This is the page for: Understanding Anglophone Culture(s), Spring 2011

(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)

Attendance

Folks,

Just because you’ve handed in your final paper, doesn’t mean we’re not still having class. We’re still meeting all the way up to 14 June, and every class you miss is a lost mark, plus more lost marks for attendance/attitude. We still have a few panel discussions left to complete; people who skip their own panel discussions lose a significant amount of grades on each such panel.

I understand some people have serious reasons for not coming. Those people know well enough that those serious reasons are worth losing a mark or two. If you have no better reason than being tired, being ready for the end of semester, not feeling like getting up early, or having stayed out late the night before, well… I hope that reason is worth it to you.

It is in your best interests to get to class on time for the next two days, at least. Attendance in the mornings has been, well, far from inspiring, and if you’re part of the reason, you can certainly expect it to be reflected in your grades.

Our Updated Crazy Schedule

Hi folks. I think we have no more random, surprise days off, but we do have 3 weeks of classtime left. So I figured it might be time to update our schedule, and add some of the readings I’d like you to complete over the next few weeks:

______________________________________________

31 May hour 1 and 2 – discussion of reading:

Please read the following texts:

2 June – Panel Discussion:

Working for a Living
Koreans work more than anyone else in the OECD, including, obviously, most of the English-speaking world. However, this “cultural difference” is, like most of the others we have discussed in the past, far from eternal or essential. In this discussion, students will address the ways in which the current status of work in Korean life is much more similar to the status of work in the lives of Anglophones in past times. This comparison will serve to help facilitate a discussion of whether the social significance of work, in the process of modernization, necesarily goes through the kinds of transformations seen in the Anglophone world, as well as where students think Korea is headed in terms of the social understanding of Work.

(Issues of gender, race, and power can also come into the discussion, but the main focus will be on disputing the uniqueness of the circumstances, and the justifications for, the status of work in the lives of contemporary Koreans.)

7 June hour 1 – Discussion of readings:

7 June hour 2 – Panel Discussion:

Language and Society
As discussed on 2 June, the significance of language — and the politics of language — came into question very widely in the English-speaking world during the 1980s. Language politics, as related to gender, racial, and “identity” politics, came under strong consideration, for example with feminists questioning the sexism that was inherent in English grammar. (Such as using “he” for plural when discussing mixed-gender groups of people.

Questions regarding the relationship between language and social structure, language and social problems, and how coonsciously changing language can change (or improve) society will be the focus of this discussion. While it is fine for students to discuss the Korean case, they are also expected to discuss examples from the English-speaking world as well.

9 June – Panel Discussion:

Play, Leisure, and Identity
The 19th and 20th centuries, but especially the 20th, were times in which the idea of popular entertainment — though it was not new at the time — exploded into prominence and unparalleled importance in the English-speaking world. The status of, and understanding of the place of, “play” became suddenly important and a powerful part of how people in the English-speaking world engaged with their society, with the world, and with the formulation of their own identities.

This panel discussion will address how sports, film, and television came to occupy this position of significance, whether play necessarily occupies such a role in modernity, and whether the overt role of entertainment in Korea’s Chun Dictatorship is really so different from the role entertainment plays in the Anglophone world today.

NOTE: There will be assigned readings for this panel discussion, but no in-class discussion of the readings. The readings are TBA.

14 June hour 1 – Discussion of readings:

14 June hour 2 – Panel Discussion

Power & Resistance
Students will discuss the ways in which people in the English-speaking world specifically understand their relationship to power, be it corporate, governmental, or other authorities. The discussion may range from forms of protest, grassroots social movements, but also the especially American hobby of conspiracy theories. Why do conspiracy theories appeal to modern Anglophone societies? With the work of Philip K. Dick having become so mainstream that it has helped to define modern Hollywood cinema, has paranoia and the struggle over power become mere entertainment?

Next Week:

Here’s the plan for next week:

24 May, hour 1: Discussion of “readings”:

24 May, hour 2: Panel Discussion:

Childhood & Education
As mentioned in our class discussion on 19 May, while human beings obviously do pass through a period of physical and psychological development that we can clearly label “childhood” or “youth”, many of the things we assume the words Childhood or Adolescence to mean are, in fact, culturally constructed. The lines we draw between childhood and adulthood, the way we differentiate them, and the recently invented concept of “adolescence” are not unproblematic.

What are some of the problems with how we think about childhood, either in the English-speaking world or in Korean society, and how can we address these problems? Are there models of childhood in other societies (besides these two) which we could look towards for ideas on how to improve the lives of young people in Korea and in the English-speaking world?

26 May: Discussion of reading:

GEM/GII, Feminism in Korea’s Past, and More on Mad Men

Last time, our discussion in class focused on Mad Men and then in the panel discussion on Feminism and its translatability to other cultures, such as Korea.

It was suggested that womens’ status in Korea is “settled” and therefore not really an issue any longer. I suggested students have a look at how Korea fares by international standards, such as the UN GEM (Gender Empowerment Measure) (South Korea ranks 61st in the world as of 2009, after many developing countries) and Gender Inequality Index (South Korea ranked 20th in the world in 2010, apparently because health and education are very available to Korean women despite the apparent empowerment disparity).

This is worth talking about. Also worth a look at past Korean feminist actions, such as the protests by Korean feminists in early postcolonial Korea. A few examples are mentioned near the end of this blog post, which includes translations of news articles from the time, and discusses anxieties at the time about feminism, “too much democracy” and womens’ “mistaken idea of equality,” and the pernicious foreign influence of the West in spreading such, ahem, dangerous ideas.

Have a look at those things, and let’s talk on Thursday. It’d be nice if you’d also watch Mad Men again, so you can relate it to the discussion. (After all, the Mad Men episode in the USA is set very close to the time when the news articles being discussed in the last link above were published… only ten years apart.)

Mad Men

Folks,

Here’s that episode of Mad Men (with subtitles) that we watched most of the other day:

Finish it off (or watch it again) and be ready to discuss it in relation to the readings I linked below:

These might seem like a lot of readings — well, skim them and pick which ones interest you most. Remember, you’re looking for things you can connect to what we saw in Mad Men, and our discussion of feminism, women’s status in the English-speaking world, and so on.

The panel discussion for the second half of class is, once again, as follows:

Womanhood:

Often, non-Westerners engage in (either positive or negative) essentializing descriptions of the status of women in the West, as opposed to the status of women in their own society. But to speak of the status of women in the English-speaking world in this way is to ignore the fact that, in reality, women in the English-speaking world were historically as subject to sexism and subjugation as they are in the most sexist societies today.

What such “otherings” ignore is the degree of public effort and intellectual work through which women in the English-speaking world claimed this social power for themselves. This process of demanding empowerment and equality is known as “feminism.” The development and rise of feminism over the last few hundred years, and especially during the latter half of the 20th century, has radically transformed the way women live, but also the power structure of the Western world, as well as those societies into which feminism has successfully been imported.

Yet the translation of feminism to other cultures has enjoyed different degrees of success in different societies. Students in this panel will discuss the question of how feminism, as a phenomenon in the English-speaking world, does or does not translate well to Korean culture, as well as exploring the question of whether, as C. Douglas Lummis said of democracy, the importing of foreign cultural ideals (like democracy or gender equality) can allow societies to become “more completely themselves” — in other words, whether the promotion of gender equality and feminism in Korea necessarily threatens the traditional social order, or could be seen as allowing the best of Korean cultural tradition to be rediscovered and resurrected more profoundly to life.

Participants for this panel discussion are:

  • Eun Byul Lee
  • SEJIN SHON
  • JiYoon Hu
  • Sora Kim
  • kyunghee park
  • dain kim

By the way, don’t panic about the “readings” for Thursday. I’ll give you one of them on Tuesday, and another after Thursday’s class. Both will be shorter than you probably fear.

Presentation Contest, Final Round

As you know, the Preliminary Round of the Presentation Contest is this week, in four sessions on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon (11/12 May). I have already notified you of your required attendance depending on your class.

However, there is also a Final Round which all students in my class are required to attend. This Final Round is on Monday, 23 May at 6pm in IH267.

Unless you have a serious schedule conflict, you are expected to make allowances for your attendance at this event. You will need to have a very good reason not to attend.

Panel Discussions & Other Stuff

Here’s our schedule for the rest of semester:

10 May: HOLIDAY

12 May: “Lecture” — Mad Men (one episode & discussion)

17 May, hour 1: Lecture — Women, Gender Relations, and Mad Men:
Readings:

17 May, hour 2: Panel Discussion:

Womanhood:

Often, non-Westerners engage in (either positive or negative) essentializing descriptions of the status of women in the West, as opposed to the status of women in their own society. But to speak of the status of women in the English-speaking world in this way is to ignore the fact that, in reality, women in the English-speaking world were historically as subject to sexism and subjugation as they are in the most sexist societies today.

What such “otherings” ignore is the degree of public effort and intellectual work through which women in the English-speaking world claimed this social power for themselves. This process of demanding empowerment and equality is known as “feminism.” The development and rise of feminism over the last few hundred years, and especially during the latter half of the 20th century, has radically transformed the way women live, but also the power structure of the Western world, as well as those societies into which feminism has successfully been imported.

Yet the translation of feminism to other cultures has enjoyed different degrees of success in different societies. Students in this panel will discuss the question of how feminism, as a phenomenon in the English-speaking world, does or does not translate well to Korean culture, as well as exploring the question of whether, as C. Douglas Lummis said of democracy, the importing of foreign cultural ideals (like democracy or gender equality) can allow societies to become “more completely themselves” — in other words, whether the promotion of gender equality and feminism in Korea necessarily threatens the traditional social order, or could be seen as allowing the best of Korean cultural tradition to be rediscovered and resurrected more profoundly to life.

19 May: Class Discussion of readings:

24 May, hour 1: Discussion of readings, continued.

24 May, hour 2: Panel Discussion:

Childhood & Education
As mentioned in our class discussion on 19 May, while human beings obviously do pass through a period of physical and psychological development that we can clearly label “childhood” or “youth”, many of the things we assume the words Childhood or Adolescence to mean are, in fact, culturally constructed. The lines we draw between childhood and adulthood, the way we differentiate them, and the recently invented concept of “adolescence” are not unproblematic.

What are some of the problems with how we think about childhood, either in the English-spoeaking world or in Korean society, and how can we address these problems? Are there models of childhood in other societies (besides these two) which we could look towards for ideas on how to improve the lives of young people in Korea and in the English-speaking world?

26 May: Discussion of reading:

31 May hour 1 — continued discussion of reading

31 May hour 2 Panel Discussion:

Working for a Living
Koreans work more than anyone else in the OECD, including, obviously, most of the English-speaking world. However, this “cultural difference” is, like most of the others we have discussed in the past, far from eternal or essential. In this discussion, students will address the ways in which the current status of work in Korean life is much more similar to the status of work in the lives of Anglophones in past times. This comparison will serve to help facilitate a discussion of whether the social significance of work, in the process of modernization, necesarily goes through the kinds of transformations seen in the Anglophone world, as well as where students think Korea is headed in terms of the social understanding of Work.

(Issues of gender, race, and power can also come into the discussion, but the main focus will be on disputing the uniqueness of the circumstances, and the justifications for, the status of work in the lives of contemporary Koreans.)

2 June: Discussion of readings:

7 June hour 1 — Panel Discussion:

Language and Society
As discussed on 2 June, the significance of language — and the politics of language — came into question very widely in the English-speaking world during the 1980s. Language politics, as related to gender, racial, and “identity” politics, came under strong consideration, for example with feminists questioning the sexism that was inherent in English grammar. (Such as using “he” for plural when discussing mixed-gender groups of people.

Questions regarding the relationship between language and social structure, language and social problems, and how coonsciously changing language can change (or improve) society will be the focus of this discussion. While it is fine for students to discuss the Korean case, they are also expected to discuss examples from the English-speaking world as well.

7 June hour 2 — Lecture/Discussion of readings:

9 June — Panel Discussion:

Play, Leisure, and Identity
The 19th and 20th centuries, but especially the 20th, were times in which the idea of popular entertainment — though it was not new at the time — exploded into prominence and unparalleled importance in the English-speaking world. The status of, and understanding of the place of, “play” became suddenly important and a powerful part of how people in the English-speaking world engaged with their society, with the world, and with the formulation of their own identities.

This panel discussion will address how sports, film, and television came to occupy this position of significance, whether play necessarily occupies such a role in modernity, and whether the overt role of entertainment in Korea’s Chun Dictatorship is really so different from the role entertainment plays in the Anglophone world today.

14 June hour 1 — Discussion of readings:

14 June hour 2 — Panel Discussion

Power & Resistance
Students will discuss the ways in which people in the English-speaking world specifically understand their relationship to power, be it corporate, governmental, or other authorities. The discussion may range from forms of protest, grassroots social movements, but also the especially American hobby of conspiracy theorism. Why do conspiracy theories appeal to modern Anglophone societies? With the work of Philip K. Dick having become so mainstream that it has helped to define modern Hollywood cinema, has paranoia and the struggle over power become mere entertainment?

I’ll update the panel discussions with the names of the participants soon.

Announcement: Presentation Contest Preliminary Round Dates and Times

As I explained at the beginning of semester, one of the few department events that all students taking my courses are expected to attend is the Presentation Contest. this semester, we have launched a new system wherein a preliminary and secondary round will take place. Students in all of my classes (except Public Speaking — they have heavier expectations) are required to attend one (1) of the two-hour preliminary round events. plus the Final Round event.

The final round date has not been announced, but the preliminary rounds will be held between 2pm and 6pm on Wednesday and Thursday May 11th and 12th, as follows:

Session 1:

Wed., May 11: 2:00-4:00pm, N407

Session 2:

Wed., May 11: 4:00-6:00pm, N411

Session 3:

Thurs., May 12: 2:00-4:00pm, G101-2

Session 4:

Thurs., May 12: 4:00-6:00pm, G101-1

If you are unable for some reason to attend, due to class or work conflicts, you MUST email me prior to the event and submit official documentation (such as your class schedule or work schedule) to the Office of the Dept. of English Language & Culture, IH341. However, if one of your class conflicts is related to a course in English Language & Culture, let the professor know and request excusal in order to attend the contest preliminary round.

Homebrew Korea Fundraiser

Hi there,

I mentioned in a couple of classes that my brewing club is holding a fundraiser this weekend, to help the victims of the earthquake/tsunami in Japan last month. If you feel like drinking some of the best (home-brewed) beer in Korea, donated by people like me, and if you would feel good knowing the money is going straight to the Red Cross to help people who really need it, then feel free to stop by our fundraiser Saturday afternoon.

There’s more information here.

A Guideline For Writing and Researching

Folks,

In our class on Thursday, I promised you a file that will serve as a guideline for the process of formulating a topic, a thesis, a strong thesis, as well as explaining about supporting arguments and how to develop and support them, researching, and more.

This is that document. It seems long, I know, but it includes many of the fundamental skills and techniques you will need to be a competent speaker, writer, and thinker. It also contains the skills you’ll need to successfully finish writing a paper for our class. Read it.

Then read it again. Then read it six more times. Study it. Mark it up with ink. Read it some more.

This paper is your friend. It will help you, if you let it.

We will discuss it a little more in class.

Have a nice weekend.

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