RACE-LOVE 2015 10991

Jump to Today

Course Description:

What is Love?  How does love relate to adventure, travel, and politics?  We often say that love “conquers all” thus we ask how is love used as a story to justify conquest and colonization in the Americas but also generally anywhere?  In this class, we explore how “love” especially transgressive love across races, classes and cultures, or between same sex is written up and told in myths and histories that have fundamentally created and shaped our identities as “Americans” specifically, and as the proper descendants and inheritors of Western Civilization.   In other words, we explore love as an ideology used to explain and legitimate political domination or conquest in historical situations of colonialism or inter-racial conflict.  This course destabilizes our popular assumptions about “whiteness” through an interrogation of how “otherness” has been envisioned and fabricated by European racial politics beginning with the discovery of the Americas.  By exploring cannibalism, noble savage, and myths about the conquest of the Americas, this course presents an alternative approach to understanding the history to Western Civilization and to American society and culture through an exploration of love.

 We start by reading the Tempest and track the love plot of adventure, transgression, and conquest from Shakespeare’s Mediterranean islands through to stories of famous founding “lovers” such as Cortez and Malinche and track love in stories about the founding of the US nation, such as Last of the Mohicans.  In this context we learn about the self-serving mythologies that have legitimated colonialism in the Americas.   In this part of the course we examine cannibalism, the birth of the Noble Savage, the Indian as a figure of Redemption, and other myths that continue to be perpetuated about the conquest of the Americas.  The course is designed as a comparative analysis of narrative expressed in film and literature.   Most weeks structured by viewing a film version of a text.  This often is the comparison of a Hollywood film version of literary text or it can be educational film take on a socio-historical analysis.

 In the second half of the course, we explore how the basic love plot of transgressive inter-racial bonding serves as an ideology for envisioning contemporary multiculturalism and for imagining a postcolonial US society.  We explore different kinds of transgressive love myths about multiculturalism in the USA.  These love stories continue to reflect the changing plot structure laid out in the Tempest but are now work as anti-colonialist or postcolonial ideologies of cultural pluralism.  In this context we analyze a selection of films as myth to learn about what it is to be human, modern, and American.

 Underlying all these stories, whether from the 16th, 19th, or the 21st century, is a basic love plot developed that has become a dominant myth of impossible transgressive true love which continues to pervade popular culture. We learn how love across races, class and cultural difference is the adventure plot of both colonial conquest and but also multicultural postcolonialism.  Love not only serves to create identities, but Love is the ideology of the survival of specific humans and humanity in general.

 This course is inherently interdisciplinary but we primarily use a humanities approach. We use tools and methods of analysis from history, anthropology, gender studies, sociology, politics, film studies, communication, comparative literature, and rhetoric.  The texts we use range from plays, fiction, sociopolitical analyses, political statements or manifestos, literary analyses, and films.  The course is designed to compare how a given story is presented or expressed in literal text and in film.  Along trajectory of this course we learn basic concepts and methods from and learn about feminism, racial theory, theories of culture and power, analyses of visual media, cultural studies, multiculturalism, and postcolonialism. 

 

 This course is designed to help you start your education as an undergraduate. There are a variety of themes, issues, and topics that are engaged in this course that may intrigue you and connect with some of your leaning passions. Some of these might be topics that you had not thought of before or have even heard of -- that is, we are going to learn about things that may be off your radar.  If so, we, the teaching staff, are happy to help you figure out ways to continue to study these questions and issues that ignite your imagination and interests.  We  encourage you to talk to the professor and teaching assistants to help guide you through to find a major in anthropology, cultural studies, and related fields.

 

Course Structure:

The course is structured with a lecture/seminar and weekly film screening. There are two lecture sessions a week and one section meeting run by the Teaching Assistants for the screening of the films, proctoring pop quizzes, discussion, and review for exams. All sessions, lecture and section, are mandatory.  

 

 Filmography:

Attendance for Film Screenings (discussion section) is required.  If you were not able to attend the film screenings for any reason what so ever, you will need to independently figure out on your own how to locate the films (in the library, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube) and to view these films without the assistance of the Grad Assistants. These films include educational documentaries as well as Hollywood and foreign commercial films.  Please see the filmography and reading schedule below for details.

 

This is a list of relevant films for this class. Please see the schedule below for required films.

    •  Tempest (2010 by Julie Taymor)
    • Prospero’s Books (Peter Greenaway)
    • Cabeza de Vaca (Spanish, subtitles)
    • 1492 Conquest of Paradise
    • Americas Before Columbus (documentary)
    • How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman
    • Disney’s Pocahontas (part 1)
    • Dances with Wolves
    • Last of the Mohicans
    • Black Robe
    • Mississippi Masala
    • Jungle Fever
    • Baghdad Café
    • My Private Idaho
    • Like Water for Chocolate
    • My Beautiful Launderette
    • Robinson Crusoe
    • Enemy Mine
    • Total Recall
    • Avatar

Learning Objectives:

Methodological Objectives

  1. Students learn to analyze narrative structures, symbolism and representation in a range of primary and secondary literature, visual-graphic forms and film; texts range from fiction, histories, secondary analysis of literature, sociological descriptions to documentaries, educational film and Hollywood entertainment.
  2. Students learn to identify a narrative structure and critically examine how the “same” plot can be used with meaningful variations between different media and across different types of representation such literature, literary analyses, film, and sociocultural analyses.
  3. Students learn to read secondary literature and texts (literary or sociohistorical analyses) not only as sources of information and understanding, but to critically read as primary sources that reflect upon our own contemporary culture and society, specifically popularly held assumptions and structured ways of thinking.

 

Content Learning Objectives

  1. Students learn to critically analyze the ideologies of love, racial assumptions, and stories of survival and adventure that have been used in writing the history of the discovery, conquest, and colonization of the Americas
  2. Students learn to critically explore key ideas — specifically notions of Noble Savage and Cannibalism— by which the identity of “Western” civilization has been imagined and created in a variety of different forms over the last 500 years.
  3. Students learn to critically examine unquestioned assumptions of racial, class, sex/gender, and cultural difference that pervade the myth and histories about the founding of American nation-states, specifically México and the USA.
  4. Students learn to examine and assess US multiculturalism and postcolonial society.
  5. Students learn to appreciate that the present way of thinking, cultural assumptions, and social practices have a deep and thick history that can extend back more than decades and more than centuries.

 

Critical Approaches Objectives

  1. Students learn to critically examine the ideological and mythic content of the histories propagated in popular media such as fiction and film.
  2. Students learn to critically analyze film as myth: students learn to closely analyze Hollywood or entertainment movies and educational film, as stories and narratives that both reflect a legacy of cultural assumptions and values but also project cultural understandings of the contemporary world.
  3. Students learn to analyze history as myth: students learn to critically examine the otherwise unquestioned ideas, errors, and biases in the stories and histories that are used to explain and legitimate the past.
  4. Students learn to use a range of humanities focused tools and methods of analysis, such as based in rhetoric, textual and discursive methods as well as cultural anthropological and sociohistorical tools to understand the sociopolitical structures of society.
  5. Students learn to critically use key concepts of sociocultural analysis, such as race, sex/gender, class, nation, nation-state, and discourse, that are based in feminism, gender and race studies, cultural anthropology, comparative literature, historical sociology, and linguistics.

 

 

Course Policies

  • No Incompletes: Incompletes are Not Available under any circumstances what so ever, including medical or personal emergency. If you are unable to complete a major portion of assignments you will receive a grade based on what is completed and submitted according to instructions provided in the syllabus and assignment.  Do not ask for an incomplete. Do not present any medical or emergency explanation or confirmation for why an assignment is not complete or why it is late or why you have not attended class. 

 

  • Withdrawing from Course: If you have had a medical or personal emergency that has required you to become absent in regularly scheduled course activities or fail to complete or to submit assignments, it is strongly recommended that you immediately pursue IU procedures to withdraw from the course within the officially designated deadline. Students who have not completed any assignments at the end of the semester are given an F.

 

  • Attendance Policy: You are required to attend faithfully all class sessions. Failure to attend lecture or discussion section/film screenings greatly effects your ability to learn, learning outcomes and final grade results. You must assume responsibility for your grade, attendance and education.  Attendance is not taken.  The teaching staff does not accept, ask for, or collect medical or emergency information from students. Do not submit.

 

  • Grading Policy: Students’ grades are based on the completion of assignments and the quality of the materials submitted in relation to these assignments. Grades can be penalized for the use of cell phone, smart phones, computers, tablets, and for disruptive behavior.

 

Persons who do not comply with the policies below have their names recorded and are asked to leave the classroom. If a similar or related incident occurs a second time, the person’s final grade is penalized one letter grade and the person will not be allowed to enter the classroom in any of the remaining classroom sessions for the remainder of the semester (including both Lecture, Discussion Sections, and Film Screenings).

 

  • Cell Phone Policy: All cell phones must be turned off upon entering the lecture hall and discussion/film screening auditorium. The names of anyone caught using a cell phone or receiving a phone call, or using cell phone is recorded and asked to leave.

 

  • Computer / Tablet / Smart Phone Technology Policy: Students are permitted to bring their electronic technology to the lecture hall and film screenings only for the purpose of taking class notes. Anyone caught using their devices for non-class related activities is asked to leave the class session — this includes but is not restricted to using/doing Facebook, email, web browsing, skype, internet telephone, webcam, reading, other course assignments.

 

  • Participation & Good Conduct Policy: You are required to attend faithfully all class sessions and to conduct yourself in a positive, productive manner. Anyone who is disruptive in any class session (lecture or section) is asked to leave and will not be allowed to further participate in any of the course activities, lectures, discussion sections, or film screenings.

 

 

Required Textbooks and Readings:

 

 Peter Hulme, Colonial Encounters (out of print, must be purchased online)

 You will have the option of selecting a printed copy, a digital copy or both. Shipping can take 1-4 business days, so please be sure to order in time to receive your materials for class.

To purchase the textbook, please follow the instructions below:

Step 1: Log on to https://students.universityreaders.com/store/.

Step 2: Create an account or log in if you have an existing account to purchase.

Step 3: Choose the correct course pack, select a format and proceed with the checkout process.

Step 4: After purchasing, you can access a digital copy of the first few chapters (if you selected a print format) or all chapters (if you selected a digital format) by logging into your account and clicking "My Digital Materials" to get started on your reading right away.

Print Price: $25.82

Digital Price: $23.24

*Digital access: If you select a digital format, you will need an Adobe ID and the free Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software installed on your computer. Visit https://students.universityreaders.com/store/digital_adobe for easy instructions and a video walkthrough of the process. Once you download the digital pack you can access it online or offline at any time on your computer, tablet or smart phone. You can also annotate, highlight, and search the content.

Printing is available from the first device you use to access the content.

Please note that the digital course pack expires after six months.

Print orders are typically processed within 24 hours; the shipping time will depend on the selected shipping method and day it is shipped (orders are not shipped on Sundays or holidays). If you experience any difficulties, please email orders@universityreaders.com or call 800.200.3908 ext. 503.

  

Required Textbooks Available through IU Bookstore Purchase

  1. Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate: A Novel in Monthly Installments with Recipes, Romances, and Home Remedies (fiction, required purchase). 
  2. Cliff Notes “The Tempest” (2001) by Sheri Metzger. Also see online version.
  3. Cliff Notes “Robinson Crusoe” (2003 2nd Edition), by Cynthia McGowan.

 

Additional Required Readings in PDF on Oncourse (or Canvas): No purchase

Columbus’ Letter March 4 149 – “Dr. Chanca Letter”  and M. Zamora’s Introductory Commentary in S. Greenblatt, editor, New World Encounters

Montaigne, “Of Cannibals” 1583 from his Essais 

Rolena Adorno “Fear and Negotiation in Cabeza de Vaca”

Carrasco translation & critical edition. History of Conquest of New Spain by Bernal Diaz. Selections include “Tenochtitlan”, “Spaniards Viewed as Gods”, “Doña Marina”

Cabeza de Vaca’s Naufragios “Shipwreck” (selections)

Inga Clendinnen, “Cruel & Unnatural Cruelty: Conquest of México”

Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest. Chap 1, “Handful of Adventurers: Myth of Exceptional Men”; Chap 3, “Invisible Warriors:  Myth of White Conquistador”; Chap 5 “Lost Words of Malinche:”

Roy Pearce, Savagism and Civilization, chaps 4 and 7

Jonathan Culler, Literary Theory A Short Introduction. Chap 6. “Narrative” and Chap 7 “Performance”

Fred Gleach, “Pocahontas Mythmaking and Marketing”.

Sandra Messenger Cypess, “Malinche as Palimpsest II”

“Malinche Triangulated” in Feminism, Nation, and Myth, Rolando Romero ed.,  pp 2-28

“Frontier Myth and Racial Politics” by Angel Matos-Aparicio Martin Albo.  Chapter in Postnational Fantasy, Masood Ashraf Raja & Jason Ellis, editors

Alessio, Decolonising James Cameron’s Pandora: Imperial History and Science Fiction

Jessica Langer, in Postcolonialism and Science Fiction, ch. 3 “Race, Culture, Identity” (pp, 91-106) and chap 5 “Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science” (pp 127-152)

  

Recommended Readings Available in different formats, including Canvas

“Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” Abridged.  Illustrated Great Classics Series. Published by Waldman / Simon Schuster 2008

“Tempest,” by Shakespeare. Publisher:  Mass Market Paperback. Or read in the Norton Critical Editions

 

 

Course Requirements, Assignments and Grading

PowerPoint lectures and class notes are not made available to students.  Your access to lecture materials is restricted to the lecture classroom period.  Lecture and class discussion is roughly 50-60% of the knowledge base for this course; readings are 40-50%. Specific Study Guides or Handouts of different types are also provided on occasion by the professor.

Attendance Although attendance is not graded or tracked in lecture, faithful attendance is a necessary condition for you to be able to learn enough to be able to earn a grade of A or B.

Based on nearly 30 years of teaching, I can state that virtually no student who misses 3 or more class /lecture sessions are able to learn enough to score a final grade higher than a C.  Historically speaking such persons typically tend to earn a D or F.  Attendance is necessary to achieve a successful passing grade.

You are strongly encourage and advised to adjust your daily routine and scheduling of semester activities and travels during the semester according to your learning and grade objectives.

Midterm / Final Exams.  Exams are short identification answers. Each identification questions require 3-4 components in your answer in approximately 40-80 words. Midterm is take home, must be stapled. Final is in-class taken during IU scheduled final exam period.

Film Discussion Section  Your participation in the film screenings is mandatory and graded.   You are required to complete three short film analyses of roughly 500-700 words. Each worth 10 points of final grade for a total of 30%. Instructions provided.

Take home assignments require BOTH electronic and hard copy:

  • Electronic file submitted to the Oncourse Dropbox
  • Hard copies must be stapled & delivered: Film Analysis delivered to TA in discussion section. Midterm delivered to CLACS office 1125 East Atwater Ave.

Grading and Assignments

1.          

First Midterm

30%

Short answer identifications of key concepts and ideas from readings and lectures

2.          

2nd Midterm/Final

40%

3.          

Film Discussion Section

30%

500-700  words in response to specific questions given in discussion/film screening

Total Final Grade

100%

 

 

Film Analysis Due Dates:

Analysis #1 on films screened during weeks1-6                        due Tuesday Week 7

Analysis #2 on films screened during weeks 7-10                     due Tuesday Week 11

Analysis #3 on films screened during weeks 11-15                   due Thursday Exam Week 16


 

Topics Calendar & Reading Calendar

Wk

Dates

Topics, Issues, Readings

Films

Part I

Cannibalism & Civilization: Love and the Birth of Noble Savage

1

Aug 24 - 26

Love & Fear of the Other:   Europe & the Americas

Culler, Literary Theory Short Intro, chap 6. “Narrative”

Russell, Inventing Flat Earth, chap 1 and 3

 

 

2

Aug 31 & Sept 2

What Was Columbus Thinking?  Marvels & Cannibalism

Hulme, chap 1, “Columbus and Cannibals”

Columbus' Letter March 4,1493 and Zamora Commentary

 

America Before Columbus (educational documentary)

3

Sept 7 Labor Day No Class Sept 9

Cannibal Love:  Cannibalism as Mirror of Humanity

Montaigne, “Of Cannibals”  (pdf)

Cliff Notes Tempest (2001) by S. Metzger. (See online), pp. 1-50

Recommended:  Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”

 

 

How Tasty Was My Little Frenchman (Brazilian, 1971)

4

Sept 15- 17

Tempest as Master Plot of Colonial Love / Travelogues

Preface to 1971 Cliff Notes Tempest (one page, pdf on Oncourse)

Cliff Notes Tempest (2001) by S. Metzger. (See online), pp. 50-62

Hulme chap 3, “Prospero and Caliban”

 

 

Prospero’s Books (Greenaway 1990s)

 

 

5

Sept 22-24

Conquest of México I: History is the Myth We Live By

Bernal Diaz, read: “Tenochtitlan”, “Spaniards Viewed as Gods”

Restall, Seven Myths Spanish Conquest, Ch 1

Films: Short “educational” films on YouTube—click on name

See Kaltura Media:  Kill Bill Umma Vs Gogo & Crazy 88s, Steven Segal Fight Scenes

 

In Search of History: Aztec Empire

 

Rise of Aztecs

 

Restall 7 Myths:

 

6

Sept 29-Oct 1

Conquest of México II: History is the Myth We Live By

Clendinnen, “Conquest of México” (Fear & Unnatural Cruelty)

Restall, Seven Myths of Spanish Conquest, Ch 5

 

 

No Films Student Q&A Review for Film Assignment

In Class Midterm Exam due 4:30 pm Friday of Week 6

On Wks 1-6:  Columbus, Cannibals and Cannibalism , Tempest, Cortez, Malinche, Mexico

 

 

7

Oct   6-8

Anti-Conquest and Survivalism (Love not War)

Adorno “Fear and Negotiation in Cabeza de Vaca” (pdf)

Cabeza de Vaca, Naufragios / Shipwreck (short selection in pdf)

 

Cabeza de Vaca

(Spanish film in subtitles, 1992)

 

Film Analysis #1 Due Tuesday

8

Oct 13-15

Colonial Anti-Conquest and Modernity:  Love is Survival

Required:  Cliff Notes Robinson Crusoe (2003 2nd Edition), pp. 1-48 

Recommended:   Abridged “Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” by D. Defoe

 

Robinson Crusoe (1995) w/Pierce Brosnan

9

Oct 20-22

The Fiction of Individuality: Noble Savage & Redemption

Hulme, ch 5, “Robinson Crusoe and Friday” starting at pp. 184

 

Dance With Wolves (part 1)

10

Oct 27-29

Savage Love, Nostalgic Imperialism, National Survivalism

Pearce, chap. 4 “The Zero of Human Society: Idea of the Savage”

Pearce, chap. 7 ONLY Section 1, 2, 5.  pp 196-211 & 232-236.

 

Dance With Wolves (part 2)

(we are watching the 3hr version)

Part II  Love as Multicultural Myth of Postcolonial Modernity

11

Nov 3-5

Pocohontas Mythology and Postcolonial Multiculturalism

Hulme, chap 4, “Pocohontas and John Smith”

Gleach, “Pocahontas Mythmaking and Marketing”

Disney’s Pocohontas

Film Analysis #2 Due Tuesday

12

Nov 10-12

PostColonial Multiculturalism: Malinche & Tempest Inverted

Culler, Literary Theory Short Intro, chap 7 “Performance”

Cypess, “Malinche as Palimpsest II”

 “Malinche Triangulated and Gendered Histories”  pp. 2-28 in Feminism, Nation, and Myth, edited by Rolando Romero

 

Baghdad Café

13

Nov 17-19

Feminist Multiculturalism & Reversion of Racial Hierarchy

Esquivel, “Like Water for Chocolate” (first half of novel)

 

Like Water for Chocolate

 AAA Dec 18-21

 

Nov 24-28

Thanksgiving Week. No Class --  finish reading Like Water for Chocolate  

14

Dec.   1-3

Black-Brown Multicultural Myths:  Hybridity & Transgression

Esquivel, “Like Water for Chocolate” (second half of novel)

Mississippi Masala  or

Jungle Fever

 

15

Dec. 8-10

Inter-Galactic Love: Humanity & Noble Alien Savage

“Frontier Myth & Racial Politics” by Angel Matos and Martin Albo

Alessio, Decolonizing Avatar – Decolonizing J. Camaron Pandora

Langer, chap 3 “Race, Culture, Identity” only pp. 81-85 and 100-106

 

Avatar

Enemy Mine

Planet of Apes

 

16

Dec 15-18

Final In-Class  Exam 2:45-4:45 pm Mon Dec 15

— Final covers Wks 7-15

Film Analysis #3Due Thursday Dec 18 by 4:45pm

Exam week No classes

Course Summary:

Date Details Due