Discovering Others I

June 11: Presentations and discussions on Edward Said’s concepts of “secular criticism,” “the worldliness of the critic,” and “the work of the critic.” Presentations next week on “speaking truth to power” and “the celebration of exile,” followed, if we have time, with the beginning of a discussion of Yoshioka’s “Samurai and Self-Colonization in Japan.”

June 4: Discussion of Orientalist representations of Japan, including photographs in Edwin Arnold’s Seas and Lands (Longmans, Green, 1892) and propaganda from the Second World War, including Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips (Warner Brothers, 1944).

Homework:

1) for the June 11 seminar assigned pairs of students should prepare 5~15 minute formal presentations on key sections of A&A’s chapter 2, “Worldliness: The Critic.” These include “Secular Criticism” (Koharu and Toshimi), “The Worldliness of the Critic” (James and Kunitomo), “The Work of the Critic” (Sayaka and Yoko), “Speaking Truth to Power” (Ayumi and Yoichi), and “The Celebration of Exile” (Genki and Shun).

2) For the June 18 seminar read and be prepared to discuss Yoshioka Hiroshi’s “Samurai and Self-Colonization in Japan,” pp. 99-112 in The Decolonization of Imagination, edited by Jan Nederveen Pieterse and Bhikhu Parekk (London: Zed, 1995).

May 28: Discussion of chapter 2 of Ashcroft and Ahluwalia, “Worldliness: The Text.” Homework: read and be prepared to discuss chapter 3, “Worldliness: The Critic.”

May 21: Completion of the second Orientalism worksheet. Discussion of why, or whether, Said’s understandings in Orientalism are important.

Homework: Finish reading and be prepared to discuss Aschroft and Ahluwalia, “Why Said?” and “Worldliness: The Text.”

May 14: Discussion of questions 1-3 on the second Orientalism worksheet, which I hope we shall be able to finish next week.

Homework: Read and be prepared to discuss in the May 28 seminar “Why Said?” and “Worldliness: The Text” in Bill Ashcroft and Pal Ahluwalia, Edward Said (Routledge, 2001).

May 7: Discussion of the key theoretical underpinnings of the opening section of Said’s introduction to Orientalism, and completion of the first Orientalism worksheet worksheet. We focused particular attention on the second of Said’s three inter-related definitions of Orientalsm, a “style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction between the Orient and the Occident.” Discussion of the ways that a discourse can both manage and produce its object.

Homework: each of ten individual students has been assigned a three- to five-minute minute response to one of the ten questions on the second Orientalism worksheet.

April 23: Introduction to Edward Said and to the concept of Orientalism. Discussion of the degree to which our knowledge of others derives from representation, and the degree to which representation derives from those with the power to represent.

We addressed questions 1-5 on the first Orientalism worksheet. Homework: look again at questions 6-14 on the worksheet, and reconsider your answers in terms of the discussion that took place today.

April 16: Orientation session and introduction to the course. Homework: read sections I and II of Edward Said’s Introduction to Orientalism, and prepare written answers, in any language, to the questions on this worksheet.