HUM 3320H

HUM 3320: Contemporary Multicultural Studies: This course contributes to the Honors College curriculum by providing a detailed study of primary sources focused on the convergence of communications technology and cultural diversity in the context of globalization. It fulfills 6,000 words of the Gordon Rule writing requirement, as well as the CIV and International Studies Core requirements. Topics covered include the Vietnam War, the contemporary Middle East, liberation struggles in the Caribbean, Hip-hop culture, postcolonial cultures, and international feminism.

HUM 2932: Writing in the Humanities (Tues. 6:30-8:20 PM, 1 credit) is highly recommended as a companion course to this one; the text is by Michael Petracca, & Madeleine Sorapure, Common Culture: Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture.

Contemporary American culture is marked by multifaceted changes in literature and the arts, in science and technology, in personal values and identities, and in the signs and symbols in terms of which we organize our lives. “Our” civilization is now undergoing an extraordinary transformation, one which could lead to a utopian technological paradise or to ecological catastrophe--or to some disturbing combination of the two. Whatever the present and future hold we are challenged by the complexity of our experience to describe, reflect and act in new ways. Invention is now the mother of necessity; science often sounds like fantasy, and artistry is converging with technology. Human beings have discovered that they are not necessarily the lords of creation but one among the community of living beings that make up the biosphere, and that the earth is not the center of the universe but, as architect Buckminster Fuller once said, a speck of pollen in “outer” space. Western civilization has discovered that it is not the measure of culture or the center, let alone the majority, of the world, and men have been reminded that they must share power with the "weaker" sex. In this topsy-turvy world, we might agree with Hamlet that "The readiness is all." Perhaps some of us will be able to say in a tragicomic tone, as R.E.M. did eons ago in MTV time, "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine." Whether the result of our study will be tragic or comic, or some combination of both, our intent is to come to terms with the contemporary, some would say "postmodern," human condition.

Closely related to the issues of postmodernity are those of multiculturalism. The United States is a cultural tapestry made up of various traditions stemming not only from Europe but also from Native America, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Canada, Asia, and the Middle East. What is more, threading through these various patterns, the cultures of women, traditionally excluded from the dominant histories of the West, are emerging into the light of its recognized cultural tradition. We shall therefore address not only the aforementioned relationship between technology and culture but also the fracturing of the "grand narratives" that have created the dominant tradition of the Occident: salvation, progress, utopia, reason, universality, individualism, Eurocentrism, etc. We will study these ideas in light of the narratives provided by the various cultures that have contributed to and now are increasingly in the mainstream of North American life. It is necessary to be selective, of course, so that in a given semester we cannot address all of the traditions making up the rich conversation of our present culture; nevertheless, each term we shall be focusing on some principal contributions to the multicultural landscape.

As an introduction to multiculturalism and the postcolonial condition, this semester we will be reading Graham Greene’s critical portrait of Vietnam War, The Quiet American, as well as the recent film by the same title; connecting the dots of recent history, we will next consider Marjance Satrapi’s graphical autobiography of her childhood amidst U.S.-sponsored dictatorship and Islamic Revolution in Iran, Persepolis; next we will study Divakaruni Chitra Banerjee’s imaginative novel-portrait of India’s meeting with America among the shops of Oakland, California, in The Mistress of Spices; we will share the anguish of Hatian refugees and the rich imagination of a Caribbean culture in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker; and we will look into Haruki Murakami's collection of short stories, After the Quake, which provides a cross-cultural (American and Japanese) meditation on the interface between cataclysms in history and consciousness; as well as an animated picture of futuristic Japan in Tetzuka and Rintaro’s film Metropolis; then we will explore global media culture in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. We will consider the multicultural dimensions of Florida’s troubled history in John Sayles’ recent film, Sunshine State . Finally, we’ll consider postcolonial and indigenous struggles for liberation in Marcello Gatti’s film The Battle of Algiers and Spike Lee’s A Huey P. Newton Story; simultaneously, returning to offer a historical, postcolonial perspective on multiculturalism and the international struggle for human rights, we will read the new edition of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth and be taking a look at hip-hop culture, in Nick Broomfield’s film, Biggie & Tupac. Integrating our analysis of these diverse cultural artifacts we will read various theoretical perspectives provided by Easthope and McGowan’s A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader. Overall we will engage in the richest possible understanding and appreciation of the cultural diversity that makes up our emerging present.

Specific Course Requirements and Grades:
1) Two essays written out of class, each at least 1,000 words in length (2,000 words minimum total) = 20% each of final grade: 40% total (drafts of those essays are also due and will be counted as part of the grade).
2) A final essay, 1,250 words in length, on interdisciplinary subject matter = 30% of final grade.
3) A series of in-class, 250-word responses on daily assignments (750 words total) = 15% of final grade.
4) A presentation (15 minutes): 15% of final grade.
5) Total graded writing: 6,000 words

Required Texts:
Danticat, Edwidge, The Dew Breaker
Divakaruni, Chitra Banarjee, The Mistress of Spices
Easthope, Anthony and Kate McGowan, A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader
Fanon, Frantz, The Wretched of the Earth
Gibson, William, Pattern Recognition
Greene, Graham, The Quiet American (Viking Critical Edition, ISBN: 014024350X)
Murakami, Haruki, After the Quake
Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis

Required Films:

William Horberg, Staffan Ahrenberg, The Quiet American

Spike Lee, A Huey P. Newton Story

Joseph Mankiewicz, The Quiet American (1958)

Errol Morris, The Fog of War
John Sayles, Sunshine State

Fritz Lang, Metropolis

Osamu Tetzuka,, and Rintaro (Hatyashi Shigenyuki): Metropolis
Review of Tetzuka’s Metropolis: http://www.theblackmoon.com/Deadmoon/metro.htm
NPR’s Report on Tezuka’s Metropolis, with images: http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jan/metropolis/020124.metropolis.html
Broomfield, Nick, Biggie & Tupac

Marcello Gatti, The Battle of Algiers

Maps and Images:

Vietnam historical map

Vietnam map list

Ninh Binh--landscape, architecture, people

Phat Diem Map (locates Phat Diem, Nam Dinh, and other places mentioned by Greene)

Phat Diem Cathedral

Phat Diem Cathedral exterior

Phat Diem Cathedral Bell Tower (shows bell tower from which Greene observed battle)

Phat Diem Cathedral close-up

William Gibson: Pattern Recognition

Syllabus

Week / Date (syllabus may be amended as necessary; please follow online updates): Week 1: May 17-19:
Tuesday: The Quiet American (2002) film and novel.
250 word response;
Thursday, film: The Quiet American (1958); Greene’s novel, The Quiet American, pp. 1-82; 193-211; Easthope & McGowan, Sec. 1: “Semiology,” Saussure and Barthes, pp. 7-20. Christopher, Film Summary of The Quiet American 1958, Greene pp. 303-306; Johnathan Nashel, “Lansdale and Greene,” Greene pp. 313-328. 250 word response.

Week 2: May 24-26
Tuesday: Greene, The Quiet American, pp. 83-188; 212-240. U.S. National Security Council Position Paper on Vietnam, 1950, Greene pp. 262-266; Ho Chi Minh, Greene, pp. 284-298; Easthope & McGowan, “Semiology,” Macherery, Barthes, MacCabe, pp. 21-40; Honore de Balzac, "Sarrasine"[i] ; Hans Morgenthau on Vietnam, and Iraq?; film: The Fog of War (if available) 1,000 word response due.
Thursday: Satrapi, Persepolis, complete. Reserve Reading: All the Shah’s Men, selections; 250 word response

Week 3: May 31-June 2
Tuesday: Divakaruni, The Mistress of Spices; Hip-hop by M I A; MIA on NPR; Easthope & McGowan, Sec. 2: “Ideology,” Marx, Althusser, Said, pp. 41-66; 250 word response.
Indian Art: Shiva Nataraja; Shiva’s companions: Parvati, Kali, Ganesh ; a bodhisattva (Chinese Buddhist); Divakaruni on Hinduism.
Thursday: The Mistress of Spice, cont’d. ; 1,000 word response due;
Oral Presentations & Discussion

Week 4: June 7-9
Tuesday: Film, John Sayles, Sunshine State; Interview with John Sayles (on reserve, watch as you will).
Thursday: Danticat, The Dew Breaker, selections; Danticat, "A Crime to Dream", The Nation; Easthope & McGowan, Sec. 3: “Subjectivity,” Lacan, Kristeva, Foucault, Barthes, pp. 67-100; 1,000 word draft due; supplementary reading: Paul Farmer, ch. 1 from Pathologies of Power, "On Suffering and Structural Violence"; "Who Removed Aristide?"; Interview with Medical Anthropologist Paul Farmer. Black Thought & Culture FAU Library Electronic Collection via EZproxy.
Oral Presentations & Discussion; Fugees, music video, Ready or Not.

Week 5: June 14-16
Tuesday: Film: Tetzuka and Rintaro, Metropolis; 250 word response. Easthope & McGowan, Sec. 4, “Difference,” Derrida, pp. 101-132; Sec. 6, “Postmodernism,” Lyotard, Jameson, Baudrillard, pp. 181-206; 250 word response.
Thursday: Murakami, After the Quake, selections;; Sec. 5: “Gender,” Freud, Cixous, Mulvey, Spivak, pp. 133-180; Adorno, “On Popular Music,” pp. 211-222; 1,000 word essay due;
Oral Presentations & Discussion; Gibson: Pattern Recognition (now recommended reading): animé by Hayao Mayazaki .

Week 6: June 21-23
1250 Word Final Essay Due Tuesday

Postcolonialism, indigenous liberation struggles, and popular culture:
Thursday: Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth, selections; Marcello Gatti, The Battle of Algiers; Spike Lee, A Huey P Newton Story.

Hip-Hop and and the conflicts of postmodern urbanity: Film, Broomfield, Biggie & Tupac. Oral Presentations & Discussion;