at gaucho culture and images of Argentinean culture by listening to and watching the tango and tracing its origins. One assignment asked students to view a short video of the three professors discussing a question from the course. Students were asked to go on Blackboard — Clark's virtual classroom — to watch and respond to it and initiate discussion with fellow classmates in an online chat room. "We found that students who did not tend to speak up in class were much less intimidated by participating through this chat room. The responses we read were thoughtful and very impressive," said D'Lugo.
Students in the course also have the opportunity to go beyond traditional paper writing. Students are required to write three papers, one on each of the course themes. However, one of those papers may be a "Visual Culture Project" or a non-traditional paper that uses multimedia such as video, PowerPoint or music. Read more about these projects and view excerpts from past projects.
During the 14-week class, which is taught in English, students examine three cultures. Each week the course meets for three hours. The first hour is spent as a group, the second in three small discussion groups with each of the professors, and the final hour, as a large discussion group again. Over the course of the semester, students learn to look at the cultures from three perspectives: The Warrior Nation, The Gendered Nation and the Dialogical Nation.