National Imagination
Timeline

Instructors: Marvin D'Lugo
Walter Schatzberg
Alice Valentine

REQUIRED TEXTS

Murasaki Shikibu, Tale of Genji, trans. and abridged by Edward Seidensticker (Vintage)
Nouzeilles, Gabriella and Graciela Montaldo (eds). The Argentina Reader (Duke U. Press)
Course Reader: The National Imagination [available for $40 by cash or check through Department secretary in Estabrook 301]
Remarque, Erich Maria. All Quiet on the Western Front (Fawcett Columbine)
Schlink, Bernhard. The Reader (Vintage)

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

  1. Regular attendance at all class sessions. More than one unexcused absence will adversely affect your grade. When you know you will be absent, please have the courtesy of contacting one of us in advance by e-mail.
  2. Preparation of all assigned readings and viewing of all assigned films prior to class meetings. Please note: Three copies of all assigned videos will be placed on Goddard COURSE RESERVE (or at LARC or with Dept. secretary, as indicated).
  3. Check Blackboard postings weekly for additional readings, images, and web links.
  4. Three essays of 6-8 pages each on assigned topics, due on the following dates:

    5. March 16: Paper #1 “The Warrior Nation”
    April 6: Paper #2 “The Gendered Nation”
    April 27: Paper #3 “The Dialogical Nation”

    VISUAL CULTURE PROJECTS: In lieu of one paper, students may wish to develop a visual culture project. The project, which may be developed as a collaborative assignment among two or more students, will involve the exploration of visual dimensions of themes and materials previously presented in course readings. There is a department archive of visual culture projects developed last year. All visual culture projects must be sponsored by one of the course instructors.

  5. Two Blackboard Discussions based on “Faculty Round Table” web postings.
  6. Determination of final grades:
    Papers -- 60%
    Class participation and Blackboard discussion- 40%

PART I: INTRODUCTION

January 20: INTRODUCTION TO THE NATIONAL IMAGINATION:

Readings:

HANDOUT: Benedict Anderson. "Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism"

January 27 : TIME LINES OF THE THREE NATIONAL CULTURES

Readings:

HANDOUT: Ernest Renan, "What Is a Nation?"

From the Course Reader:

  1. Foster et al., "Culture and Customs of Argentina"
  2. Nicholas Shumway. "Prelude to Nationhood"
  3. "“Germany: Struggle to Unify: a Chronology"
  4. Morton and Totman, Introduction to A History of Japan

FILM: "The Making of the German Nation" (90 minutes) [available at LARC and with Department secretary in Estabrook 301]

Check Blackboard Postings for additional required materials

Small Group Discussion sessions for organization for Feb. 10th, "The Unknown Nation"

February 3: 1947: NATIONAL "SNAPSHOTS” OF THREE CULTURES"

Readings:
From the Course Reader:

  1. Nagai Tatsuo, "Brief Encounter"
  2. Germany, 1947, an overview of pertinent texts
  3. Rosselini's Germany, Year Zero, a review of the film
  4. Wolfgang Borchert's "The Rats Do Sleep Nights" (a short story)
  5. Allen W. Dulles: "Alternatives for Germany"
  6. The Marshall Plan, 1947
  7. Israel and Zionism: UN Partitions Plan, 1947
  8. The Story of Exodus, 1947
  9. The 1947 HUAC Hearings

    10. From The Argentina Reader:

  10. Daniel James, "Perón and the People." (pp. 273-295)
  11. Witold Gombrowicz, "The Foreign Gaze." (pp. 319-23)

Check Blackboard Postings for additional required materials.

Small Group Discussion sessions for organization for Feb. 10th, “The Unknown Nation”

February 10: THE UNKNOWN NATION: GERMANY, JAPAN, AND ARGENTINA

Readings for Group One: Germany
From the Course Reader:

  1. Lesing, "The parable of the Three Rings"
  2. Goethe, "The Godlike"
  3. Kant, "What is Enlightenment?"
  4. Schiller, "Ode to Joy"
  5. Beethoven, Symphony No. 9, Op 125, "Choral" (short texts)
  6. Madame de Stael, Germany, selections
  7. Frederick the Great, "Political Testament"

Readings for Group Two: Japan
From the Course Reader:

  1. Mori Ogai, "Under Reconstruction"
  2. Komuro Kutsuzan,"Ode to Liberty"
  3. Kanagaki Robun, "The Beefeater"
  4. Hattori Busho, "The Western Peep Show"

Readings for Group Three: Argentina
From The Argentina Reader:

  1. Chapters 4 and 5, pp. 157-267

Check Blackboard postings for additional required material on your assigned national culture.

PART II: THE WARRIOR NATION

February 17: GERMANY

Readings

NOVEL: E. M. Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
From the Course Reader:

  1. Zuchmayer: Review of All Quiet on the Western Front
  2. Glaeser’s Class of 1902 (a selection)
  3. Brecht: selected poems
  4. Heine: selections from prose and poetry
  5. Borchert: anti-war stories

Check Blackboard Postings for additional required material.

February 24: JAPAN

Readings
From the Course Reader:

  1. Kumazawa Banzan, "The Model Samurai"
  2. Yamaga Soko, "The Way of the Samurai"
  3. Ivan Morris, "The Apotheosis of Saigo the Great"
  4. Ivan Morris, "If Only We Might Fall"
  5. "Do Not Lose Your Life Lightly” from kamikaze cockpit manual

FILM: (VCD): Daimyo on reserve at LARC.

Check Blackboard postings for additional required material.

March 2: ARGENTINA

Readings:
From The Argentina Reader:

  1. Ulderico Schmidt. "Going Wild”
  2. Domingo F. Sarmiento. "Civilization or Barbarism"
  3. José Hernández. "Gauchos in and out of the State"
  4. Eduardo Archetti. "Soccer and Masculinity"”

From the Course Reader:

  1. Esteban Echeverría. "The Slaughterhouse"
  2. Jorge Luis Borges. "The South"

Check Blackboard postings for film link and other required material.

[March 9: Midterm Break]

PAPER #1 DUE MARCH 16TH

Part III: THE GENDERED NATION

March 16: GERMANY

Reading
From the Course Reader:

  1. A History of the German Women’s Movement”
  2. Portrait of Helma Sanders-Brahms
  3. "Through a Daughter’s Eyes: Helma Sanders-Brahms’ Germany, Pale Mother"
  4. "Is the Apolitical Woman at Peace?"

FILM: Germany, Pale Mother [on reserve at Goddard and with Dept. secretary, Estabrook 301 ]

Check Blackboard postings for additional required materials.

March 23: JAPAN

Readings NOVEL: Chapters 1, 3, 4, & 6 from Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji (Abridged version) From the Course Reader:

  1. Excerpt from The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon
  2. Tanizaki Junichiro, "Bridge of Dreams"
  3. Hayao Kawai, "Violence in the Home: Conflict between Two Principles—Maternal and Paternal"

Check Blackboard Postings for additional required materials.

March 30: ARGENTINA

Readings: From The Argentina Reader:

  1. Juana Manuela Gorriti, "Women in the Fatherland.” (pp. 73-4)
  2. Tomás Eloy Martínez, "Saint Evita.” (pp. 296-303)
  3. Victoria Ocampo, "Victorian Fathers.” (313-18)
  4. Hebe de Bonafini, "The Madwomen at the Plaza de Mayo." (pp. 429-39)
  5. Marcela Nari, "Feminist Awakenings” (pp. 528-37)

From the Course Reader:

  1. Luisa Valenzuela, "Addendum"
  2. Luisa Valenzuela, "Symmetries"

FILMS: 1. Camila (María Luisa Bemberg), on reserve at LARC
2. Madres de la Plaza de Mayo” (Lourdes Portillo), available in Estabrook 301

Check Blackboard postings for additional required material.

PAPER #2 DUE APRIL 6TH

Part IV: THE DIALOGICAL NATION

April 6: GERMANY

Readings: NOVEL: Bernhard Schlink, The Reader From the Course Reader:

  1. "Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust"

Check Blackboard postings for additional required readings.

April 13: JAPAN

Readings: From the Course Reader:

  1. Valignano, de Torres, and Carletti, "Reports of the Earliest Western Visitors to Japan"
  2. Nosaka Akiyuki, "American Hijiki"
  3. Norma Field, "Prologue” to In the Realm of a Dying Emperor"

FILM: Tampopo [on reserve at LARC]

Check Blackboard postings for additional required material.

April 20: ARGENTINA

Readings: From the Course Reader:

  1. Julie M. Taylor. "Tango: Theme of Class and Nation."
  2. Alma Guillermo Prieto. "Tango, soul of Argentina"
  3. Luisa Valenzuela. "Tango"

FILM: Tango: The Exile of Gardel Screening: Monday, April 19: Estabrook 303.

Check Blackboard postings for additional required material.

PAPER #3 DUE APRIL 27th

April 27: SUMMING UP