Week 4
Colonization, Capitalism, Culture: What is a Civilized Culture? Can we make any progress in culture?
Monday, February 14
Class
- Brief writing on reflections from Najmia video
- Reflections on the nature of fear
o Things Fall Apart references
- Review Strayer, Margin quiz
Assignment
- Read Strayer 941-947; prepare an answer to focus question # 13
Tuesday, February 15
Class
- Writing workshop: the crazy, complex sentence: the grossest food
- Group Discussion: What is a “civilized culture”?
- Things Fall Apart Discussion: Are there commonalities among cultures?
o Work on text references, e.g., Ikemefuna’s reactions before death
Assignment
- Begin Things Fall Apart Part, Part II
Wednesday, February 16
Class
- Take twenty minutes to read Margaret Kohn’s article on Colonialism http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/
- Take twenty minutes of group exploration to discuss Colonialism, Nationalism, and Capitalism: Focus on essential questions 1-4, 9
Assignment
- Continue reading Things Fall Apart, Part II
Thursday, February 17
Class
- Identities and Race: Theories of difference
- Read Iris Marion Young on the “five faces of oppression”
- Group discussion question: Has Achebe written a genuinely “African” novel, or is his dominated by his on Western Education?
Assignment
- Finishing Things Fall Apart, Part II
- Write a well organized, five-paragraph essay on focus question #14
Friday, February 18
Class
- Watch the movie Babel
Assignment
- Begin outlining ideas about the relationship between the rise of nationalism and capitalism. In what ways does the rise of nations and capitalism affect one another?
1. What is a nation, and how is it distinct from a state?
2. When did the idea of a “nation” develop?
3. Why is the nation a “novel form of political community”?
4. Why is Nationalism an “infinitely flexible and enormously powerful idea”?
5. What is the value of instilling nationalist identities into citizens?
6. Who belongs to a nation? Who can speak for a nation?
7. Is Nationalism a Western idea?
8. What was the cause of the Thirty Years Way, and how did it end?
9. How might have the flexibility of Nationalism affected the Religious Wars of the 17th Century?
10. How are Nationalism and Capitalism related?
11. Did Nationalism give rise to Capitalism or did Capitalism give rise to Nationalism?
12. What are examples of Procrustean Logic?
13. Did European colonization bring about “progress”?
14. Is it possible to escape one’s own cultural upbringing and education?
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