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Integrative Essay #1
"To be a member of any human community is to situate oneself with
regard to one's (its) past, if only by rejecting it. The past is therefore
a permanent dimension of the human consciousness, an inevitable component
of the institutions, values and other patterns of human society."
Eric Hobsbawm, "The Sense of the Past"
During this first week you have encountered both different ways of
interpreting the past and the ways in which some of the perspectives
that inform those interpretations are created. The questions of ownership
of knowledge, the power to transmit knowledge and the influence of geographical
location on the power to be heard all influence the ways individuals
construct and communicate knowledge of the past and the world around
them.
For this essay, choose two "pasts' within which you "situate" yourself
(to use Hobsbawm's word). For example, you might choose a national past,
such as Fitzgerald discusses or Milosz critiques, or a geographical
or ethnic past. Using the analytical tools you have acquired this week,
try to decide who owns those histories (who has the power to re-tell
them, re-write them, change them, declare them irrelevant) and what
influence that power of ownership exerts on the individual.
Finally, drawing on your analysis of your two chosen histories, analyze
how the histories we inherit both illuminate and limit the ways in which
we act, and react, in the contemporary world. Remember to incorporate
insights from all the material (video tapes, primary sources, lectures)
and at least three of the readings into your work.
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Integrative Essay #2
During this week you have procured a working definition of the concept
of ideology and seen many ways to pursue its different manifestations.
Begin by explaining this definition of ideology (make sure to use Kavanagh).
Once the definition is in place, pick three ideological constructs
that have emerged during your seminar and group discussions over this
past week and perform an "ideological analysis." Pursuit of this analysis
will involve using the texts from the week to trace the origins of the
constructs. Where and in what form have they appeared historically?
How have they been advocated, and how have they been condemned? How
have they evolved, and why do they persist?
Making sure to consider these constructs from many different perspectives,
conclude by determining what these constructs share in common and how
they influence current ideological perspectives.
Make sure to reference at least one video, one Western Civilization
text reading, and at least three other texts in addition to the Kavanagh
essay to support your analysis and conclusions.
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Integrative Essay #3
In your essay for week one you addressed the question of how history
is written and to whom it belongs. As the readings for this week make
clear, there exist several sides to, or accounts of, any story being
told; there are competing narratives. Using the case of Latin America,
write an essay in which you explain what an "alternative history" is.
How do the "vanquished" or disempowered members of a society record
history, and how has that changed over time? Through what strategies
do such groups "resist" or challenge the history written by the victors?
Where must we as cultural critics look to find such alternative histories?
In your essay you must use either the Pratt or the Foucault. Make sure
you both explain the author's argument and its connection your argument.
To construct your argument, make sure to draw on the at least 4 other
texts from the week, one of which must be a Western civilization tape
(either The Reformation or Mass Culture and the New Imperialism)
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Integrative Essay #4
Art Spiegelman's book, Maus, and the visits to the Holocaust
Museum and the African Art Museum all addressed the way that the nation,
the family, and genocide are connected. Nevertheless, the representations
of these issues differed to a large degree. As we have seen, theories
of the nation and the family have been deployed to justify countless
acts (both benevolent and nefarious).
How have genocides implicated the logic of the family? How have they
implicated the logic of the nation? How do the remembering, forgetting,
and memorializing of these dramatic events impact notions of the family
and the nation? Use the site visits, Maus, and at least two texts
from each of the preceding two weeks to examine these issues.
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