 |
National Imagination: Week 3 |
Week Three: 1947. Each professor presents snapshots of their given cultures during the year 1947. The idea for this class grew out of the professors own exercise asking their own colleagues in the department to bring in information about anything from the year 1947 — artifacts, what people were reading, what plays were open, who died, who was arrested. Then the professors presented what they found for the three cultures covered in the course.
"It gives students a feel for the cultural studies way of looking at literature in a larger context. It's chaotic and sloppy, but this is the way it really looked," says Professor Marvin D'Lugo. "From the students' point of view, you think teachers go in and everything is clean and organized and in a straight line. But in life, in real culture, things are chaotic. And in 1947 Argentina, for example, culture was a chaotic mix of literature, art, theater, film and everyday artifacts."
The professors then give students a task called "Staging the Nation" about an unknown country. For example, "The Unknown Japan." The task forces students to focus and look at a country outside of the typical stereotype and Western point of view. Students are given readings and visuals to help them toward a conclusion that the Professors are looking for. The idea is for students to discover a way of looking at a particular country and culture outside the popular and Western perspective.
As part of this exercise, students are asked to watch a short video of a roundtable discussion by their three professors that they can access via Blackboard. Students are then asked to comment on the video in a "virtual classroom" on Blackboard.
|
