Week One Flashcards
culture
Culture, with a small “c,” is generally understood to be sedimented practice, that is, everyday activities, in addition to special rituals, that get codified as defining features of a particular group.
literature
Literature comes in many forms (e.g., poems, novels, graffiti, etc.) and genres (e.g., romance, epic, picaresque, comedy, testimonial, autobiography, etc.), and generally involves a depiction of reality that is deliberately shaped to create specific effects in the reader/audience.
Interdisciplinary Humanities
The interdisciplinary humanities involves eclectic approaches to exploring and understanding important questions and problems confronting society over time and place.
Scholars involved in the interdisciplinary humanities studies draw upon paradigms and practices across many fields, such as history, sociology, anthropology, the sciences, pop culture, area studies (e.g., Latin American Studies), ethnic studies (e.g., Black Studies, Latinx Studies), literature (incl. multilingual literature) & more
discourse
Discourse refers to a deliberate and broad network of statements that together undergird a specific claim or paradigm.
(for instance, when a US president states that the US has a right to intervene into a Latin American country that has elected a socialist government (e.g., such as in Cuba in 1959, Nicaragua in 1979, and Bolivia in the 1990s) to ”preserve democracy” and to “protect human rights,” the discourse being presented is predicated upon an interpretation of “democracy” as equivalent to capitalism, and all the hierarchies that this politico-economic system entails)
In other words, DISCOURSE involves an agenda, politics, and a set of values/norms–whether or not the purveyors of a particular discourse recognize it. Discourse is not simply “true” or “false”–rather, it is a claim presented in myriad ways involving cultural works, tropes, memes, talking points, and “common sense”; discourse oftentimes operates subliminally within a group.
signifying practices
Signifying practices, broadly construed, refer to “making meaning”. Utilizing the term “signifying practices” recognizes that a person’s effort to tell or represent something–in art, attitude, music, speech, or writing–is always imprinted, even defined, by their own presumptions and a priori (“common sense”) views. Thus, the thing being depicted oftentimes is a reflection of their own views, whether or not they realize it. In other words, the PERSONAL is always, on some level, POLITICAL.
We use this term to describe a person’s—and particularly an artist or political figure’s—way of making meaning through art or discourse. This helps us analyze the particulars of their discourse, so we can understand their various rhetorical appeals. This term is central to the practice of CRITICALLY DECONSTRUCTING the ideas and references present within piece of art or public discourse, and has valuable applications in everyday life.
trope (also: “troping” (as a verb))
A trope is a complex symbol in a literary or cultural work, or in general discourse, that becomes increasingly embedded with meaning over time, and is able to accommodate multiple cultural meanings at once. Identifying tropes is a pillar of literary and cultural analysis.
You might think of a TROPE as a concept with a string of associations/generalizations, assumptions, norms, or even stereotypes attached. Iterative meanings of a trope can also challenge preceding ones over time. For example, the term “queer” to describe homosexual people was once considered a slur, but has since–for the queer community–been reclaimed as empowering and expansive concept that includes non-normative gender expression, sexuality, and even certain types of political consciousness.
When TROPES are used effectively by an artist, it enables to see a fuller range of possibilities. For instance, a symbol that is presented as “dark”, with negative connotations in the beginning of a poem (e.g., a dark brown-skinned person from the Americas, in a colonial context), might subsequently be revealed to be far more complex than a simple description, precisely because of the double (or mestiza) consciousness that involves bicultural knowledges (see Anzaldua). Moreover, a poem’s depiction of “darkness” also be embedded with power and strength (e.g., a marker of the indomitable will to survive, despite colonialist horrors), while nevertheless still remaining contextualized with the histories of violence. Tropes are syntheses of many ideas, and evolve over time
aesthetics
“Aesthetics” refers to the model of beauty, or the artistry, of literary, theatrical, and cinematographic works. That is, aesthetics denotes how something is thought of as “beautiful” (or not) within a particular context, for a variety of reasons. Consideration of aesthetics includes considering the use of specific TROPES that have pre-existing meaning and value in a given time and place (e.g., frequently, Western depictions of heroes wear light colors, while villains wear black), or DISCOURSE (e.g., the idea of the (male) warrior hero’s’ self-sacrifice in war as noble and patriotic). We seek to identify how the artist’s aesthetics are SIGNIFYING PRACTICES that create meaning, via particular formal features of their art
poetics
“Poetics” refers to the political resonances of an artist’s AESTHETICS. That is, it refers to how the art is creating or engaging with DISCOURSE. After cataloguing/ assessing a particular features of an artist’s aesthetics, we get a better sense of the broader ideas at play
subjectivity
“Subjectivity” signifies the ways that we as individuals must situate ourselves in relations to power—how we are “subjected” to/by the forces of economics, law, societal convention, history, the physical world, etc. Subjectivity is part of the process that “naturalizes” these relations and our place within them. As conditions change, so does one’s subjectivity.
In this course, “subjectivity” is preferred over “identity,” as it signals the fact that this is a social construct.
identity
“Identity”is the product of psychological and cultural processes by which we–more or less freely–construct and express our own sense of self. This term frequently involves essentialist—or oversimplified—views of what culture is or is not. The term “identity,” in popular use, sometimes implies static or “unchanging” model of what it a given identity category is “supposed” to do, look like, enjoy, etc.
imperialism
“Imperialism” historically refers to ancient and early modern empires conquering and incorporating other societies. The new territories and their people generally were incorporated into the polis (albeit often with various limitations). For example: the Roman Empire.
Importantly, any empire cannot function without the complicity of the newly conquered elite classes
colonialism (classical, internal, settler)
“Classical Colonialism” usually refers to the processes by which a militarily stronger nation occupies another, and establishes a tribute system, often involving apartheid practices.
“Internal Colonialism” usually refers to the processes by which the colonized native elite class is complicit with the colonial domination of their once-independent nation or society.
“Settler Colonialism” usually involves a colonial process in which the occupying society establishes multiple generations within the colonized homeland, creating their own, alternative history of the newly conquered place in the process that enables them to claim “native” status
contact zones
A “contact zone” is the place where two (or more) societies collide to create new negotiations of power, which usually result in multiple TRANSCULTURATIONS, or mutual transformations that borrow from each other. These spaces exist in broader political contexts (e.g., warfare, colonialism, etc.), as well as interpersonal interactions (such as international trading ports). However, “contact zones” remain tense, either overtly or subtly, as power relations usually remain unequal.
Literary depictions of contact zones, whose power relations are often unnoticed or naturalized within everyday life, give us an opportunity to analyze, better understand, and even critique these relations
transculturation
“Transculturation” refers to the complex processes through which newly-constructed cultures and subjectivities, often within CONTACT ZONES, are created out of the clash of different people and societies. These clashes are often violent (e.g., colonial encounters). These often result in disproportionate power relations, but the disruptions caused by the new fusions have the potential to create new hybrid subjects and power relations. “Transculturation” recognizes the two-way and, indeed, multi-directional flow of acculturation.
hybridity
A general term that alludes to the practice of balancing two or more cultural parts in a new whole. (Ex: a punk rocker and also a Tejano polka dance aficionado, who balances/blends these both). “Hybridity” subtly alludes to opposing parts, even as it suggests seamless syncresis. In this course, “hybridity” or “syncresis” refer to the process of fusing and reassembling components, such as different cultural heritages that coexist in one person, creating a new whole.
