HUM 3320: Contemporary Multicultural
Studies: This course contributes to the
FILM SESSIONS: An extra session is
scheduled on Wednesday of each week from 4:00 to 6:50 in HC 114; please arrange
to attend or, if you cannot be there, please view the required films on reserve
in the library.
Students enrolled in this course agree to abide by the
OVERVIEW
Contemporary global 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 human condition.
Closely related to the issues
of postmodernity are those of multiculturalism. The
Specific
Course Requirements and Grades:
1) A series of reading and viewing
responses, 500-600 words, on weekly readings and films, written in and out
of class: totaling 60 % of final grade
2) A final essay, 1,500 words in length, on interdisciplinary subject matter = 20%
of final grade.
3) Presentation(s): 20% of final grade: each of you will
lead discussion on one at least one of the works assigned for the semester.
4) Total graded writing: approximately 6,000 words
5) Attendance is mandatory: unexcused absences will result in a reduction
of final grade (if you must miss class, please request permission from me in
advance).
6) Assignments must be completed on time: late work may be downgraded at
my discretion.
Required Texts:
Appiah, Kwame Anthony, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
Chomsky, Noam and Michel Foucault, The
Foucault-Chomsky Debate
Fanon, Franz, A Dying Colonialsm
Ptah, Heru, A Hip Hop Story
Rusesabagina, Paul, An Ordinary Man
Satrapi, Marjane, Persepolis I & II
Sen, Amaratya, Identity and
Violence
Smith, Zadie, On Beauty
Trinh Minh-Ha, When the Moon Waxes Red
Required Films:
Kimberlee Acquaro,
God Sleeps in Rwanda
Albou, Carin, La
petite Jérusalem [videorecording] / Laurent Lavolé et Isabelle
Pragier présentent une production Gloria Films en association avec Film par
film ; avec la participation de Canal + ; un film de Karin Albou ; un film
écrit et réalisé par Karin Albou.
Broomfield, Nick, Biggie
and Tupac [videorecording] / Razor & Tie presents a Lafayette
Film production for Channel Four Television ; a Nick Broomfield film ;
producer, Michele D'Acosta ; director, Nick Broomfield.
Coppola, Francis
Ford, Apocalypse
now, the complete dossier [videorecording] /
David, Peter, Hearts
and Minds
Gaghan, Stephen, Syriana
[videorecording] / Warner Bros. Pictures presents in association with
Participant Productions a 4M Film, a Section Eight production ; produced by
Jennifer Fox, Michael Nozik, Georgia Kacandes ; written and directed by Stephen
Gaghan.
Marcello Gatti, La
bataille d'Alger [videorecording] = The battle of Algiers /
George,
Gordon,
Daniel, A
State of Mind (I think I ordered this, priority 1, but don’t see it in
the catalog)
Noyce, Philip: The quiet American [videorecording]
/
Spike Lee, A
Huey P. Newton story [videorecording] /
---. Crooklyn [videorecording]
/
Story, Tim, Barbershop [videorecording] /
Trinh Minh-Ha, The
fourth dimension [videorecording (DVD)] /
---. Surname
Viêt, given name Nam [videorecording] : film /
Errol Morris, The
fog of war [videorecording] : eleven lessons from the life of Robert
S. McNamara /
PBS: Vietnam videorecording
: a television history / also see American Experience | Vietnam
Online | PBS for companion website.
Recommended:
PUBLIC ENEMY | Public Enemy Official Website
Maps, Images, Documents of
Ninh Binh--landscape,
architecture, people
Phat
Diem Map (locates
Phat Diem
Cathedral Bell Tower (shows bell tower from which Greene observed battle)
Vietnamese
Embrace Woman's War Diary
Images of helicopters fleeing US embassy in Saigon in
April 1975
William Gibson: Pattern Recognition
After 50
Years, Ginsberg's 'Howl' Still Resonates
Human Rights and
Cultural Relations:
Juan Goytisolo
Spanish Novelist in Exile see The
Anti-Orientalist NYT Magazine 4/16/06
The
3rd world view: Garment Labor in Bangladesh
Capturing
Biafra's Brief Day in the 'Yellow Sun'
Dreams in Rebellion: the
Battle of Seattle--Augustine of Epcot
Revisiting
the Last Witch Trial
Muslim
Woman's Court Case Tossed over Veil
Understanding
the Veil in Islam, Western Societies
Spanish
Cathedral Result of One Man's Work
t'l
Court Takes Case of
Reggaeton
Makes its Mark on the Bronx
The
war in Iraq: civilian casualties, political responsibilities The Lancet, Volume
364, Issue 9448 20 October 2004, via EZ Proxy FAU Library
Why
They Don't Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil
Back to the banlieues - Henri Astier
Nir Rosen: Anatomy of a Civil
War
Multicultural Arts
Art Tatum:
A Talent Never to Be Duplicated
Michael Jackson and Nazi Cinema
Against
the Day by Thomas Pynchon
TV's 'Afro Samurai' Fuses Martial Arts, Hip-Hop from www.npr.org
A new instance of cultural cross-pollination between
ASSIGNMENTS
Week 1: Jan. 9-11 On War, “Human Nature,” and
Colonial Culture
Foucault-Chomsky Debate
Film Apocalypse Now;
background reading, Joseph Conrad, Heart of
Darkness
Documentary:
Week 2: Jan. 16-18 Universalism, Relativism, and ‘Situated
Knowledges,’
Foucault Chomsky
Debate; Justice Vs. Power -
Chomsky Vs. Foucault, Part 1 video ; “The Story of Foucault’s History” by
John Rajchman (Social Text No. 8 (Winter 1983-1984), pp. 2-24 (see files under
HUM 3320 in MYFAU).
Reserve Reading: in JSTOR
(FAU Library Electronic Database): Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and
the Privilege of Partial Perspective Donna
Haraway, Feminist Studies, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Autumn, 1988), pp.
575-599);
Film: Hearts & Minds
Documentary:
Reserve: Graham Greene,
“Phat Diem,” from The Quiet American
John Lennon’s Legacy: Jon Wiener looks at the
musician/activist's efforts to stop the Vietnam war
Week 3: Jan. 23-25
Critical Film and the Epistemic Reframing of Documentary Response
1 Due Tuesday
Trinh, When the Moon
Waxes Red
Mohanty: “US Empire and the Project of Women’s
Studies” (see files under this
class in MYFAU).
Film: Surname Viet Given Name Nam
Film: The quiet American [videorecording]
/ (The
Quiet American 1958).
Review: The
Quiet American, directed by Phillip Noyce, adapted from the novel by Graham
Greene
Documentary: The Fog of
War
Week 4: Jan. 30- Feb. 1 Polymodal Representations and
the Fracturing of Empire
Trinh: When the Moon
Waxes Red
Fanon: A Dying
Colonialism; Officer
Refused to Deploy to Iraq
Film: The Battle of Algiers
(1967)
Week 5: Feb. 6-8
Revolutionary Networks and Postcolonial Discourse Response 2 Due
Tuesday
Fanon: A Dying
Colonialism; Georgia
Reports an Attempt to Smuggle Uranium; The Cell Next Door: Frontline World
Film:
Week 6: Feb. 13-15 The
Clash of Fundamentalisms and Flight of Refugees Response 3 Due
Thursday
Satrapi:
Film: Syriana; article: Elusive Memories of Technoscience; access via Ezproxy in FAU Library Electronic Collection; Ways of Knowing: A New History of Science, Technology, & Medicine;
Persepolis the Film; Marjane Satrapi blog; Baghdad
Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq; William
Hogarth Online; Syriana
Screenplay
Week 7: Feb. 20-22
You Can’t Go Home Again? Satrapi:
Sen: Identity and
Violence ; FRONTLINE: news
war | PBS
Film: LA PETITE
JERUSALEM
The Toll of War: Track Military and Civilian Fatalities in Iraq; Chalmers Johnson Interview ; Seymour Hersh The Coming Wars; The Iran Plans; Last Stand; The Next Act
Week 8: Feb. 27-Mar. 1
Cultural Difference and Genocide
Sen: Identity and
Violence ; Ghosts of Rwanda [videorecording] / ;
frontline:
ghosts of rwanda | PBS
Rusesabagina: An
Ordinary Man - Paul Rusesabagina ; Amaratya
Sen Talk; “She’s as English as daffodils or chicken tikka masala”
(Sen p. 154)!
Film: Hotel Rwanda
Spring
Break Mar. 5-11 Robert Fisk
on Osama Bin Laden and 'The Great War for Civilisation'; "Bush was Right":
the music video
Week 9: Mar. 13-15 The
Art of Being “Human” Response IV
Due Thursday
Sen
Identity and
Violence ; An
Ordinary Man - Paul Rusesabagina ; Sudan: genocide in Darfur, by
Gérard Prunier Le Monde diplomatique
Film: WOMEN MAKE MOVIES | God
Sleeps in Rwanda
The Politics of Naming:
Genocide, Civil War, Insurgency
Mahmood Mamdani:
“Traces of
memory”, Chris Schwarz www.opendemocracy.net
Week 10: Mar. 20-22 Novel as Theory
Smith: On Beauty Rembrandt Overview, Rembrandt: Aphabetical List of Works; Rembrant: Key
Works;
Mozart Requiem
Film: Crooklyn
The vocabulary of
culture:
McDonald's Attempts To
Remove 'McJob' From Dictionary Video
Clip
McDonald's is looking to banish the word "McJob" from dictionaries.
183; Survey: What Do You Think?
http://www.wpbf.com/news/11320919/detail.html - 0.6KB -
stories
News War In "War of Ideas"
reporter Greg
Barker examines the media revolution sweeping the
Arab world since the advent of Al Jazeera, and how the State Department and
Pentagon
are scrambling to keep up with all the Arab-language news channels.
Week 11: Mar. 27-29 Culture
Wars and the Assimilation of the Dispossessed Response 5 In-Class Thursday
Smith: On Beauty Rembrandt: Dr. Tulips Anatomy Lesson;
Seated
Female Nude c. 1631; Jacob
Wrestling with the Angel, 1658; Hendrickje
Bathing 1654
Film: Barbershop
Week 12: April 3-5 A
Street Culture War
A Hip-Hop Story
Spike Lee: A Huey P.
Newton Story | PBS ; Huey
P. Newton's Biography
PUBLIC
ENEMY | Public Enemy Official Website
Week 13: April 10-12
Rap, Epic, & Popular Culture Response 6 In-Class Thursday.
A Hip-Hop Story
Film: Biggie & Tupac;
ML King on War,
Poverty, and Justice
Public Enemy
Week 14: April 17-19
Toward a New Global Ethic & Aesthetic?
Appiah: Cosmopolitanism; Richard F Burton = Indiana
Jones?
A
Field Guide to Social Construction : Philosophy Compass Online
Film: A
State of Mind
America
at a Crossroads: Jihad
Explore the men and ideas behind Al Qaeda and other modern, radical Islamic
groups.
Week 15: April 24
Digital Multiculturalism Response
7 In-Class Thursday.
Appiah: Cosmopolitanism
Film: Trinh Minh-ha: The Fourth Dimension
Art 21: Art in the Twenty-First Century
Collegiate Times:
Virginia Tech Incident
See how a range of contemporary artists turn their ideas into art.
Week 16: Exam Week
April 26-May 2 FINAL
ESSAY due by
4:00 PM on Tuesday, May 1.