American Pragmatism and Confucianism: A Dialog Between Culture |
Roger T. Ames |
Jeffrey Carroll |
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Jeffrey Carroll |
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James A. Dator |
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Hawaii Literature & American Literature: Points of Contact and the Gaps Between |
Craig Howes |
John Rieder |
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The American National Memorial Landscape: Conflicts, Controversies, and the American Self |
Kimberly Schauman |
Susan M. Schultz |
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American Pragmatism and Confucianism: A Dialog
Between Culture There is a set of complementary and interpenetrating conditions that has set the stage for a conversation between a newly revised Deweyan pragmatism and a Confucianism that is returning to prominence with a growing Chinese self-esteem and pride in its traditions. Prof. Ames has been revisiting the traditions of American philosophy through productive resonances he has found between traditional Confucian sensibilities and indigenous American philosophy. These resonances provide us with a language that we can appeal to in introducing Confucian philosophy to the Western academy, and also, in the spirit of Kipling’s mantra: “What knows he of England whom only England knows,” with an external perspective from which to examine the presuppositions of our own worldview and commonsense. Given the often delicate and sometimes underproductive history of the relationship between America and China, Dr. Ames will argue that American pragmatism might serve as a vocabulary to promote a positive dialogue between these cultures at a moment in history when such a conversation is imperative. |
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Landmark American Novels of the 1920s This decade in American history is perhaps the richest of all in producing lasting, universally praised novels of the American Experience. We will examine at least four of these by perhaps our four greatest novelists of the period: Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926), F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby (1925), Willa Cather's The Professor's House (1925), and William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury (1929). We will discuss how this period and its novels are instrumental in understanding American culture, values, and place in the world. |
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William Faulkner and His Novels Generally considered now to be America's greatest novelist of the 20th Century, William Faulkner (1897-1962) is a fascinating study in contrasts: poet and novelist, small town gent and world traveler, idolized abroad but little known at home for such classic novels as The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August, The Hamlet, and Intruder in the Dust. We will review his major works and discuss how his achievements in subject, style and structure revolutionized the art of the novel. |
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Alternative Visions of America’s Future Throughout most of her history, America’s citizens have
agreed upon the basic purpose and direction of
American society. The goal was to modernize, industrialize, develop and progress. Certainly, there have
always been persons who disagreed with these goals,
but it is fair to say that until recently, Americans had a
shared sense of social purpose. Now that sense is
shattered, and a number of alternative visions of
America’s future are jostling for primacy. We will
consider the reasons for the loss of single-purpose; the
bases of the alternatives; and certain aspects of the
emerging discipline of future studies which tries, among
other things, to assess the likelihood and consequences
of America’s alternative futures. |
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Hawaii Literature & American Literature: Points of
Contact and the Gaps Between Hawaii's distinct history has had a profound effect on its
literary production. A long tradition of Hawaiian literature was deeply affected by the introduction from
America of literacy education, and then by successive
waves of Asian settler and Amero-European settler
immigration, continuing up to today. The result is a
remarkably diverse range of literature, in multiple
languages, and from very different cultural perspectives.
This seminar will draw on examples from the past
hundred years to discuss the question of how successfully or usefully the term "American Literature" applies
to the writings of Hawaii. |
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Twentieth Century American Science Fiction This talk will present a survey of the history of American science fiction in twentieth century print and film media, emphasizing the wide variety of its forms, the vicissitudes of its reception history, and the emergence of science fiction studies as an academic field in the last decades of the twentieth century. |
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The American National Memorial Landscape:
Conflicts, Controversies, and the American Self In his book Making Majorities, Dru Gladney writes, "The
composition of the nation . . . . is not a natural process
but is achieved, promoted, and represented through
political and cultural means." Commemorative projects--monuments and memorials, for example--are such
means. Most scholars agree that such commemorative
projects have been utilized to shape memory and promote particular historical narratives in order to effect
social change, usually by the state. But what happens
when a monument or memorial is commissioned by
non-state actors, or when a state-sponsored commemorative project challenges the traditional historical narrative that the majority of the public has adopted as true?
This presentation will trace the history of the American
national memorial landscape, with a specific focus on
the relationship between conflicts in United States history and controversial monuments. |
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American Documentary Poetry Documentary poetry offers the strengths of several genres, including historical and critical writing, journalism,
detective work, letter writing and poetry, and is thus
well suited for looking at intersections of the personal
and political. We will look at several instances of the
genre from the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the
texts used will be William Carlos Williams' Paterson
(Book 1), Muriel Rukeyser's The Book of the Dead, Mark
Nowak's Shut Up Shut Down, Eleni Sikelianos's The
Book of Jon, Susan M. Schultz' s Dementia Blog, and
Kaia Sand's Remember to Wave (forthcoming). |
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