tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61777748580753500502024-03-12T22:37:29.705-07:00Putting Text on Trial: Ethics, Aesthetics, and the Great BooksThe key to getting students to read is to give them stakes they understand.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177774858075350050.post-16777205248154983972016-04-27T19:11:00.001-07:002017-04-29T17:48:29.142-07:00Proposal to Change the Literature Curriculum at Cal State NorthridgeBelow is the rough draft of the document presented to the English Dept. Literature Committee on April 20, 2016. I am not enclosing the 90 pages of attachments.<br />
<br />
Comments and revisions are incoming from various parties involved. I will post the updated and full version of this proposal on May 10, 2016. The English department meeting on May 13, 2016, is scheduled as the moment to present this proposal to the voting English faculty.<br />
<br />
--ROL<br />
<br />
------<br />
<br />
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-font-charset:78;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1791491579 18 0 131231 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:-536870145 1073743103 0 0 415 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Calisto MT";
panose-1:2 4 6 3 5 5 5 3 3 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
mso-themecolor:hyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink;
text-decoration:underline;
text-underline:single;}
p.MsoListParagraph, li.MsoListParagraph, div.MsoListParagraph
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
p.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, li.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast, div.MsoListParagraphCxSpLast
{mso-style-priority:34;
mso-style-unhide:no;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-type:export-only;
margin-top:0in;
margin-right:0in;
margin-bottom:0in;
margin-left:.5in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-add-space:auto;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
mso-default-props:yes;
font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:"MS 明朝";
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
/* List Definitions */
@list l0
{mso-list-id:111635378;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-1170700732 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l0:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l1
{mso-list-id:113597415;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-483995028 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l1:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:1.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l1:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.25in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l1:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.75in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.25in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l1:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:4.75in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l2
{mso-list-id:456070272;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:1843279068 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l2:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l2:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:4.0in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l2:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:5.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l2:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l3
{mso-list-id:1497843072;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-140338972 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l3:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l3:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:4.0in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l3:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:5.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l3:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l4
{mso-list-id:1655452230;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:-455174082 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l4:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.0in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l4:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:3.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l4:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l4:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.0in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l5
{mso-list-id:1777480720;
mso-list-type:hybrid;
mso-list-template-ids:704837130 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l5:level1
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:1.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level2
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:2.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level3
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:2.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l5:level4
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level5
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:3.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level6
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:4.0in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l5:level7
{mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:4.5in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level8
{mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:left;
margin-left:5.0in;
text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l5:level9
{mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
mso-level-tab-stop:none;
mso-level-number-position:right;
margin-left:5.5in;
text-indent:-9.0pt;}
ol
{margin-bottom:0in;}
ul
{margin-bottom:0in;}
</style>
-->
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DEPARTMENT
OF ENGLISH</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">PROPOSAL
FOR CHANGES TO LITERATURE CURRICULUM</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">April
20, 2016</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Table of Contents.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Narrative/Statement
from R.O. Lopez</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Program
Modification Proposal</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Program
Curriculum with Track Changes</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 257: Homer to Dante</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 276: Trans-Atlantic Writers</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 317: Literature of Racial Minorities</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 319: Filipino Literature</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 354: Writing about World Literature</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 367: Queer and Trans Literature</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 471: Early American Prose 1630-1900</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 472: Early American Poetry 1650-1900</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 479: Popular Media in the Twenty-First Century</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Proposal
for English 480: Diverse World Drama</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Timetable
for Implementation</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Narrative/</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Statement
from R.O. Lopez</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Overview</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This packet
of documents presents a proposal to change the literature curriculum in the
English department. The changes are modest but urgent given the department’s
poor track record in hiring and retaining black and Latino faculty, falling
enrollments in the major, and current nationwide attention to issues of racial
and intellectual diversity on university campuses. The present suggestions come
advisedly after seven years of consultation and advisement, as detailed in this
narrative. There are four main objectives involved in this proposal, six points
of change, and ten new courses proposed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Summary of Consultations</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
following list summarizes the conferrals, consultations, and advisements
precipitating the present document. All meetings included Robert Oscar Lopez of
English unless otherwise noted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2009:
Conferral with Chicano Studies and George Uba, regarding English 487.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2009:
Conferrals with the following departments in conjunction with the CSU
Intelligence Community-Center for Academic Excellence: Jewish Studies,
Anthropology, Urban Studies, Geography, History, Communications, Art, Political
Science, Gender and Women’s Studies, Queer Studies, Military Science, Religious
Studies, Liberal Studies, Cinema & Television Arts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2009:
Conference “Sex and Nation-State” integrating multidisciplinary approaches to
sexual diversity in national security.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2010:
Meeting with Dean Stella Theodolou regarding national security studies.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2010-11:
Meetings with Dean Elizabeth Say regarding world literature curriculum and
classics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2011-12:
Conferrals with the following departments to discuss world literature
possibilities: Asian American Studies, Central American Studies, Philosophy,
Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures, Theatre, Deaf Studies, Pan
African Studies, Religious Studies, English.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2012:
Two presentations before the Department of English faculty on world literature
possibilities, including report on study into curriculum of peer institutions
and local community colleges.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2012:
Beck Grant-supported team-teaching trial with Philosophy and English, testing
simulations in literature classrooms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2012:
Conferral with Dr. James Solomon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2012-2013:
Supported by external grants, “Myth Goes to the Movies,” a six-part film series
testing the use of films, guest speakers, and research galleries to integrate
literary study into other forms of study.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2014:
Supported by external grants, “Bonds that Matter,” combined guest speakers and
research galleries to broaden trans-historical literary study around themes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2015:
Summer retreat of English Department focused mostly on literature curriculum
revision.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2015:
Monthly department meeting (English) devoted largely to discussing English 436,
Major Critical Theories.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2015:
Two open forums led by Literature Committee to discuss literary changes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">15.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2015:
Two monthly department meetings devoted partially to discussing changes in
literature curriculum (R.O. Lopez was not present).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">16.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2016:
Two Literature Committee closed meetings devoted to drafting a literature
curriculum change proposal.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">17.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2016:
Conferral with Kimberly Embleton (Oviatt Library) to discuss support for new
curriculum.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">18.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2016:
Two conferrals with Chair of English, Kent Baxter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The following are documents or organizations that provided
additional regulatory guidance for the final draft of this curriculum change:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Modern
Language Association Job Information List.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">American
Association of University Professors, “1940 Statement on Principles of Academic
Freedom and Tenure with 1970 Interpretive Comments.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Western
Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission,
2013 Handbook of Accreditation Revised.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Executive
Orders 1096 and 1097, signed by Chancellor Timothy White.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">General
Counsel of California State University, Conflict of Interest Handbook,
published December 2014.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Statement
by Provost Yi Li: “Announcement for the Cluster Faculty Initiative and Request
for Proposals for the 2017/18 Hiring Cycle” (March 4, 2016).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Statements
by President Dianne Harrison: “Giving Thanks” (November 25, 2015) and “Chief
Diversity Officer Appointment” (March 15, 2016).</span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr.
Kent Baxter’s Chair’s Report, March 2016.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Four Main Objectives</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Based on all consultations and advice from the above
sources, four objectives emerged as key priorities/goals for a change in
literature curriculum:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Diversify
the literature provided to students in English to incorporate more classical
literature outside of the United States and Great Britain, world literature,
literature in translation, and literature by people of color.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reform
the curriculum in order to create long-term working conditions more likely to
enable the department to recruit, hire, and retain black and Latino faculty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Reverse
the decline in students choosing to major in English.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Broaden
the political perspectives available to students in the English department so
that they have some opportunity to hear critical analysis from teachers with
conservative worldviews.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Six Points of Change</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In order to meet the four goals above, six overarching
changes are included in this proposal:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Modify
Student Learning Outcome #4, to eliminate the phrase “British and American,”
thereby leaving open the possibility of major curriculum that crosses or does
not stay strictly within national boundaries.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
200-level, replace the existing three-part required sequence (258/259/275) with
a menu of five courses from which students may select three. This change would
involve adding two new courses, Homer to Dante (257) and Trans-Atlantic
Literature (276).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
300 level, currently all English majors take English 355 (Writing about
Literature). Modify this requirement so that students may opt to take English
355 as it exists <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or</i> take English 354,
a new course (Writing about World Literature). English 354 would entail the
same critical methods as English 355, but would have a special requirement that
over 50% of the reading material be literature in translation or literature
outside of Great Britain and the United States.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
300-400 level, increase the number of required “diversity” classes from one to
two. Create two pools of diversity classes, one focused on racial/ethnic
diversity and one focused on gender/sexual diversity. Students would have to
take one course in each of the separate lists. A number of new courses should
be introduced to broaden the scope of both these pools of diversity classes.
(See proposals for English 317, 319, and 367).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
400 level, add two new genre courses in the early American literature sequence
(expository prose and poetry) to offset the focus on the novel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">At the
400 level, reduce the number of courses required under “Twentieth Century” from
two to one. This requirement should be renamed “Twentieth and Twenty-First
Century.” To enrich this pool of classes, add courses in Popular 21<sup>st</sup>
Century Media (479) and Diverse American Drama (480).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Statement from Robert Oscar Lopez</span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CSUN’s
literature curriculum is inadequate. It is both urgent and imperative that it
be changed without further delay. Compared to peer institutions within the
California State University system, CSUN’s literature curriculum is repetitive
and exclusionary<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>. Literature courses at CSUN neglect many
texts considered integral to “Western Civilization” while also offering only
weak selections in multicultural diversity. In consultations, Dr. James Solomon
has claimed that the current curriculum originated in the 1990s after a dispute
among intellectual factions; these factions, it appears, no longer exist in the
English department. The present structure of our department’s literary program
has outlived the debates from which it was born.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
consultations, some faculty have claimed that this curriculum was forward-looking
for its time. Yet even in the mid-1990s—which were a heyday for border theory,
trans-Atlantic studies, critical race theory, postcolonialism, and queer
theory—the curriculum was already excessively constrained by the national
boundaries of the United States and Great Britain and adrift from the growing
cosmopolitanism in the field.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
racial dynamics of the curriculum are extremely problematic given that CSUN is
a Hispanic-Serving Institution located in Los Angeles, where Black Lives Matter
maintains an active and vocal presence. In 2013, Prof. Rodolfo Acuña published
two articles in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">CounterPunch </i>drawing
attention to the institutional racism of CSUN: “The Illusion of Inclusion” on
November 15, 2013, and “Institutional Racism” on December 12, 2013. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the former article, Prof. Acuña called CSUN
“a plantation run by white overseers that are getting increasingly defensive
about their illegitimacy.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
almost the same time, I was publishing articles in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">American Thinker</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Public
Discourse</i>. I discussed how racism manifested as an undercurrent in
hostility to people with socially conservative views. I noted, for instance,
that an alarming number of Christians sanctioned at universities over charges
of homophobia were African American churchgoers like Eric Walsh or Crystal
Dixon. These articles hinted at the possibility that my racial identity as a
Latino might explain why I faced disproportionate backlash over political
differences. While there were faculty members at CSUN with ties to the
oft-maligned Koch Brothers, Clinton Global Initiative, and Lockheed Martin, the
modest support I received in the form of small grants to advance traditional
family mores—particularly views on abortion, sex, adoption, and marriage
mirroring the views of Pope Francis and of the Southern Baptist Convention—caused
me to be disproportionately targeted by off-campus mobbers and by on-campus
detractors. As far as I know, no CSUN professor has been investigated pursuant
to as many unmeritorious accusations as I have.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
am certainly not the only professor of color who has come forward with evidence
of differential treatment. At the time of Acuña’s articles, CSUN was already in
the news because of a racial bias claim filed with the Chancellor’s Office in
March 2012 by Prof. Marilyn Joshua Williams (this was reported on July 9, 2012,
in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Angeles Daily News</i>). The
history of black protest against institutional racism is long and troubling at
CSUN; for example, on March 12, 1992, just before the Rodney King riots, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Los Angeles Times </i>reported that 500
protestors stormed the office of then president James Cleary to object to
anti-black racism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
</span><a href="http://www.thedemands.org/"><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">www.thedemands.org</span></a><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
proponents of reform in higher education have assembled the objectives of protestors
at 77 campuses; their focuses vary. Some have focused specifically on representation
of African Americans and Latinos among the tenured ranks. The specificity is
designed to prevent institutions such as CSUN from “padding” their diversity to
include white women, white homosexuals, Native Americans with minimal Indian
ancestry, or Asian Americans in their diversity hire numbers. Stacking
statistics this way has worked to hide discrimination against two specific
racial/ethnic groups—blacks and Latinos—with a history of exclusion from such
institutions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Protestors
at several campuses have also drawn attention to ghettoization. They highlight the
fact that universities mislead the public about their numbers of blacks and
Latinos by hiring them through ethnic studies departments, which concentrate
blacks and Latinos in controversial fields where they are most likely to bear
the brunt of backlash. Such ghettoization often provides cover for
discriminatory practices in traditional disciplines like English and history.
Demands from various groups have already noted what I have noted in my seven
years of study into CSUN’s curriculum: namely, curricular problems can fuel
racial inequality in the student population and among the faculty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CSUN’s
literature curriculum reveals a department struggling unsuccessfully to deal
with diversity. The major requirements emphasize canonical works from Great
Britain and the United States, while the catalog copy emphasizes mostly white
authors. The sole diversity requirement, consisting of one three-credit class,
does a disservice by making racial and sexual minorities interchangeable,
therefore creating the possibility that English majors may avoid gender
diversity by studying racial diversity, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">or
</i>avoid racial diversity by studying gender diversity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
the same time that there is national attention to institutional racism in
higher education, there is growing alarm over the discrimination against
conservatives in academic hiring and promotion. On <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heterodox Academy, </i>Jon Shields notes that while 36% of the country
identifies as conservative, only 4% of humanities faculty do (even this figure
is somewhat misleading since libertarians are often misconstrued as
conservative; the Koch brothers, for instance, are liberal on virtually all
social issues.) In a post on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Heterodox </i>dated
November 23, 2015, Shields notes that this rate of underrepresentation makes
anti-conservative bias more severe and alarming than discrimination against
blacks and Latinos. Blacks and Latinos together make up about 30% of the United
States but 7% of full professorships and 12% of assistant professorships.
Indeed, the research by University of North Texas professor George Yancey
fleshes this out with substantial data, since his survey found that large
percentages of social scientists would be unlikely to hire or tenure professors
who espoused conservative viewpoints.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just
as white-dominated curriculum might fuel the lack of Latinos and blacks in
higher education, so the explicit bias against the literature typically
esteemed by conservatives in humanities curricula might contribute to the
general exclusion of conservatives at colleges and universities. Many of the
most vocal conservative scholars like Victor Davis Hanson and Bruce Thornton
emerged from specialties in classics, Western civilization, or highly
traditional literary history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>CSUN’s
literature program aggravates these exclusions at both ends. The major
emphasizes canonical literature by white authors within reactionary national
boundaries. Yet CSUN does not offer students a great books curriculum on par
with programs one finds at institutions such as St. John’s. After all, if we
are going to steep the students in white privilege, why not do white privilege
well? But in fact we do not ground students in the world civilizations and traditions
that informed British and American literary greats and made their flourishing
possible.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There
is no Homer to Dante course at CSUN comparable to what one finds at San Jose
State University. Nor is there anything akin to the literature in translation
offered at campuses like Long Beach and San Francisco. Exacerbating these gaps
is the lack of genre diversity. CSUN’s literature classes focus largely on
novels and short stories, underrepresenting poetry, drama, and expository
prose. The paucity of course material in antiquity and European literature in
translation undermines not only the main sequence of literature in the major
but also the efficacy of Major Critical Theories, which purports to school
students in Greek, Latin, French, and German theorists with no substantive
exploration of the literary tradition in those languages.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>According
to Dr. Kent Baxter’s Chair’s Report of March 2016, our total number of undergraduate
majors fell from 617 to 488 between 2012 and now. Our total of graduate
students in literature fell by over 50% over the same period. This occurred
during a time when the student population on CSUN’s campus was growing rapidly,
swelling to over 40,000. While there are too many factors influencing student
enrollment to blame the literature curriculum alone, it is nonetheless clear
that the department’s literature curriculum is not helping matters. Departmental
constraints discourage introduction of exciting topics or contemporary
parallels, which often make literature more relatable to students. At the same
time, the lack of true canonical integrity in our course of study dissuades
those students who might accept the lack of diversity in exchange for a chance
to experience a “great books” curriculum.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Poor
curriculum complicates hiring and retention of diverse faculty. When I joined
the faculty in 2008, including me, there were four Latino professors and one
black professor. Now there is no black professor on our faculty, and two Latino
men have gone into early retirement. If I leave the department, the numbers of
black & Latino faculty will have dropped from five to one. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Things
are not acceptable as they stand currently. The phrase most operable in this
case is “public good.” Observe the very first standard put forth by WASC Senior
Colleges and Universities in its 2013 Handbook of Accreditation Revised:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 67.5pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
institution’s formally approved statements of purpose are appropriate for an
institution of higher education and clearly define its essential values and
character and ways in which it contributes to the public good (12).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; tab-stops: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is
“the public good”? More clarification can be found in the American Association
of University Professors’ “1940 Statement on Principles of Academic Freedom and
Tenure, with 1970 Interpretive Comments.” This document states, “</span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The common good depends upon the free
search for truth and its free exposition” (14). The corollary is that free
search for truth means that curriculum must answer to objective criteria beyond
and apart from the inclinations or biases of specific groups who might, at a
given moment, predominate in academic institutions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Further clarification of the meaning
of “the public good” can be found in the CSU Conflict of Interest Handbook
published in December 2014, prepared by General Counsel. The introduction to
this handbook refers to a sacred principle, namely, “the basic premise that it
is a violation of the public trust for public employees to benefit personally
from their public positions” (1). This foregrounds the crucial concept that
higher educational institutions, especially public universities, cannot conduct
their affairs primarily to suit the interests of employees, the institution,
cliques within it, or political factions. There must be a material standard
apart from what these particularized interests want. Something larger than powerful
groups’ will to maintain dominance must be the prime motivating consideration.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because of the central importance of
the “public good,” there are several reasons often offered for not changing the
literature curriculum, which we should dispel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the last seven years, I have heard
various parties say, “the faculty have to feel comfortable with whatever
changes we make.” This is actually not true. We have a duty to provide a
literature curriculum that allows students the full range of avenues to arrive
at truths about the human condition, including both white and nonwhite
perspectives, as well as liberal versus conservative perspectives. Tenure does
not transform mortals into deities; professors’ comfort zones are not sacred. If
colleagues react to this proposal by saying that they do not feel inclined to
read my suggestions or converse with me because they do not like me or my tone,
then they are not only being closed-minded and petty, but also violating the
obligations of their profession.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the last seven years, I have heard
the argument that nothing has to be changed, or can be changed, unless we can
provide evidence that there is a problem. This rationale is also untenable. Those
who perceive and document problems have good reason to fear retaliation for
raising such concerns before the department. Executive Order 1096 by Chancellor
Timothy White defines “retaliation” as an “adverse action” taken against
someone who in good faith believes that there is a discriminatory pattern and
opposes it. People do not have to be members of a protected group to be victims
of retaliation. I have opposed the curriculum and faculty dynamics in the
English Department because I see that they discriminate against blacks, Latinos,
religious people, and conservatives. I have endured many adverse actions as a
result. Such a pattern is a telltale sign that exclusion of marginalized voices
has progressed to a critical phase where the institution cannot self-correct
without some drastic shift in approach and/or external scrutiny and pressure.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the last seven years, I have heard
people say that regardless of what the catalog or our official requirements
say, they are teaching diversity in their classes already so everything is
okay. This is not sensible. Sooner or later what we teach in the classroom will
be judged by how it matches the curriculum that we are officially supposed to
be teaching. Gentlemen’s agreements, special ententes with the dean, and camouflage
of our true agenda cannot sustain us, nor should we engage in cheating if we
expect our own students to be honest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 1.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Calisto MT"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Calisto MT";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the last seven years, I have come
across people who say that we are not adequately paid to take on the extra work
required to do a curriculum overhaul. Often this sentiment is coupled with the
claim that the bureaucracy and protocol pose some insuperable barrier to
changing our literature option. At times we hear that we cannot design new
courses if we lack tenure-track faculty to teach them, but we cannot hire new
people if we lack courses for them to teach; such a closed loop of foreclosed
possibilities guarantees that nothing can change. These are all various forms
of filibustering. Again, the public good is an important benchmark against
which we must measure ourselves. The public has a right to object if we avoid a
task as basic and existential as updating our literature curriculum and
structuring new hires accordingly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lest readers of this statement infer
that I have a personal grudge against the department, I would like to address such
a suspicion. CSUN’s English department has been a place in which I could not
flourish or even participate as fully as white colleagues. I could opt to stew
quietly in my frustrations or I could get off my rear end and try to do
something positive. Hence, this packet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This statement will be posted online
so members of the public, if they take an interest in higher education reform,
can follow the debate and learn from us.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yours truly,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Robert Oscar Lopez,
PhD</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "calisto mt"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177774858075350050.post-8851022813784176752012-11-09T18:37:00.000-08:002019-03-25T21:08:16.165-07:00Mission Accomplished: Veterans/Lawrence of Arabia Event -- Nov. 8, 2012On November 8, 2012, thanks to help from the Arthur N. Rupe Foundation, the Witherspoon Institute, Chuck Stetson, and the CSUN Distinguished Visiting Speaker Series,<i> </i>we were able to host the second event in the <a href="http://textontrial.blogspot.com/2012/10/save-date-veterans-middle-east-and.html"><i>Myth Goes to the Movies </i>sequence: a 50th anniversary retrospective of </a><i><a href="http://textontrial.blogspot.com/2012/10/save-date-veterans-middle-east-and.html">Lawrence of Arabia</a>. </i>On October 4, a limited cinematic re-release of <i>Lawrence </i>unveiled the digitally remastered print of the film (only in select theaters). For the November 8 event at CSU Northridge, we could not screen the film because of its length (four hours), but we had a gallery walk of student research exhibits for a half hour, followed by a panel discussion/debate that lasted about two hours.<br />
<br />
Roughly 90-100 people came to the Linda Nichols Joseph Reading Room to see student research exhibits on <i>Lawrence of Arabia </i>and hear from five veteran panelists. This write-up was published by the <i>Daily Sundial </i>a few days later:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://sundial.csun.edu/2012/11/war-veterans-share-insight-and-memories-with-students/" style="color: #0f0e0d; text-decoration: none;">http://sundial.csun.edu/2012/11/war-veterans-share-insight-and-memories-with-students/</a></span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><a href="http://sundial.csun.edu/2012/11/war-veterans-share-insight-and-memories-with-students/" style="color: #0f0e0d; text-decoration: none;"></a></span>Photos and video below:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/So-VAgbFlTo" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
In the video above, Iraq War veteran Pierre Marcos discusses his own experience and links it to the film's themes of honor, gallantry, and cultural conflict.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/onTvCt0ZFMg" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Jason Freudenrich emphasized the idea of war as a form of education.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wI07gd2rAKY" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Melissa Filbeck explained Lawrence's role in the film as the "sympathetic oppressor" who could not avoid being part of the machine that destroyed the objects of his compassion.<br />
<br />
Joe Lonergan talked about the passage from idealism to cynicism that occurs among prison guards during war. He related the character "arc" of <i>Lawrence </i>to the psychological metamorphosis often seen in guards over time.<br />
<br />
Valvincent Reyes spoke about the differences between Occupational Combat Stress and PTSD. It was an intense but fertile series of reflections, and I am thankful that so many in the audience were attentive.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYsO3cfZO4lyyg66kGvVzArC_Gj-NhlT3knfXOD73hTjz51CNZjG6K3KdHBrmpCstAYQZ76OmJOJqddg5bRyNNHxs1atoct9FSbKo3Mx3Frk22SjRIef90NJ9qncJW1XHY0UFEjK5eJA/s1600/LawrenceofArabia1117-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYsO3cfZO4lyyg66kGvVzArC_Gj-NhlT3knfXOD73hTjz51CNZjG6K3KdHBrmpCstAYQZ76OmJOJqddg5bRyNNHxs1atoct9FSbKo3Mx3Frk22SjRIef90NJ9qncJW1XHY0UFEjK5eJA/s320/LawrenceofArabia1117-2.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sara Dean's promotional poster of the event, including photos and bios of the five guest speakers<br />
(Valvincent Reyes, Joseph Lonergan, Melissa Filbeck, Jason Freudenrich, Pierre Marcos)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVKF00xFxUudHt1u465KbE4davhdb2Gd-Mqa8erwK8PICXUHoq3SSVGGGoj4DqLvjDQRBlFaozmu3HFa6sMyg3cDfr6orw18LXugcKcfSy7uO1E2kr36AYHiNEg82xvunAdrPgQP7IfYQ/s1600/LOA1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVKF00xFxUudHt1u465KbE4davhdb2Gd-Mqa8erwK8PICXUHoq3SSVGGGoj4DqLvjDQRBlFaozmu3HFa6sMyg3cDfr6orw18LXugcKcfSy7uO1E2kr36AYHiNEg82xvunAdrPgQP7IfYQ/s320/LOA1.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1. This Exhibit compares the Athens/Sparta conflict to Arabia/Turkey</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKbn2HE8YV1jzpxPdQlLuKI7lR6hs390iQCql4c8KcSVAVb8fXamQX_PF_DFWrCz-NoXuUllUfJ2ph9Oei1hnjIv7SfoMG-N7ntHCiVEsM5r1HRB3wlmWUJbjT8edtQqiIgbe9nirfec/s1600/LOA10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKbn2HE8YV1jzpxPdQlLuKI7lR6hs390iQCql4c8KcSVAVb8fXamQX_PF_DFWrCz-NoXuUllUfJ2ph9Oei1hnjIv7SfoMG-N7ntHCiVEsM5r1HRB3wlmWUJbjT8edtQqiIgbe9nirfec/s320/LOA10.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2. This exhibit uses the artistic language of Edgar Allan Poe, a West Point veteran, to understand the tempo of <i>Lawrence</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVxPoIsDm-_YXg_3IHr6wAHVL7m6u2dwbvQAhu6NI-jrCfQ4VrrbdpEuJB0j1HCmFAhXx4EzHLUtg9-DyP7UNXAQry2uMMMYH-w8-RR1Y38ASw4RMQVwJ-ImxjA2b11ExA2rCguzXSxR4/s1600/LOA11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVxPoIsDm-_YXg_3IHr6wAHVL7m6u2dwbvQAhu6NI-jrCfQ4VrrbdpEuJB0j1HCmFAhXx4EzHLUtg9-DyP7UNXAQry2uMMMYH-w8-RR1Y38ASw4RMQVwJ-ImxjA2b11ExA2rCguzXSxR4/s320/LOA11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">3. Here students contrast the conflicts in <i>Lawrence </i>with Poe's, Whitman's, and Thoreau's wrestlings with violence.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmn0sftUH6koIRroytF5G0WaBNudNDcEdbOni0JFDeRz2-6GDEqrqkJmCdtDoGjgYI0wJOpQWiPMt64B6Og4SJOYnCX9ou2VafiqglTASIKulf0P2T5hz4genMj9QwJNhGcpHwhARUtNU/s1600/LOA12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmn0sftUH6koIRroytF5G0WaBNudNDcEdbOni0JFDeRz2-6GDEqrqkJmCdtDoGjgYI0wJOpQWiPMt64B6Og4SJOYnCX9ou2VafiqglTASIKulf0P2T5hz4genMj9QwJNhGcpHwhARUtNU/s320/LOA12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">4. Students dissect <i>Lawrence </i>as a modern myth analogous to ancient myths like Achilles and Patroclus.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1-PsmmFtdRBxtG-YyDQNdb9WfVOY7PHGET3n1saC6Og05vBz3S9rzWM9n0uZI83VRKAI0orFNEF8VKfKz03BtkBubcDHDsdQp66gb1PEvryg6Mo15xWMUkzOVigTLRMjhos5Rk_4mC0/s1600/LOA14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1-PsmmFtdRBxtG-YyDQNdb9WfVOY7PHGET3n1saC6Og05vBz3S9rzWM9n0uZI83VRKAI0orFNEF8VKfKz03BtkBubcDHDsdQp66gb1PEvryg6Mo15xWMUkzOVigTLRMjhos5Rk_4mC0/s320/LOA14.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5. A film analysis of <i>Lawrence's</i> mythologizing of the real-life T.E. Lawrence.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7g2YtZppgEClub3hYJitPW_mF1TRLBVQolAFAnQldSqNLcs2Cq7_TQ3VQz7zxioXg0YW1lTeUentmWgflM40-DWjZH4KRfK9A_m8-GZx8sAdBYpHwLmrWeYuqSeYqGUjOdcXfttlxOL0/s1600/LOA2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7g2YtZppgEClub3hYJitPW_mF1TRLBVQolAFAnQldSqNLcs2Cq7_TQ3VQz7zxioXg0YW1lTeUentmWgflM40-DWjZH4KRfK9A_m8-GZx8sAdBYpHwLmrWeYuqSeYqGUjOdcXfttlxOL0/s320/LOA2.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">6. This exhibit uses facsimiles of torn, fragmented letters between T.E. Lawrence and an unidentified Arab man to imagine whom Omar Sherif's fictionalized character might symbolize.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpwcw_mn-n60YiG1CyY_ZBDuIW6O6xjUU0m3feRmsDTgV85nim7-TKcG886zZTFrZSOa4WSdb4a4swwPGSzSqw9lyRvNyHCzbDcrrNubKV2EY5YiO0U1vPjeKxvtoNqSI50RJlItA3sA/s1600/LOA20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpwcw_mn-n60YiG1CyY_ZBDuIW6O6xjUU0m3feRmsDTgV85nim7-TKcG886zZTFrZSOa4WSdb4a4swwPGSzSqw9lyRvNyHCzbDcrrNubKV2EY5YiO0U1vPjeKxvtoNqSI50RJlItA3sA/s320/LOA20.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">7. These students find timeless intersections of civic power and war in Thucydides and the 1962 epic.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguP7597F7YmqqZUgvc5HUPgJGo8Jqn6ZCxZgRa5evKNFo34uaHzJgu6TskTVs4dUGvqWK22jfCvm8DHtjLh1_HlSQaISOHjQ_GAxFelQN33PjeRuFN0K9UvpeMEm-uKqWadPeh_2EhTr0/s1600/LOA21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguP7597F7YmqqZUgvc5HUPgJGo8Jqn6ZCxZgRa5evKNFo34uaHzJgu6TskTVs4dUGvqWK22jfCvm8DHtjLh1_HlSQaISOHjQ_GAxFelQN33PjeRuFN0K9UvpeMEm-uKqWadPeh_2EhTr0/s320/LOA21.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">8. This student uses literature, ranging from Homer to Poe, to understand the psychological arc of the main character in <i>Lawrence.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKycQkcyoFftzSDpsTJUXwVdYMpR1wNu6Tz4c-GUhDGJHzwLNdfvOCS9ppoPZM6m1MHC4ec6O41vohjIrzL8YlsOpC1aoXFzWpx0kEpUfLdTp1kjLd2q0tGXjUbSwyTy31ehxeMafxruo/s1600/LOA22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKycQkcyoFftzSDpsTJUXwVdYMpR1wNu6Tz4c-GUhDGJHzwLNdfvOCS9ppoPZM6m1MHC4ec6O41vohjIrzL8YlsOpC1aoXFzWpx0kEpUfLdTp1kjLd2q0tGXjUbSwyTy31ehxeMafxruo/s320/LOA22.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">9. Here a student group has collected various forms of propaganda that naturalize war.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwfizPzJKYh2eog1B7el2gGzfCJPLw446VLzXtAh0FUz4fySugs951XUAE_IwSIyHt8eFRs76NvPr0Gd0EvFteEe0qg-CXO-GkLDBjTFBTo0Wgpsvj5jzGeEReEISR2fD3qyGgTk-nsFs/s1600/LOA24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwfizPzJKYh2eog1B7el2gGzfCJPLw446VLzXtAh0FUz4fySugs951XUAE_IwSIyHt8eFRs76NvPr0Gd0EvFteEe0qg-CXO-GkLDBjTFBTo0Wgpsvj5jzGeEReEISR2fD3qyGgTk-nsFs/s320/LOA24.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">10. Some students amassed excerpts of interviews with warriors from different modern conflicts, ranging from World War II to the recent War on Terror.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRUClzxp-Wvj0ayCFcKDoIMBSOpLTi_kRhhkPA6yjCIeI9-2CU_ZwJKlz4htDCdNaSuF5rmjnVTxnz1VlmiVPN2yOmzxfu9pe07WXqNsGYBRGq7k6UVlfe4GxuMu6nC_6ofLyaDQ9Z0Cw/s1600/LOA25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRUClzxp-Wvj0ayCFcKDoIMBSOpLTi_kRhhkPA6yjCIeI9-2CU_ZwJKlz4htDCdNaSuF5rmjnVTxnz1VlmiVPN2yOmzxfu9pe07WXqNsGYBRGq7k6UVlfe4GxuMu6nC_6ofLyaDQ9Z0Cw/s320/LOA25.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11. Here, atop an American flag and juxtaposed against the real-life war artifacts of boots and canteens attached to pistol belts, a flat exhibit links the Prometheus myth and others to the tale of hubris and Lawrence's downfall.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3qOe_Zwsexz-Axg5vHlIR9mGoZWd7_y5yIkOQGmSn0msBleoeOfcHwsisODiAMz9rhxAVA1ZV47uH5Spztg2A92BJlNN9fJOe62fryBOZpUkujLgPq2El196azYQTrOMAlqJPebsrhw/s1600/LOA26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY3qOe_Zwsexz-Axg5vHlIR9mGoZWd7_y5yIkOQGmSn0msBleoeOfcHwsisODiAMz9rhxAVA1ZV47uH5Spztg2A92BJlNN9fJOe62fryBOZpUkujLgPq2El196azYQTrOMAlqJPebsrhw/s320/LOA26.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">12. This exhibit looks at the erotic ties between males in wars ancient and present, drawing from pornographic re-imaginings of Achilles and Patroclus as well as the subtle arousal in the director's choices filming Omar Sherif and Peter O'Toole.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYFhP8u2qZUwOgBYuIEbeR26t5oQz2R3MjDYCBQ6FJS_AN3VC3Gd9RxLGMCycjc_k4tXMHbwF5NRjySz6M5MKSKfUoKaY8Gv2rL2usID3_MQBeBD2qpY0-XJRGHjom83ec24eNNq0ZYH0/s1600/LOA27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYFhP8u2qZUwOgBYuIEbeR26t5oQz2R3MjDYCBQ6FJS_AN3VC3Gd9RxLGMCycjc_k4tXMHbwF5NRjySz6M5MKSKfUoKaY8Gv2rL2usID3_MQBeBD2qpY0-XJRGHjom83ec24eNNq0ZYH0/s320/LOA27.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">13. This student parallels Pericles' precarious fall from popularity to disgrace and the tragic arc of <i>Lawrence.</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyQSzOuMCUcXO-5hXv4NQvwmAgUdXxJfAGgucoPO4y1RSUcrLp-X1ovoBPdfM8q6TU6ZuZngUAw3I2nlTGuNqVHgfTshpZlG8m7kw2k3GNEs8dRnLF64GGNNv6yfdsYIItPoWvawdRtI/s1600/LOA5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZyQSzOuMCUcXO-5hXv4NQvwmAgUdXxJfAGgucoPO4y1RSUcrLp-X1ovoBPdfM8q6TU6ZuZngUAw3I2nlTGuNqVHgfTshpZlG8m7kw2k3GNEs8dRnLF64GGNNv6yfdsYIItPoWvawdRtI/s320/LOA5.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">14. This exhibit also links Lawrence to Pericles.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkWlt6Pm2WK5ocANU48IW2O_GOEP3F8fftuJhlH0Gj6bAO82lHvV5xrXwNs0naHoSCUbgI7Res93cJeV6bKtHs9mlbGMsjXutSmtyGuw9YPqFIkzTGvpIDzepGQEQGOMgPx1LZWV8RO4g/s1600/LOA6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkWlt6Pm2WK5ocANU48IW2O_GOEP3F8fftuJhlH0Gj6bAO82lHvV5xrXwNs0naHoSCUbgI7Res93cJeV6bKtHs9mlbGMsjXutSmtyGuw9YPqFIkzTGvpIDzepGQEQGOMgPx1LZWV8RO4g/s320/LOA6.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">15. Students here examined the Sherif/O'Toole chemistry in the light of different era's views on love between men.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Qi2i99ycxWoC2sQywSY9GW79uAXe7h72al3HC8FHlmKPZ3px5kPo584tYImJH_mzz3fYRoiIezO7u39VARsE-G6WuPugLRNnkgaOF5FkFT75031sPflhmrWYcOrr4DVQWoY9tVAO9cE/s1600/LOA8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Qi2i99ycxWoC2sQywSY9GW79uAXe7h72al3HC8FHlmKPZ3px5kPo584tYImJH_mzz3fYRoiIezO7u39VARsE-G6WuPugLRNnkgaOF5FkFT75031sPflhmrWYcOrr4DVQWoY9tVAO9cE/s320/LOA8.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">16. This exhibit also examines the visual imagery of <i>Lawrence </i>through the linguistic aesthetics of Edgar Allan Poe.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nHFqSKV3DK6S1Pg3qLeoKPGMXfzGGsNMR24EgshjJjZMqknLxfx0n73IVtULx7tCs9Z99_87ZDRaV8jzp-SlYKvEBUkMfdC6OIgl-jDvcPHVG7ruL32JvMXSR5VkdZxS0_J27B2uaRM/s1600/LOA9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7nHFqSKV3DK6S1Pg3qLeoKPGMXfzGGsNMR24EgshjJjZMqknLxfx0n73IVtULx7tCs9Z99_87ZDRaV8jzp-SlYKvEBUkMfdC6OIgl-jDvcPHVG7ruL32JvMXSR5VkdZxS0_J27B2uaRM/s320/LOA9.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">17. Here students explain the link between World War I and the present-day wars in the Middle East.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDwfOeLdEztJOyOpYTM7xOyC2mcm7rH2wdblTa-KaXnNz2uJ5m48mBeNaYqeLEDE6knAgcjZ4vsbz7qxzvvO_muSynE45KKj9P3dS4RLxTyxcn5hLT-QypukPNq_M3e2Ws4fCu-RIhPQ/s1600/LOA30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaDwfOeLdEztJOyOpYTM7xOyC2mcm7rH2wdblTa-KaXnNz2uJ5m48mBeNaYqeLEDE6knAgcjZ4vsbz7qxzvvO_muSynE45KKj9P3dS4RLxTyxcn5hLT-QypukPNq_M3e2Ws4fCu-RIhPQ/s320/LOA30.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">18. The students in this research cluster worked extremely hard to form an exhibit out of grout and sand. The members came also dressed in authentic Saudi garb.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br />
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177774858075350050.post-62478632949730932922010-09-01T09:00:00.001-07:002010-09-01T09:05:34.168-07:00Trial #1: Menelaus, from Homer's Iliad. Oct 2007. Canisius College<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Whenever I carry out a trial, students are broken into three groups: prosecutors (1/4 of the class), defenders (1/4), and the jury (1/2). I conduct two trials in a class, one at the midterm and one during the week of final exams. Thus students change roles; the jurors of the first trial become defenders or prosecutors for the second, and vice versa. The prosecution decides what charges to bring against the accused; it is their responsibility to word them in an opening statement. The students do not have to use legalistic language or base charges on actual laws; they are rather asked to isolate ethical problems in a certain character and cull from these problems a set of charges. My instruction to the prosecutors, leading up to the trial of Menelaus, was this: “You must express the accusation in clear and understandable language likely to convince the jurors.” The reward for winning a trial by jury was a boost of 10% on their final grade. For such a lucrative incentive, teams took the project seriously.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The trial felt like a spectacle. The furniture was rearranged; my lectern pushed to a corner, desks clustered in circles for the two competing sides. Jurors sat in an imperious row to observe interrogations. I played the witnesses, which required a great deal of energy. I did not mind, since it allowed for a carnivalesque reversal of authority and funny moments. One student was the “judge,” keeping time and letting questioners know when they needed to wrap up. No longer the professor, I was seated defenselessly in a chair and vulnerable to aggressive, even hostile, questions from students who stood over me and had permission to gesticulate at and badger me. Students took the exercise seriously, dressing in business suits, whereas I as the witness dressed more casually than was typical. At moments questioning became so heated that students feared the reversal of power had gone too far, but I would reassure them periodically that it was okay to be tough with me when I was acting as witness. After about 15 minutes, the students showed few inhibitions in questioning me.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Euripides’ </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Trojan Woman, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">as translated by Brendan Kennelly, was the basis for the Menelaus trial. Prosecutors deliberated for weeks among themselves before deciding on a crime to charge Menelaus with. They read </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Trojan Women </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">carefully and consulted historical, archaeological, and literary scholarship to understand ancient Greek warfare. Since I met with them for brief consultations, I traced the evolution of the prosecution and defense arguments.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The prosecutors knew their main vulnerability: Agamemnon, Menelaus’ brother, was the general who made decisions during the war, so it would be difficult to accuse Menelaus of war crimes. The defense could point out that Menelaus was powerless to restrain Greek soldiers from committing the atrocities outlined by Athena in the opening scene. The prosecutors toyed at first with accusing Menelaus of a romantic flaw–loving Helen too much or failing to kill her after Troy fell–but Helen’s infidelity seemed an easy issue for defenders to exploit, to outrage the jury and compel them to sympathize with Menelaus as a wronged lover.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In the end, prosecutors chose two charges: “selfish negligence” and “genocide;” respectively, Menelaus did not do enough to stop the war earlier for the sake of men under his command, and Menelaus did not order his men to restrain themselves during the rampage that wiped out the male population of Troy. The sufferings of both Greek soldiers and Trojan civilians were highlighted. Both charges were strategized as sins of omission; rather than debate things Menelaus did, they fixed on things he didn’t do. For if Menelaus’ crime was that he didn’t do more, what evidence could the defense counter with? The prosecutors purposefully characterized Menelaus in stereotypical terms. In the fall of 2007 deaths in Iraq were at a high point and the most important debate was about how to bring American troops home. Drawing from rhetorical styles evident in Michael Moore’s </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Fahrenheit 9/11, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">prosecutors guessed that the jury (mostly women) would be liberal Democrats likely to hate anyone comparable to George W. Bush. And so the prosecutors tailored their rhetoric to emphasize Menelaus’ similarity to Bush. They underscored Menelaus’ dependence on others to make decisions, his identity as a spoiled aristocrat, his selfish disregard for lives lost for his wounded honor. One prosecutor likened Menelaus’ consuming obsession with Helen to the President’s obsession with avenging his father for the Persian Gulf War.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Tension in the room escalated during the trial. Some students had family stationed in Iraq. As I was pretending to be Menelaus, one prosecutor slammed his hand against the lectern and asked me how I felt about the image of dead soldiers, returning in “flag-covered coffins” – an erroneous reference, of course. He knew the Greeks used funeral pyres but he felt entitled to adapt symbols for young people in 2007. Another taunted me using gender stereotypes, asking, “Menelaus, are you too much of a Mama’s boy to fight your own wars?” He implied that Agamemnon’s military control was a result of Menelaus’ irresponsible nature; the goal was to defray the defense’s contention that Menelaus could not be held responsible. Rather than allow the defense to spin Menelaus’ non-decision-making as innocence, the prosecution presented him as weak, unmanly, dissipated, and distracted—traits associated with Moore’s critiques of Bush.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The prosecution’s tactics might have carried the day, but the defense was willing to study hard. Their secret weapon was that two defenders had read the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Iliad </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">in its entirety and knew that Menelaus, far from behaving like a sissy, challenged Paris to a hand-to-hand duel that would have ended the war without causing the fall of Troy. This event, early in the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Iliad, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">ends with Aphrodite whisking Paris away in a cloud to Helen’s bedchambers, thereby removing Paris from the decisive man-to-man combat Menelaus initiated. The defense focused on this episode when I was asked to be Helen for questioning. The defenders intended to make the prosecutors’ anti-feminine language backfire, especially because the jury was mostly women. They focused on the way Helen manipulated him during the debate between Helen and Hecuba midway through Euripides’ play. If the prosecutors wished to smear Menelaus as unmanly, then the defenders would exploit this by pushing the stereotype to its fullest extreme: Menelaus was indeed unmanly and therefore easily controlled by women like Helen and Hecuba. Menelaus was indeed unmanly and therefore unable to carry out the sacrilegious rampages that manlier Greek soldiers undertook. By pushing the prosecution’s stereotypes to a new extreme, the defense questioned the core values of machismo itself, looking critically at the behaviors of foot soldiers who had the masculine potential to revolt against Agamemnon (which they did not) or could have used their manly self-command to restrain the atrocities that Athena defined as irreligious war crimes.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">“Can any of us blame others for our crimes?” asked a defender during her closing statement. “Can Helen blame the gods for betraying her first husband? Can the marines at Haditha blame Rumsfeld for going too far, and if so, would they not be blaming </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">us, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the citizens, since we put Bush into office?” Her words chilled the room; some of the students cried. I thanked the prosecutors and defenders for their closing statements and asked them to shake hands, much like two football teams. Everyone in the room had forgotten we were in a classroom. We had forgotten to behave like good inhabitants of sociofugal space. Our ideologies were laid bare, our contradictions exposed, our disagreements forced into an open arena. Leonardo’s window had opened and we had crawled inside the text; it had become our world, a mirror that threw back grotesque reflections of ourselves as Americans.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">The jury found it impossible to arrive at an absolute answer to the questions they had to answer: Did this jilted husband neglect his troops for selfish reasons? Did his irresponsibility cause genocide? One woman abstained. Of the six jurors that remained, three were finally convinced that Menelaus could have done more to decrease the death toll. The other three concluded that the soldiers possessed the free will to choose how to conduct themselves, even in the adrenaline of battle. After a long discourse, they could not break the tie, and asked me to cast the deciding vote. This was an uncomfortable situation because of who I was outside the classroom: a conservative Christian who had parted ways with the right wing over the war. I opposed the Iraq War in 2003, but I did not support withdrawing US troops until the insurgency was tamed and a functional republic was in place. The jury’s gridlock could not have been more painful to me given my public stance on the War on Terror. Forced to break the tie, I sided with the prosecution. Ten years, I thought, was too long for a general to keep a pointless war alive. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-indent: 0.5in;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">As English professors we are likely to fear that moral judgments denote absolutisms and do not befit a pluralistic, relativist realm like our putative postmodern world. I, too, could not tolerate an entire semester of preaching one moral view against another. But as momentary interruptions, the mock trials enact a disciplinary rupture. English ceases to be a field separated from </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">la vie quotidienne </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">by its safe aesthetic distance, and literature becomes </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">la vie quotidienne</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">, at least for a week. The students read the play more closely. They speak to each other, and to me, frankly and passionately. They care about the literature. The literature comes alive and cares about them. Not in relativism, but in ritualized absolutism, did we discover true plurality. Despite the “final” verdict, we saw how tenuous the 4-3 vote was; the moral ambiguities of </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Trojan Woman, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and indeed the Iraq War, were branded in our memories. To accomplish such learning, I had to stop being a teacher concerned with professional standards. They had to stop being students worried about proving they deserved white-collar jobs and ought to earn more than their parents. The text had to stop being a masterpiece, and instead become a crime scene—a sacred space polluted by </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">la vie quotidienne</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">.</span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177774858075350050.post-37931790950314697032010-09-01T08:38:00.000-07:002010-09-01T08:59:50.974-07:00The theory chapter, which I published in FranceThis will strike folks as a bit dense, but it is the theoretical overview for my book on trials. It was published in <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Interdisciplinarité dans les études anglophones, </span>in Nancy, in 2010.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT;"><b><i><u>Putting Text on Trial: Ethical Debate and the Exposure of Transdisciplinary Difference<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><span lang="FR" style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT;">Robert Oscar López<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT;">California State University (Northridge)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT;">“…if the English gentleman was virtuous, as he occasionally deigned to be, his goodness was purely spontaneous. Moral effort was for merchants and clerks.”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: right; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-BoldItalicMT;">--Terry Eagleton, <i>After Theory. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: 42.6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -42.6pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">This essay combines literary theory and pedagogy to make an argument, at once practical and theoretical. Theoretically, I will argue that ethical rather than aesthetical approaches to literature grant readers a more vibrant sense of pluralism. I will also argue that classroom discussions about the ethical lessons of literature are more democratic than discussions about aesthetics. I arrived at the latter conclusion largely through two processes of transdisciplinary and intercultural analysis. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">First I meditated on the classroom as a public space. I applied French theorists such as Lyotard, Lefebvre, Barthes, and Foucault to my own pedagogical experiments. Second, I identified one experiment – the “mock trial” -- as particularly rich with insights. (It is impossible to treat aesthetical and ethical discourses as entirely separate; the two overlap, but here “aesthetical” refers to discourses that prioritize beauty over morals, and “ethical” refers to discourses that do vice versa.) Mock trials made literary criticism more accessible and less elitist. They ruptured the disciplinary boundaries of English by focusing on moral questions relatable to students’ everyday lives. Aesthetics still feels to many students (as the Eagleton quote implies) like the domain of aristocracies pitted against the “moral” preoccupations of middle and working classes.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">When I refer to "mock trial," I refer to an activity in which a character from a classic text is accused of some ethical flaw, to be debated between two opposing teams (defense and prosecution) and decided by a student jury. The trials occupy two out of 15 semester weeks and count for 20% of the grade, so these are a small part of my English classes. The mock trial is not a sustainable approach for an entire semester; nor would I support jettisoning all aesthetics. Nevertheless the trials tend to be a memorable event for students. I conducted 29 trials between 1999 and 2008, involving over 400 students. Here I use one as a case study. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Let us start with Eagleton’s quote. I am not the only scholar to notice a link between class snobbery and aesthetics. As humanistic education spread beyond a small coterie in the English-speaking world by the 19th century, different social classes approached literature with different motivations. As Eagleton hints<i>, </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">rather than integrating these divergent needs, universities projected a class system onto the hierarchy of critical methodologies. “Beauty's" sublime pleasures (particularly in the heyday of New Criticism) were for wealthy students, while “morals” were the dreary domain of parvenus using literacy to escape menial vocations. Even in the 21st century, a tension between aesthetics and ethics reflects and exacerbates class anxiety. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">The French say, “à chacun son goût” while the Americans say, “to each his own.” The peculiarly unquantifiable nature of aesthetic taste is reflected in spaces where aesthetic judgments are made. In libraries silence is treasured and conversation discouraged. In galleries patrons stare quietly at canvases cordoned off from human contact. Each reader/viewer retreats into a private world of appreciation. Unfortunately, privacy does not lead to autonomy; nor do aesthetic preoccupations democratize discursive space. Despite their hushed atmosphere, galleries and libraries send clear messages by prioritizing certain works and negating others by not featuring them. Somewhere there exist authorities, armed with funding and prestige, who have decided which books and paintings are preserved. Their invisibility makes their power more difficult to question since we cannot challenge their decisions. To speak in the terms of Roland Barthes, the invisibility of aesthetic authorities "naturalizes" the "mythology" that the works being shown are beautiful. For Barthes, myths such as the idea of a beauty standard are strongest when people are unconscious of their origins and therefore unlikely to contest their assumptions. In <i>Mythologies, </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Barthes notes, “driven to having either to unveil or liquidate the concept, [myth] will <i>naturalize </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">it” (129).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Spaces of ethical judgment are, on the contrary, designed for active and even heated conversation. (Here I refer to public spaces within democratic societies, since my project applies French theories to American classrooms, and both France and the United States are proud of their republican histories.) The courtroom and the legislature are two obvious examples. In such places individuals congregate to decide the correctness or incorrectness of competing concepts. Some spectators (for example, those who have come to watch a trial but are not involved) are expected not to speak, yet the spaces are designed around conversation rather than against it. Witnesses must be interrogated and lawmakers must debate. One never knows until the final vote or verdict which opinion will prevail, so there is a heightened cognizance that ethical judgment contains an element of surprise and defies simple generalization.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">In <i>Discipline and Punish,</i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"> Michel Foucault insists that public space is structured to control the movement of bodies. Foucault reminds us, “It is easy enough to find signs of the attention then paid to the body – to the body that is manipulated, shaped, trained, which obeys, responds, becomes skilful and increases its forces” (136). The library and parliament are architected to control the volume and frequency of speech, the distance between one body and the next, the level of fear or shame involved with people observing each other. English, art, and law hold true to the title of "disciplines"; the hush of the library and the procedural operation of court debate point to their effectiveness in controlling bodies even when they seem, prima facie, to be focused on ideas. Yet disciplinarity is not monolithic. Some disciplines lead to greater isolation or anxiety, depending on who is inside the space and for what reason. The gallery, focusing more on aesthetics, dictates few absolute rules for its visitors but nonetheless diffuses differences of opinion, while the courthouse, focusing on ethics, produces abundant rules, while focusing everyone's attention on the fact that different opinions exist. In the ethically minded places, it is impossible to know which opinion will prevail as the ethical “absolute,” until the endpoint of a ritualized process. The punitive power in such spaces might seem repressive; after the congress votes or the verdict is announced we are not entitled to defy the final opinion. To be defiant we would break a law. Nonetheless in these potentially repressive spaces we are most aware that not everybody agrees. Plurality is more visible even though the purpose is to establish the total superiority of one opinion over others.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">The humanities classroom challenges my neat binary between aesthetical and ethical spaces. Some professors focus more on the aesthetic value of literature while others prefer to use literature as a way to discern political interests (feminism, Marxism, ecocriticism, and the like) that align more with ethics even if they avail themselves of aesthetic tools. A college junior in the US is likely to see the classroom as both a place to develop subtle tastes and learn about social issues. For the sake of exposition, let us first study the classroom as an aesthetically focused space, best understood in relation to libraries and galleries; by beginning with this precept, I can later explode the aesthetic discipline of classrooms by presenting my mock trials as an interruption of aesthetical discourse by ethics. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Consider for a moment the spaces in which literary subtleties and artistic delicacies are consumed. The library falls into the category designated by sociologists Humphrey Osmond and Robert Sommer as "sociofugal space," which Sommer delineates as "a place where people typically try to avoid one another." In the 1950s Osmond viewed mental hospitals as the locus classicus of the sociofugal, but for Sommer the premier sociofugal space is "a university library" in which "occupants distribute themselves so as to increase psychological and social distance" (Sommer 654). Unlike his contemporary Foucault, Sommer did not emphasize sanatoria and prisons. Sommer saw how inmates in solitary confinement tapped the walls to send coded messages, but library patrons observed rigorous non-communication, spacing themselves as distantly as possible and glaring with disapproval at audible discussion. The ideal environment to suppress discourse was, according to Sommer, not prison but this:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoBodyTextIndent">…large, cold, impersonal, institutional, not owned by any individual, overconcentrated rather than overcrowded, without opportunity for shielded conversation; providing barriers without shelter, isolation without privacy, and concentration without cohesion. (655)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Such a description is not entirely remote from a humanities class. The individuality of “à chacun son gout” becomes a case of “isolation without privacy.” The rules against students speaking to each other in class, and the requirement that they address all statements to the authority figure, leave a student defenseless before a profession’s aesthetical standards rather than free to pick one interpretation from many. Feminist pedagogue Karen Hayes adds the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">[One had] an idea of the academic classroom as a polite, somewhat reserved place, where scholars exchanged insights and ideas, sometimes disagreeing, but always with an understanding that common ground underlay their work. I liked that image […] in spite of the fact that I always felt a little excluded from these well-mannered exchanges. (300)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Politeness and tranquility, while cherished, left her silent. The “common ground,” while making the classroom feel functional, rendered the classroom a sociofugal space.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">One must also consider the role of social class in the spatial politics of classrooms. In “Plastic Space and Political Space,” Jean-François Lyotard distinguishes between textual and figural space. Lyotard defines textuality as the “play on opposition” and “spatial cutting-up”<i> </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">of graphic units (words) according to semiotic rules. Figural space, on the other hand, involves transgression against “the norm of the intervals defining the textual units” and gives “currency to another order of meaning” (211-212). For Lyotard “space” is relevant to the question of aesthetics insofar as the visual object – book, painting, or pamphlet – is composed of visual units separated by empty spaces. His distinctions between textual and figural space are useful because Lyotard draws from Marx and links both kinds of space to questions of class and ideology. Space contextualizes, and spatial choices politicize, signs. Lyotard evokes Marx’s <i>Critique of Political Economy,</i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"> which he clarifies for a twentieth-century reader by pointing out:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">The space is […] that in which social relations are lived, in which class struggle unfolds. The poster belongs to this space insofar as it is an object of intuitions and representations. (Lyotard 212)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Moreover, Henri Lefebvre examines the architecture of the place where aesthetic objects are presented. For Lefebvre, one needs to go beyond the surface of aesthetic objects and ponder the social “space” or venue in which they circulate. Lefebvre says in the third volume of <i>Critique</i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">In the past, philosophers excluded daily life from knowledge and wisdom. Essential and mundane, it was deemed unworthy of thought. Thought first of all established a distance (an<i> époché</i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">) <i>vis-à-vis </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">daily life, the domain and abode of non-philosophers. (3)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">Lefebvre focuses on the banishment of <i>la vie quotidienne,</i><span style="font-style: normal;"> with its pedestrian concerns, from everything that social hierarchies demarcate as “sacred” – the church, the classroom, the imperial court, all places in which authority figures pretend their power has nothing to do with dirty work done in profane spaces outside. But Lefebvre was also fascinated by interruptions, when the concerns of daily life intruded upon the sacred and revealed the latter’s abstractions as materially contingent. Lefebvre writes in </span><i>Critique of Daily Life, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">“the everyday is thus closely related to the modes of organization and existence of a (particular) society, which imposes relations between forms of work, leisure, ‘private life,’ transport, public life” (3). Which brings us to my pedagogical experiment. Speaking in terms of Lyotard and Lefebvre, the mock trial is an interruption, a rupturing of the safe barrier between sacred space and </span><i>la vie quotidienne</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, and a moment when pedagogy creates the thing that Karen Hayes sees as necessary: “the creation of space for students’ differences” (301). Students, rather than quietly adapting themselves to consensus vaguely naturalized by their professor’s authority, become loud and even boisterous. They become highly attentive to the text yet still passionately confident that what they debate about the text – its ethical intricacies – bears directly on things they understand about their lives in the “essential and mundane” world outside, which Lefebvre says philosophers deem “unworthy of thought” (3).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Perhaps somewhere in history there existed an idealistic classroom, where students appreciated beautiful texts to enrich their souls and thought nothing of using literacy to improve their status in society. In the twenty-first-century United States, such a dreamy sphere is impossible. Tuitions are high and education was posited, as early as Jefferson’s <i>Notes on the State of Virginia, </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">as the main way for Americans to resist class stratification and fulfill their republican duties as voters. In <i>Notes, </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Jefferson cautions readers to invest in universal education to “diffuse knowledge more generally through the mass of the people” (193). He was aware that some European republics had allowed masses to choose their leaders, but did not endow them with enough knowledge to choose well. Such a course had led to tragic results. Jefferson writes, “Let those who doubt it turn their eyes on the republic of Venice. As little will it avail us that [despots] are chosen by ourselves” (164). From the nation’s inception, therefore, American letters carried the burden of passing on great creative works, but also the less glamorous task of shielding average citizens against class oppression and preserving the ethical integrity of a democratic system. American students enter a college English class motivated not only by love of beauty but also by social mobility and morals, which American culture casts as inextricable. Their nation’s civic values force them to “choose” between the classroom or slipping in class status and possibly becoming poor. Money is always a subtext.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">Like so many colleagues, I have asked students, “how did you like the reading?” only to be replied with uncomfortable silences. Some students did none of the reading, while others did the reading but were scared to say, “It was hard and I didn’t find it beautiful or interesting.” Students know that if they express such things, the teacher punishes them with dirty looks or a lower grade. But it is a source of satisfaction and pride for me, that one activity always breaks this silence and prompts students to become eager, passionate readers. In the mock trial, literary appreciation accomplishes what Lyotard calls “the rules of Leonardo’s window” by which “the viewer is summoned to pass through the ‘window’ and climb onto the stage,” because, as Lyotard suggests, “perspectival treatment works in the same way as the use of stereotypes, provoking desire and at the same time focusing it on a known and communicable situation” (220). When Lyotard mentions “a known and communicable situation” he may be striking upon the key factor in the mock trial’s success. When students debate the moral choices made by characters such as Menelaus in <i>Trojan Women, </i><span style="font-style: normal;">they translate the remote language of ancient Greece into moral dilemmas relevant to the choices they face every day. The fineries of Euripides’ stichomythia and the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare, with all their aesthetic grandeur, would demand that students remove themselves from the language of everyday life, but Menelaus’ betrayal by Helen, and the grander dilemma of how much a jilted man’s mistakes may be forgiven based on his emotional wounds, are moral enigmas many students face when they leave English class. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Sociological research about politics and space indicates that displacement of aesthetics by ethics enables people to overcome class anxiety. In the late 1990s sociologists came out with studies of what Elijah Anderson calls “the code of the street.” Reviewers Dalton Conley and Miriam Ryvicker comment the following:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">[T]he “code of the street,” which according to Anderson is prevalent in the inner city ghetto, functions as a way for African American youth to maintain social order in neighborhoods that have been abandoned by formal institutions… (761).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">In locales where visual culture betokens neglect – collapsing buildings, weed-filled lots, litter on the sidewalks – residents reclaim aesthetically failed public space by submitting it to their ethical “code.” In the classroom, students can also reclaim public space by rejecting aesthetic concerns for ethical ones, by abandoning discussion of a work’s beauty and instead submitting its characters to moral judgment. Mock trials empower students to speak about texts; rather than aesthetically naïve neophytes, they are debaters or jurors, authorized to label acts as immoral, wrong, even “evil.” While many academics shudder at the absolutist resonances of words such as immoral or evil, for students affected by class anxiety, morality is something they can understand through lived experiences, and therefore a relief from the alienation of aesthetics. As my case study will illustrate, the process of the trial itself usually mitigates the potential absolutism in such moral discourse, for the simple reason that trials are so hard to decide, and so difficult to win.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 256.5pt; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: center; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">WORKS CITED/BIBLIOGRAPHY<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Barthes, Roland. <i>Mythologies. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1957.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Conley, Dalton and Miriam Ryvicker. “Race, Class, and Eyes upon the Street: Public Space, Social Control, and the Economies of Three Urban Communities.” <i>Sociological Forum </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">16:4 (Dec 2001) 759-772.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Eagleton, Terry. <i>After Theory. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">New York: Basic Books, 2003.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Euripides. <i>Trojan Women. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Trans. Brendan Kennelly. Newcastle upon Tyne: Bloodaxe Books, 1993.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Foucault, Michel. <i>Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Trans. Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage Books, 1977.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Hayes, Karen. “Creating Space for Difference in the Composition Class.” <i>College Composition and Communication</i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"> 43:3 (Oct 1992) 300-304.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Jefferson, Thomas. <i>Notes on the State of Virginia. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">In <i>The Portable Thomas Jefferson. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Ed. Merrill D. Peterson. New York: Penguin, 1975.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Lefebvre, Henri.<i> Critique of Everyday Life Volume III. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Trans. Gregory Elliott. New York: Verso, 2005.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Lefebvre, Henri. <i>Production of Space. </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Oxford: Blackwell, 1991.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Lyotard, Jean-François. “Plastic Space and Political Space.” <i>boundary 2</i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;"> 14:1/2 (Autumn 1965-Winter 1986) 211-233.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;"><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">Sommer, Robert. “Sociofugal Space.” <i>The American Journal of Sociology </i></span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPSMT;">72:6 (May 1967) 654-660.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6177774858075350050.post-40944925914948777462010-08-26T12:24:00.000-07:002010-08-31T21:37:29.283-07:00What does it mean to put text on trial?I have begun this blog, because this is my second academic book. And I'm doing things for this book that I am not sure the discipline of English allows me to do. Which is why it's so much fun. I love books. I adore literature. And I love teaching. I even flatter myself from time to time, by saying that I'm pretty good at it. At the very least I teach literature better than I can aim an M-16, which I learned when I failed my Army qualifications twice in a row at Fort Leonard Wood. If you need me to hit a jihadist 175 meters away with an M-203 and nail him within the five-meter kill radius of a fragmentation grenade, you would probably do better to look elsewhere. But if you need someone to make sense of Walt Whitman using a New Testament scripture, clips of <em>America's Next Top Model, </em>an overhead projector and three blue magic markers, I'm your man. <br />
<br />
So why have literary study and the literature classroom become so dreary? Why is it that whenever I have those great classroom moments -- those moments when my students and I are stumbling into a brilliant insight -- I am more often than not engaging in something unprofessional? We aren't following MLA guidelines, or we're reproducing the dominant ideology, or we're violating the gods of "close reading" (a term used by other scholars akin to believing in God or being a tax-paying citizen), or we're constructing a straw man argument, or we're being insensitive to some constituency that's not even in the classroom, or we're being "facile" and misapplying some theorist. Dear God, I know that English is a discipline. I know my favorite philosopher, Michel Foucault, has made it clear that disciplines do this: They regiment and tame our bodies, often by first regimenting and taming our thought process. Disciplines brainwash and castigate us. Which explains why literary study so often feels like a drag, unless you do something that the profession says you ought not to do. But if this is all the matter of discipline, why can't it at least be as fun as marching in formation and chanting the Army cadence, "Drive on, first platoon"? Why has the literature classroom become so laborious?<br />
<br />
If anything should be laborious, it shouldn't be the profession of teaching literature, since the scholars and students who flock to English classes are a motley but lovable tribe of hedonists, daydreamers, slackers, and drama queens. If only as a profession we could admit that we aren't Engineering majors and we don't fit in with business models, we might let literature breathe and everyone could be a lot less annoyed when they engage in the heavenly act of reading.<br />
<br />
Therein lies my book. Two classroom scenarios play a central role in this book. The first is a negative one, the second a positive one. To get to the second, though, you have to get through the first, so you understand the underlying tension in literature classrooms.<br />
<br />
Let me begin by asking you to close your eyes. Wait, no, don't do that, because then you can't keep on reading. Just concentrate. Picture this: A literature teacher stands in front of 32 college students. The teacher talks about a Great Book. Not just any old thing you'd pick up at the drugstore, some "classic" or "masterpiece" that the teacher has studied, strenuously, for a third to a fourth of his life. Maybe he has stubble because he was too busy thinking about this book to shave. He probably voted for Obama. He takes the notion of progress very seriously and believes, intuitively, that teaching literature is part of bringing about social change, if not on a massive level, at least in some small way. He loves the book he's teaching, and thinks it affirms what he believes. He's an idealist, even if he scoffs at the notion of being naive.<br />
<br />
And his students are there for a bunch of reasons, many of which do not have to do with loving the book as much as the teacher does. Some are there because they want to be creative writers, and they tolerate other people's writing only to the extent that they think they can find a few gimmicks to pilfer. A few are there because there was no other class with available seats at the time they needed. Some are there because it's a requirement. One or two confused Coolidge Hall and Coleridge Hall, and should actually be in Engineering 259, not English 492 (they'll figure it out soon enough.) Then a bunch thought the teacher was cute but gave little thought to what he actually had in mind, academically speaking.<br />
<br />
So with this uncomfortable asymmetry between a teacher who loves what he's teaching, and students who wonder what the big deal is (I mean, really, <em>Macbeth,</em> a good play?), one must a semster make. Therein lies one of the great secrets that pedagogues are desperate to unlock. This is not a universal problem, for there will always be those students who love reading and enjoy the classroom experiences. For around 75% of a class, however, the instructor has to find a trick. Calgon won't help.<br />
<br />
One of the typical standoffs in an English class occurs when students, who are struggling to connect with the Great Book, grasp onto the thing most immediately accessible to them--which is usually their judgment of characters' moral decisions. If iambic pentameter is too arcane, the student wants to talk about whether the Shakespeare protagonist did the right thing or not. And the teacher, who suddenly sees the object of his painstaking intellectual labor reduced to a commonsense judgment call that anyone off the street could have decided, feels his expertise threatened. His reaction may be to reach further into what he knows better than the students know, which is <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">aesthetics, </span>a general and disputed term that refers to the artistry of the language in a text, its delicacies, its subtleties and nuances which can only be understood fully through sustained scholarship. The students, confronted with complex aesthetical questions they cannot digest, retreat further into what they know as well as the teacher knows, the commonsense moral compass earned through experience and intuition. I call the latter realm <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">ethics, </span>for it is a matter of judgment that, while fair to philosophize, is also fairly easy to understand through the lens of people's past experiences.<br />
<br />
Too many impasses between students and teachers are impasses of aesthetical versus ethical concerns. The two realms are hopelessly interlocked and impossible to divorce. But when the scholar wields expertise against the student's intuitive moral judgment, it becomes undeniable where aesthetics and ethics do not overlap, where they answer to different imperatives and follow different standards.<br />
<br />
Which brings me to the second scenario, the positive one that grows out of the first one. I found myself in one such standoff, in the fall of 1999. I assigned <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Bone Black, </span>the memoirs of Bell Hooks, and found my students resistant to talking about the book's aesthetic form. They wanted, instead, to discuss whether the narrator was a good person or not. The semi-seasoned professor, already further along in life, feeds on nuance, while the students, still at the tender edge of adolescence, rely on the timeless youthful addiction to black/white, good/evil distinctions. "The appetite of the young," my old mentor Diane Christian said, "is moral." The young often prefer clarity in ethics and hate hypocrisy, while people in midlife find comfort in ambiguity and make peace with hypocrisy to survive. Aesthetics, the ambiguous world of beauty and craft, collides with ethics, the world of moral certainty.<br />
<br />
To break us out of the impasse, back in 1999, I surrendered and held a mock trial. "Fine," I told the class. "If you want to make everything a question of right and wrong, then I'll give you a trial." They had to pick a character from the semester's reading to put on trial. They chose Scarlett O'Hara. And I gave them free reign to judge her with as much scathing moral scrutiny as they could muster. With one catch: They had to argue their case against an opposing side, and their peers would judge.<br />
<br />
A strange thing happened during that first trial. The students suddenly owned the literature. Moral questions that appeared simple at first glance transformed into highly complex matters as the conversation unfolded. The students became passionate. As they struggled to bolster their case, they ended up relying on ambiguity and discovering the craft of language anyway. Through ethics they arrived at aesthetics and found the two inseparable. All this they did, without me having to nag them at all.<br />
<br />
No course could be composed entirely of trials, of course. One must balance these spectacular moments with the usual weeks of lecturing and note-taking and take-home essay assignments. But trials, when placed strategically in a course schedule, accomplish a great deal. Between 1999 and 2010, I will have held a total of 40 trials, ranging from Helen of Troy and Pandora to Mrs. Gaines in William Wells Brown's <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Escape </span>and Billie Holiday. The students decide the crimes and how to articulate guilt. The defenders must pick apart the language, not in legalese, but through their commonsense understanding of moral questions. Prickly philosophical problems, such as the perennial "do we judge the defendant by the standards of today or the standards of her time?", arise and enrich the learning experience. The students learn, invariably, that ethics are complicated and moral complexities are inevitably lost in aesthetic ambiguities. They also learn they can own the literature and mine enormous wisdom from it, without being prodded.<br />
<br />
And so on this blog, I will be working through <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Putting Text on Trial. </span>The next posting will be the full text of an article I published in France, corresponding to the first chapter of the book (its theoretical overview). Then I will work through each of the forty trials I oversaw, from Scarlett O'Hara in 1999 to Roxy from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Puddnhead Wilson </span>in the spring of 2009.<br />
<br />
I invite whoever can't sleep and arrives at this lonely website to join in and comment.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com