Colloquium continued
My Flist is amazing, and, as I suspected, extraordinarily well-read and smart.
My colloquium topic: Defining a group identity through negation or demonization of The Other People/Religion/Color. Us against Them. And within that context, what happens when the line is blurred and there's no easy, concrete way to define Us against the context of Them? Where does our identity as a grouping come from if there are no external groups' differences to highlight our traits?
Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Classics (Works written before the mid 1600's.)
1) Ovid. Metamorphoses. Chosen for what it tells about Greek culture through exaggeration of ideals and taboos.
2) Arabian Nights. Chosen for the exotic locales and characters who slip in through some of the tales. Also, maybe someone can suggest a critical analysis of it?
3) Shakespeare. Othello. Chosen for the fact that the central antagonist Othello is a black man in a white world.
4) Homer. The Odyssey. Chosen for the same as 1 and 2.
5) Gregory Chaucer. Canterbury Tales Chosen because it highlights the class differences in early Europe as well as religious tension.
6) Virgil. The Aeneid Chosen because it glorifies Rome at the expense of other cultures/nations.
7) Dante. The Divine Comedy Chosen because it's commentary on the religion of the times.
8) Royall Tyler. Japanese Folktales
Modernity: The Humanities (Works written after the mid 1600's, including Philosophy, Religion, History, Critical Theory, and/or Literature. Damn it, I know there's got to be more out there I can use.)
1) Tanizaki Junichiro. Naomi. Chosen because the novel illustrates the cultural identity crisis that develops with the Westernization of Japanese society.
2) Frances Burnett. A Little Princess Chosen for class differences and racial tension.
3) Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart Chosen for its depiction of cultural collision and language as a unifying force and barrier.
4) Winona LaDuke. Last Standing Woman Chosen to illustrate the chafing of colliding cultures via Native Americans and the white man.
5) Jamaica Kinkaid. A Small Place
Modernity: Social and Natural Sciences (Works written after the mid 1600's, including Science, Anthropology, Psychology, Politics, Economics, and/or Sociology.)
1) Anthony Giddens. Consequences of Modernity. Chosen for the brief discussion on the nature of social interactions changing with increased data mobility.
2) Mead. Coming to Age in Samoa.
3) Friedman. From Beirut to Jerusalem.
4) Marius b. Jansen. The Making of Modern Japan
Area of Concentration (My concentration is in Global Narratives, which is the study of a culture through its politics, religion, and history.)
1) Pollock and Van Reken. Third Culture Kids. Chosen for the discussion of finding a cultural identity to claim when one is in constant shifting of places/people.
2) Little Boy Lost. Chosen for the essays discussing Japanese pop culture reactions to Hiroshima and the knowledge that the future is an uncertain and anxious thing.
3) James Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me. Chosen to illustrate how we build up a cultural identity through constant self-propaganda and modern mythology.
4) Brian Hall. The Impossible Country.
5) George Orwell. Down and Out in Paris and London.
6) David Kaplan. Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underground
Still, further suggestions would be much loved, especially for the post-1600s Social and Natural Sciences. Clearly I am having the greatest difficulty there.
And...is anyone good with technology? I usually am, but my VCR refuses steadfastly to obey me when I program it to record things. I keep testing it and it keeps laughing at me. I even read the damned manual, programmed it EXACTLY as said, but... My ultimate goal is to record Making the Band 3 and Yugioh on a regular basis, but it refuses to follow instructions.
My colloquium topic: Defining a group identity through negation or demonization of The Other People/Religion/Color. Us against Them. And within that context, what happens when the line is blurred and there's no easy, concrete way to define Us against the context of Them? Where does our identity as a grouping come from if there are no external groups' differences to highlight our traits?
Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance Classics (Works written before the mid 1600's.)
1) Ovid. Metamorphoses. Chosen for what it tells about Greek culture through exaggeration of ideals and taboos.
2) Arabian Nights. Chosen for the exotic locales and characters who slip in through some of the tales. Also, maybe someone can suggest a critical analysis of it?
3) Shakespeare. Othello. Chosen for the fact that the central antagonist Othello is a black man in a white world.
4) Homer. The Odyssey. Chosen for the same as 1 and 2.
5) Gregory Chaucer. Canterbury Tales Chosen because it highlights the class differences in early Europe as well as religious tension.
6) Virgil. The Aeneid Chosen because it glorifies Rome at the expense of other cultures/nations.
7) Dante. The Divine Comedy Chosen because it's commentary on the religion of the times.
8) Royall Tyler. Japanese Folktales
Modernity: The Humanities (Works written after the mid 1600's, including Philosophy, Religion, History, Critical Theory, and/or Literature. Damn it, I know there's got to be more out there I can use.)
1) Tanizaki Junichiro. Naomi. Chosen because the novel illustrates the cultural identity crisis that develops with the Westernization of Japanese society.
2) Frances Burnett. A Little Princess Chosen for class differences and racial tension.
3) Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart Chosen for its depiction of cultural collision and language as a unifying force and barrier.
4) Winona LaDuke. Last Standing Woman Chosen to illustrate the chafing of colliding cultures via Native Americans and the white man.
5) Jamaica Kinkaid. A Small Place
Modernity: Social and Natural Sciences (Works written after the mid 1600's, including Science, Anthropology, Psychology, Politics, Economics, and/or Sociology.)
1) Anthony Giddens. Consequences of Modernity. Chosen for the brief discussion on the nature of social interactions changing with increased data mobility.
2) Mead. Coming to Age in Samoa.
3) Friedman. From Beirut to Jerusalem.
4) Marius b. Jansen. The Making of Modern Japan
Area of Concentration (My concentration is in Global Narratives, which is the study of a culture through its politics, religion, and history.)
1) Pollock and Van Reken. Third Culture Kids. Chosen for the discussion of finding a cultural identity to claim when one is in constant shifting of places/people.
2) Little Boy Lost. Chosen for the essays discussing Japanese pop culture reactions to Hiroshima and the knowledge that the future is an uncertain and anxious thing.
3) James Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me. Chosen to illustrate how we build up a cultural identity through constant self-propaganda and modern mythology.
4) Brian Hall. The Impossible Country.
5) George Orwell. Down and Out in Paris and London.
6) David Kaplan. Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underground
Still, further suggestions would be much loved, especially for the post-1600s Social and Natural Sciences. Clearly I am having the greatest difficulty there.
And...is anyone good with technology? I usually am, but my VCR refuses steadfastly to obey me when I program it to record things. I keep testing it and it keeps laughing at me. I even read the damned manual, programmed it EXACTLY as said, but... My ultimate goal is to record Making the Band 3 and Yugioh on a regular basis, but it refuses to follow instructions.