Worlding America
WORLDING AMERICA
CMLIT 543
Department of Comparative
Literature
Pennsylvania State University
Mondays 2:30-5:30 p.m.
306 Burrowes Building
Professor Djelal Kadir
436N Burrowes Building
Tel/Fax. 863-9629; e-mail:
kadir@psu.edu
Office hours: M11:15–12:15;
T10:00–11:00
“Mihi res non
me rebus submittere conor” [I try to submit the things to myself, not myself to
the things].
Horace’s
sententia could well be the guiding dictum of America’s history. By 1967, the
French historian of the Annales School Fernand Braudel would find it necessary
to aver, “L’Amérique ne commande pas seule,” (Civilisation et Capitalisme,
352). We do not know what he might say today. Our seminar examines the way
stations of a discursive itinerary that has made America, especially the
imperial U.S. of America, the universal point of reference for global
positioning of cultural life at the beginning of the twenty-first century.
All the
seminar readings on America are by non-Americans. This deliberate selection of
materials has a two-fold purpose: 1) to pursue an exogenous critical corpus on
America for an international, comparative American Studies; 2) to pursue a
critical interrogation of the possibilities for an exogenous discourse on
America, especially as object, instrument, subject, and agency of globalization
and globalizing discourses, even prior to 1492.
If American
American Studies spells a self-echoic tautology, where can a non-American, or a
non-America-conditioned, discourse be located, if anywhere, that could dislocate
reflection on America from self-contemplation into critical scrutiny? What are
the historical conditions of plausibility for a discourse on America that is not
already implicated in and compromised by the discursive object? Where can one
locate a site of enunciation that might be out of the shadow of the object of
discourse? What vantage point can we muster for the scientific and critical
scrutiny of America that does not shade into a vanishing point? And if the
emergence of America into historical consciousness spells the circumscription
and circumnavigation of the world’s hemispheres into a sphere, could an inside
and an outside be determined in such persistent globalization? Can we still
speak of, or credibly pursue, an exogenous discourse on America in light of what
such questions imply? Could we do otherwise? These are some of the issues we
shall examine in/through the readings selected, especially in their implications
for comparative literature and cultural comparatism in general.
SEPTEMBER 9
Prolepses: Global Positioning Discourses
SEPTEMBER 16:
Adumbrations: America before
America
Presenter: ADAM MIYASHIRO (Department
of Comparative Literature)
Readings: ‘The Greenlanders
Saga,” and “The Saga of Eirik the Red” (both in The Vinland Saga, trans.
Magnus Magnusson, Penguin 1965); Francis Bacon, “Atlantis (otherwise called
America” [map of 1580] in New Atlantis. Works, (London, 1902)188: @
http://www.orst.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/bacon/atlantis.html; “Of
Vicissitudes of Things” in Essays, (London, 1902) LVIII, 143-44: @
http://www.orst.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/bacon/essays_contents.html [q.v.
Herodotus, Histories, IV, 36, 41, 42, 44, 45: @
http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html; Plato, Laws, bk. III,
677-79: @
http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/laws.3.iii.html; Pliny the Elder, Historia
Naturalis, bks 4 and 7; Saint Augustine, City of God, XVI, 7, 8, 9,
17: @
http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF1-02/;
San Isidoro de
Sevilla, "De terra et partibus/Acerca de la tierra y sus partes," XIV,
Etimologias, José Oroz Reta and Manuel A. Marcos Casquero, eds.(Madrid:
Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1982): 164-211.
SEPTEMBER 23: Textual Grounds and Primal Scenes
Readings: "Capitulaciones de Santa Fé” (April 17 and 30, 1492) in
Christopher Columbus, Libro de los privilegios el Almirante Don Cristóbal
Colón (1498), ed. Ciriaco Pérez Bustamante (Madrid: Real Academia de la
Historia, 1951), pp. 41–44; The Letter of Columbus [to Gabriel Sánchez]
on the Discovery of America (May 1493) in Castillo & Schweitze, eds.
The Literatures of Colonial
America. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001),
23–27; Amerigo Vespucci, “Letter of Amerigo Vespucci to Pier Soderin,
Confolonier of the Republic of Florence––Lettera delle isole nuouamente trouate––,written
in Lisbon in 1504,” The First Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci. London:
Bernard Quaritch, Quaritch’s Translations of Rare Books, I., 1885;
Pietro Martire d’Anghiera [Peter Martyr], De Orbe Novo (Alcala, 1530;
De rebus oceanicis et orbe novo decades tres), First Decade, Bk. 1, 13
November, 1493; “Letters of Patent to Sir Humphrey Gilbert” (11 July 1578) in
Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History, ed. Keith Kavenagh
(NY: Chelsea House, 1983) vol.3, Part 1, pp. 1690–1693; Dj. Kadir, “Charting the
Conquest,” in Columbus and the Ends of the Earth Berkeley & Los Angeles:
U California P, 1992) chap. 4, pp. 62–104
SEPTEMBER 30:
Renaissance,
Reason, and Considerations
Readings: J. L. Palacios Rubios, “Requerimiento,” (1512)
Engl. trans. in Lewis Hanke, ed., "The Requirement, 1512"
History of Latin American Civilization: Sources and
Interpretations (London: Methuen, 1969), 123-125;
Bartolomé de las Casa, In Defense of the Indians, Stafford Poole, C.M.,
trans, & ed. (DeKalb: Northern Illinois UP, 1974), “Summary of Sepúlveda’s
Poisition”, pp.11-16; Chaps.4, 15, 20, 26, 28, 38, 53, 57, 58, 60-62); Manuel
da Nóbrega, “Dialogue for the Conversion of the Indians,” (1556–57) in Castillo
& Schweitze, eds. The Literatures of Colonial America. (Oxford:
Blackwell, 2001), 81–92; “Patent of New England Granted by James I on November
3, 1620” in Foundations of Colonial America: A Documentary History, ed.
Keith Kavenagh (NY: Chelsea House, 1983) vol.1, Part 1, pp. 22–35.
OCTOBER 7: Rationality, Conquest, and the Renascent Unconscious
Presenter: BASEM L. RA’AD (Al-Quds University)
Readings: “What We’re Fighting For” (statement by 60 U.S. intellectuals).
Institute for American Values, February 2002: On line @
www.propositionsonline.com.; Suleiman Ibrahim Al-Askari, “The Statement of
U.S. Intellectuals: A Call for Dialogue or for Conflict?” Al Arabi
no.523 (June 2002), 8-15. [Translated by Basem L. Ra’ad]; Munir Al Akash,
“America and the Red Canaanites.”
Carmel 70/71 (2002), 40-91 [excerpts
translated by Basem L. Ra’ad]; Basem L. Ra’ad, “Primal Scenes of Globalization:
Legacies of Canaan and Etruria.” PMLA 116.1 (2001), 89-110. [Q.v.:
Hilton Obenzinger, American
Palestine. (Princeton: Princeton UP,
1999): “Preface,” Chapter 1––“Holy Lands and Settler Identities,” and Chapter
3––“Christianography” and Covenant”].
OCTOBER 16:
Nature, Philosophy,
America: Hegel, de Tocqueville, Ortega y Gasset
Presenter: JAIME DE SALAS (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Readings: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, "Introduction—Geographical Basis of
History," Philosophy of History (1822), J. Sibree, trans. (Buffalo, NY:
Prometheus Books, 1991) 79–102; Ortega y Gasset, "Hegel y América," El
Espectador, VII (1928) in Obras completas, 6th ed. Madrid: Revista de
Occidente, 1963, t. 2, 563–576; "Los ‘nuevos’ Estados Unidos," La Nación,
Bs. As., 22.III.1931, in Obras completas, 6th ed. Madrid: Revista de
Occidente, 1963, t. 4, 357–361; "Sobre los Estados Unidos," Luz, 27, 29,
30, VII, 1932, in Obras completas, 6th ed. Madrid: Revista de Occidente,
1963, t. 4, 369–379; The Revolt of the Masses (1930) n.t., (N.Y.: W. W.
Norton & Co., 1957; 1932) Ch. 14, sects. 2–4, pp.130–145; “ Prólogo para
franceses, parte II” in Obras completas, 6th ed. Madrid: Revista de
Occidente, 1963, t. 4, 116–121; Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
(1835), Vol. I, Bk. 1, ch.2 and "Conclusion"; Vol. II, Bk.3, ch.3.
OCTOBER 21: Near and Far: Dutch
Cultural Historians on
America
Presenter: THEO D’HAEN (University of Leyden)
Readings: Johan Huizinga, “Individualism and Association,” and “Thought,” both
in America: A Dutch
Historian's Vision, from Afar and Near
(New York: Harper & Row, 1972) 6–60 and 266–326, respectively.
OCTOBER 28:
Civilization and Its Dis(sed)contents
Readings: Hans Staden, The True History of His Captivity (1557), Ch.
XXVII in Castillo & Schweitzer; Michel de Montaigne. “Of Cannibals” (1580; Eng.
1603) in The Complete Essays (Stanford, 1958): @
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/montaigne.html;
Wm. Shakespeare, Tempest (1612): @
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~benjamin/316kfall/316ktexts/tempest.html [q.v.
Peter Greenaway, Prospero’s Books, (1991 film)]; David Hume, “Of
National Characters” (1748) in Essays Moral, Political and Literary;
Matthew Arnold, “Civilization in the United States,” in Five Uncollected
Essays. K. Allott, ed. Liverpool, 1953: @
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/yankee/civinus.html [q.v. Henry
Raleigh, Matthew Arnold and American Culture. UCal P, 1961, 43, 78, 151,
180].
Mid-term Recapitulation and Presentation of Seminar Projects
NOVEMBER 4: Governmentality
Readings: From Thos. Hobbes, “On the
Naturall Condition of Mankind, as Concerning their Felicity and Misery”
Leviathan (1651), I. Xiii: @
http://www.knuten.liu.se/~bjoch509/works/hobbes/leviathan.txt; John Locke,
Two Treatises of Government [1690]: A Critical Edition w/ Intro. &
Apparatus Criticus. Peter Laslett, ed. (NY: Cambridge UP, 1965), I.xi, II.iv,
II.v [q.v. Herman Lebovics, “The Uses of America in Locke’s Second
Treatise of Government,” Journal of History of Ideas 47 (1986)
567–81]: also @
http://www.jstor.org/; Daniel Defoe, “Further Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe” from 2nd part of Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
(1719) (on his return to the Island of Despair off the coast of Guyana, pp.
69–80); Johann Gottfried von Herder, Ideas of a Philosophy of the History of
Mankind (1793-98), Bk. 6, ch.6.
NOVEMBER 11: Potency and Enervation:
Sexualized America
Presenter: OSCAR FERNÁNDEZ (Department of Comparative Literature)
Readings: Harry Bernstein, “Some Inter-American Aspects of the Enlightenment,”
in Latin America and the Enlightenment, ed. Arthur P. Whitaker (New
York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1942) 53-69;
Henry Ward Church, “Corneille de Pauw and the
Controversy over His Recherches Philosophiques sur les Américains, PMLA
vol 51 (1936); Gilbert Chinard, “Eighteenth Century Theories of America
as a Human Habitat,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
vol. 91 (Philadelphia, 1947); Durand Echeverría, “Roubaud and the Theory of
American Degeneration,” French-American Review, 3 (1950) 24-33; Werner
Stark, “Raynal the Fatalist,” in America, Ideal and Reality: The United
States of 1776 in Contemporary European Philosophy, (London: Kegan Paul,
1947; rpt. Westport: Greenwood P, 1974)16-35.
NOVEMBER 18:
Italy’s America: The Glue of Irony
for Stupor and Stupidity
Presenter: Barbara Alfano (Department of Comparative Literature)
Readings: Cesare Pavese, "Yesterday and Today," 1947; Giaime Pintor, "Americana"
1943; Giorgio Soavi, "Preface” to
America All at One Breadth,"
1959. Pavese, Pintor, & Soavi in
America in Modern Italian Literatue,
Donald Heiney, trans. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1964; Nanni Moretti, Caro
Diario (Rome: Sacher Film Productions,1993);
Richard Porton and Lee Ellickson, "Comedy, Communism, and Pastry: An Interview
with Nanni Moretti," Cineaste 21:1–2 (1995) 11–15; Antonella
D'aquino "Caro Diario: A Modern Journey of Purification." Rivista di Studi
Italiani 18:2 (Dec. 2000) 270–280; Alessandro Baricco, City.
Milan: Rizzoli, 1999;
Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., "Italy and the Invention of America," CR: The New
Centennial Review 2:1 (2002) 17—31.
NOVEMBER 25:
Criminal(-ized/-ing)
America
Presenter: William Castro (Department of Comparative Literature)
Prooftexts: 1) Brother (2000), directed by Takeshi Kitano. 2) Dancer
in the Dark (2000), directed by Lars von Trier
Secondary reading materials: Tony Rayns, “To Die in America.” Sight and
Sound 11.4 (2001): 26-27; Daniel Edwards, “The Willing Embrace of
Destruction: Takeshi Kitano's ‘Brother.’” Senses of Cinema: An Online Film
Journal Devoted to the Serious and Eclectic Discussion of Cinema 17 (2001)
(no pagination). On line @http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/17/brother.html;
Rahul Hamid, “‘Beat’ Comes to America: An Interview with Takeshi Kitano."
Cineaste: America's
Leading Magazine on the Art and Politics of the Cinema
26.3 (Summer 2001): 32-33; Elaine
Taylor, “Dancing in Denmark: Elayne Taylor Talks with Lars Von Trier.”
Creative-Screenwriting 8.1 (2001 Jan-Feb): 32-35; Rhys Graham, “Dancer in
the Dark” (review). Senses of Cinema: An Online Film Journal Devoted to the
Serious and Eclectic Discussion of Cinema 11 (2000-2001 Dec-Jan): (no
pagination). To be found at
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/11/dancer.html
DECEMBER 2:
Visions of American Excess
Presenter: Sophia McClennen (Department of Comparative Literature) Readings:
The Journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, on line @
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/one/cabeza.htm ;Capt.
John Smith "A True Relation . . . " on line @http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/jamestown-browse?id=J1007;
Theodor Adorno, "Perennial Fashion–Jazz," in Prisms: Cultural Criticism and
Society (1955), trans. Samuel and Shierry Weber (London: Spearman,
1967; Adorno (and Max
Horkheimer), "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," on line @
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/adorno.htm;
Jean Baudrillard, from America (London/NY: Verso, 1988) ch. 1 "Vanishing
Point" 1-11, ch. 4 "Utopia Achieved" 75-105, and ch. 5 "The End of U.S, Power?"
107-118.
DECEMBER 9: America, America…
Individual presentations: Readings (select one,
or any combination, of the following for application of previously discussed
constructs):
Joseph Conrad, Nostromo
(1904)
H.G. Wells, The Future
in America
(1906)
Arthur Conan Doyle, The
Lost World (1912)
Ilya Ehrenburg, The
Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito… (1922)
Franz Kafka, Amerika
(1938)
James Hadley Chase, No
Orchids for Miss Blandish (1939)
Boris Vian, J’irai
crucher sus vos tombes (1946)
Malcolm Lowry, Under the
Volcano (1947)
Simone de Beauvoir,
L’Amérique au jour le jour (1948)
Ama Ata Aidoo, The
Dilemma of a Ghost (1965)
Miguel Delibes,
Sudamérica con escala en las Canarias (1961); or
USA y yo
(1966)
Josef Skvorecky, Dvorak
in Love (1983)
Guilin Cao, Beijinger in
New York
(1993)
Alessandro Baricco, City
(1999)
Salman Rushdi, Fury
(2002).
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