The U.S. Culture Debate and Cultural Project
The Culture Debate in the U.S.: Whose Culture Is This, Anyway? By Eric Miraglia, Dr. Richard law, Peg Collins (Washington State University) & [Mr. Craddock]
Part of the debate about culture revolves around issues of perspective and ownership. Within a nation such as the United States -- a nation whose cultural heritage includes elements from every corner of the world -- there are a great many perspectives coexisting and intertwining in the cultural fabric. [Our art often uses this fabric as a starting point, or point of inspiration.] When we [as writers] ask ourselves as individuals, "what belongs to me, to my culture?" we are rewarded with a spectacular variety of responses; in this way, different perspectives and ownership of different cultural traditions enriches everyone. But when we ask "what belongs to us, to our culture?" we ask a much harder question. Do the people of the United States, or of any culturally complex human society, necessarily share common cultural elements? If so, who gets to decide what those elements are?
This debate is a crucial one in many cultures throughout the world today. In the U.S., the debate promises to impact the way we educate our children [and each other] -- that is, the manner and shape in which culture reproduces itself -- and the way we write our laws. In other countries, equally crucial issues are at stake. For a sample of the issues and voices of this debate in the U.S., please [read] the three links below:
E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know
My father used to write business letters that alluded to Shakespeare. These allusions were effective for conveying complex messages to his associates, because, in his day, business people could make such allusions with every expectation of being understood. For instance, in my father's business, the timing of sales and purchases was all-important, and he would sometimes write or say to his colleagues, "There is a tide," without further elaboration. Those four words carried not only a lot of complex information, but also the persuasive force of a proverb. In addition to the basic practical meaning, "act now!" what came across was a lot of implicit reasons why immediate action was important. For some of my younger readers who may not recognize the allusion, the passage from Julius Caesar is:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
To say "There is a tide" is better than saying "Buy (or sell) now and you'll cover expenses for the whole year, but if you fail to act right away, you may regret it the rest of your life." That would be twenty-seven words instead of four, and while the bare message of the longer statement would be conveyed, the persuasive force wouldn't. Think of the demands of such a business communication. To persuade somebody that your recommendation is wise and well-founded, you have to give lots of reasons and cite known examples and authorities. My father accomplished that and more in four words, which made quoting Shakespeare as effective as any efficiency consultant could wish. The moral of this tale is not that reading Shakespeare will help one rise in the business world. My point is a broader one. The fact that middle-level executives no longer share literate background knowledge is a chief cause of their inability to communicate effectively.
Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens"
What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers' time? In our great-grandmothers' day? It is a question with an answer cruel enough to stop the blood. Did you have a genius of a great-great-grandmother who died under some ignorant and depraved white overseer's lash? Or was she required to bake biscuits for a lazy backwater tramp, when she cried out in her soul to paint watercolors of sunsets, or the rain falling on the green and peaceful pasturelands? or was her body broken and forced to bear children (who were more often than not sold away from her)--eight, ten, fifteen, twenty children--when her one joy was the thought of modeling heroic figures of rebellion, in stone or clay? How was the creativity of the black woman kept alive, year after year and century after century, when for most of the years black people have been in America, it was a punishable crime for a black person to read or write? And the freedom to paint, to sculpt, to expand the mind with action did not exist. Consider, if you can bear to imagine it, what might have been the result if singing, too, had been forbidden by law. Listen to the voices of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Aretha Franklin, among others, and imagine those voices muzzled for life. Then you may begin to comprehend the lives of our "crazy," "Sainted" mothers and grandmothers. The agony of the lives of women who might have been Poets, Novelists, Essayists, and Short-Story Writers (over a period of centuries), who died with their real gifts stifled within them.
Richard A. Shweder, Thinking Through Cultures
Consider the following four propositions. Each will seem plausible to some readers, yet taken together they are incompatible. One or more of them must be rejected, but which?
1. We, the members of our ethnic group, are rationally justified in our conception of things; for example, that when you are dead you are dead, that virtuous people can die young, that souls do not transmigrate, and that authors have a natural inalienable right to publish works critical of revealed truth.
2. They, the members of some other ethnic group, have a different conception of things; for example, that the spirits of your dead ancestors can enter your body and wreak havoc on your life, that widows are unlucky and should be shunned, that a neighbor's envy can make you sick, that souls transmigrate, that nature is a scene of retributive causation and you get the death you deserve, that a parody of scriptural revelation is blasphemous and blasphemers should be punished.
3. They, the members of that other ethnic group, are rationally justified in their conception of things.
4. If others are rationally justified in their conception of things and that conception is different than ours, then we cannot be rationally justified in our conception of things. Conversely, if we are rationally justified in our conception of things and that conception is different then theirs, then they cannot be rationally justified in their conception of things.
The four propositions are mutually incompatible. Accepting any three entails rejection of the fourth. Here one is presented with a fateful choice, for rejecting first one and then another of the four can resolve the inconsistency in a variety of ways.
After reading through these very brief quotes, ask yourself: What is your own position in this debate about what elements are a part of the national culture? Perhaps you agree with Hirsch and you feel that a greater body of shared cultural knowledge among all U.S. peoples would enhance communication and intercultural understanding. Perhaps you agree with Hirsch but wonder why his list has room for numerous scenes from Shakespeare's plays but no room for a famous corrido like "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez," or why there are three references to a famous slaveowner like Thomas Jefferson but no reference at all to a famous slave like Phillis Wheatley [is the tragedy of lost artists in the African American community, any worse than those of immigrant Jews whose families suffered the horrors of concentration camps or the slow eradication of Native Americans, or the silent voices of early gay and lesbian people living in an intolerant heterosexual society?] Are the traditional elements of the majority culture to be the common elements of the national culture? Perhaps you would go even further, agreeing with Alice Walker that to understand our cultural traditions, we need to look not only for what was recognized as genius in the past, but for the genius that was suppressed and had to assert itself in new, creative, and anonymous ways.
For many people, the “what is at stake” is the character of U.S. national identity. Hirsch argues that this identity needs to become less culturally fragmented; others, like Walker, argue that the national character gets its strength from cultural diversity, from the freedom (at home and in schools) to celebrate, honor, and reproduce different cultural traditions. Those who take this latter view follow the reasoning of Shweder, arguing that we need to accept that there are multiple valid cultural perspectives and that two such perspectives can both be valid even though they might contradict one another. For a fuller articulation of this argument, visit Engines for Education, an electronic publication, which argues forcefully that Hirsch's "cultural literacy" project threatens the effectiveness and integrity of the U.S. educational system.
Recognize that the position you take in this debate about culture -- whatever position you take -- is a political one with implications about what we should value, what we should praise, what we should accept, what we should teach. When you reflect [or act to create art or writing] on this debate, when you contribute your own voice to the discussion, try to be aware of the implications that follow from your position. When you listen to the voices of others, try to listen with awareness, deciding for yourself what is at stake and how their positions relate to your own.
Cultural Project Instructions:
1. Go to the following website:
http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_culture/culture-index.html
2. Read the following sections. As you read these sections, take notes about ideas for stories or subjects you might like to write about or explore more closely (and creatively):
a. read (and take notes) on “A Baseline Definition of Culture”
b. read (and take notes) on “Galleries of Student Hypertexts: Interpretations of Culture”; examine the gallery. Read a few of these as models. You will be asked to write something similar in the next few classes.
3. Make a list of your own ideas for a “gallery” of your own cultural interpretations. We will use this “gallery” list next class to begin a year-long dialogue about the importance of cultural and artistic voice in the creative act of writing.
Part of the debate about culture revolves around issues of perspective and ownership. Within a nation such as the United States -- a nation whose cultural heritage includes elements from every corner of the world -- there are a great many perspectives coexisting and intertwining in the cultural fabric. [Our art often uses this fabric as a starting point, or point of inspiration.] When we [as writers] ask ourselves as individuals, "what belongs to me, to my culture?" we are rewarded with a spectacular variety of responses; in this way, different perspectives and ownership of different cultural traditions enriches everyone. But when we ask "what belongs to us, to our culture?" we ask a much harder question. Do the people of the United States, or of any culturally complex human society, necessarily share common cultural elements? If so, who gets to decide what those elements are?
This debate is a crucial one in many cultures throughout the world today. In the U.S., the debate promises to impact the way we educate our children [and each other] -- that is, the manner and shape in which culture reproduces itself -- and the way we write our laws. In other countries, equally crucial issues are at stake. For a sample of the issues and voices of this debate in the U.S., please [read] the three links below:
E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs To Know
My father used to write business letters that alluded to Shakespeare. These allusions were effective for conveying complex messages to his associates, because, in his day, business people could make such allusions with every expectation of being understood. For instance, in my father's business, the timing of sales and purchases was all-important, and he would sometimes write or say to his colleagues, "There is a tide," without further elaboration. Those four words carried not only a lot of complex information, but also the persuasive force of a proverb. In addition to the basic practical meaning, "act now!" what came across was a lot of implicit reasons why immediate action was important. For some of my younger readers who may not recognize the allusion, the passage from Julius Caesar is:
There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
To say "There is a tide" is better than saying "Buy (or sell) now and you'll cover expenses for the whole year, but if you fail to act right away, you may regret it the rest of your life." That would be twenty-seven words instead of four, and while the bare message of the longer statement would be conveyed, the persuasive force wouldn't. Think of the demands of such a business communication. To persuade somebody that your recommendation is wise and well-founded, you have to give lots of reasons and cite known examples and authorities. My father accomplished that and more in four words, which made quoting Shakespeare as effective as any efficiency consultant could wish. The moral of this tale is not that reading Shakespeare will help one rise in the business world. My point is a broader one. The fact that middle-level executives no longer share literate background knowledge is a chief cause of their inability to communicate effectively.
Alice Walker, "In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens"
What did it mean for a black woman to be an artist in our grandmothers' time? In our great-grandmothers' day? It is a question with an answer cruel enough to stop the blood. Did you have a genius of a great-great-grandmother who died under some ignorant and depraved white overseer's lash? Or was she required to bake biscuits for a lazy backwater tramp, when she cried out in her soul to paint watercolors of sunsets, or the rain falling on the green and peaceful pasturelands? or was her body broken and forced to bear children (who were more often than not sold away from her)--eight, ten, fifteen, twenty children--when her one joy was the thought of modeling heroic figures of rebellion, in stone or clay? How was the creativity of the black woman kept alive, year after year and century after century, when for most of the years black people have been in America, it was a punishable crime for a black person to read or write? And the freedom to paint, to sculpt, to expand the mind with action did not exist. Consider, if you can bear to imagine it, what might have been the result if singing, too, had been forbidden by law. Listen to the voices of Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, and Aretha Franklin, among others, and imagine those voices muzzled for life. Then you may begin to comprehend the lives of our "crazy," "Sainted" mothers and grandmothers. The agony of the lives of women who might have been Poets, Novelists, Essayists, and Short-Story Writers (over a period of centuries), who died with their real gifts stifled within them.
Richard A. Shweder, Thinking Through Cultures
Consider the following four propositions. Each will seem plausible to some readers, yet taken together they are incompatible. One or more of them must be rejected, but which?
1. We, the members of our ethnic group, are rationally justified in our conception of things; for example, that when you are dead you are dead, that virtuous people can die young, that souls do not transmigrate, and that authors have a natural inalienable right to publish works critical of revealed truth.
2. They, the members of some other ethnic group, have a different conception of things; for example, that the spirits of your dead ancestors can enter your body and wreak havoc on your life, that widows are unlucky and should be shunned, that a neighbor's envy can make you sick, that souls transmigrate, that nature is a scene of retributive causation and you get the death you deserve, that a parody of scriptural revelation is blasphemous and blasphemers should be punished.
3. They, the members of that other ethnic group, are rationally justified in their conception of things.
4. If others are rationally justified in their conception of things and that conception is different than ours, then we cannot be rationally justified in our conception of things. Conversely, if we are rationally justified in our conception of things and that conception is different then theirs, then they cannot be rationally justified in their conception of things.
The four propositions are mutually incompatible. Accepting any three entails rejection of the fourth. Here one is presented with a fateful choice, for rejecting first one and then another of the four can resolve the inconsistency in a variety of ways.
After reading through these very brief quotes, ask yourself: What is your own position in this debate about what elements are a part of the national culture? Perhaps you agree with Hirsch and you feel that a greater body of shared cultural knowledge among all U.S. peoples would enhance communication and intercultural understanding. Perhaps you agree with Hirsch but wonder why his list has room for numerous scenes from Shakespeare's plays but no room for a famous corrido like "The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez," or why there are three references to a famous slaveowner like Thomas Jefferson but no reference at all to a famous slave like Phillis Wheatley [is the tragedy of lost artists in the African American community, any worse than those of immigrant Jews whose families suffered the horrors of concentration camps or the slow eradication of Native Americans, or the silent voices of early gay and lesbian people living in an intolerant heterosexual society?] Are the traditional elements of the majority culture to be the common elements of the national culture? Perhaps you would go even further, agreeing with Alice Walker that to understand our cultural traditions, we need to look not only for what was recognized as genius in the past, but for the genius that was suppressed and had to assert itself in new, creative, and anonymous ways.
For many people, the “what is at stake” is the character of U.S. national identity. Hirsch argues that this identity needs to become less culturally fragmented; others, like Walker, argue that the national character gets its strength from cultural diversity, from the freedom (at home and in schools) to celebrate, honor, and reproduce different cultural traditions. Those who take this latter view follow the reasoning of Shweder, arguing that we need to accept that there are multiple valid cultural perspectives and that two such perspectives can both be valid even though they might contradict one another. For a fuller articulation of this argument, visit Engines for Education, an electronic publication, which argues forcefully that Hirsch's "cultural literacy" project threatens the effectiveness and integrity of the U.S. educational system.
Recognize that the position you take in this debate about culture -- whatever position you take -- is a political one with implications about what we should value, what we should praise, what we should accept, what we should teach. When you reflect [or act to create art or writing] on this debate, when you contribute your own voice to the discussion, try to be aware of the implications that follow from your position. When you listen to the voices of others, try to listen with awareness, deciding for yourself what is at stake and how their positions relate to your own.
Cultural Project Instructions:
1. Go to the following website:
http://www.wsu.edu/gened/learn-modules/top_culture/culture-index.html
2. Read the following sections. As you read these sections, take notes about ideas for stories or subjects you might like to write about or explore more closely (and creatively):
a. read (and take notes) on “A Baseline Definition of Culture”
b. read (and take notes) on “Galleries of Student Hypertexts: Interpretations of Culture”; examine the gallery. Read a few of these as models. You will be asked to write something similar in the next few classes.
3. Make a list of your own ideas for a “gallery” of your own cultural interpretations. We will use this “gallery” list next class to begin a year-long dialogue about the importance of cultural and artistic voice in the creative act of writing.
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