Burn Your Textbook
Feb. 20th, 2020 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rynlingI'm having a lot of trouble with the cultural politics of my "Introduction to Japanese Culture" class.
On Tuesday I tried to give a nice and pleasant lecture on Zen Buddhism in the Muromachi period and ended up channeling the unquiet ghost of Karl Marx during a discussion of how the cultural production of the elite is glorified as a means of social and political control.
It's been really difficult for me not to do this. I feel the same way about Zen that I feel about eugenics, which is that we need to apply the same level of critical thinking to the concept of "restful meditation" that we do to the concept of "healthy babies," especially given that the ideological systems connected to these concepts were used to justify and facilitate two of the worst genocides of the twentieth century.
I'm going to try to do better in today's class, but I still feel weird about it, like, Hello children, let me sell you lies.
On Tuesday I tried to give a nice and pleasant lecture on Zen Buddhism in the Muromachi period and ended up channeling the unquiet ghost of Karl Marx during a discussion of how the cultural production of the elite is glorified as a means of social and political control.
It's been really difficult for me not to do this. I feel the same way about Zen that I feel about eugenics, which is that we need to apply the same level of critical thinking to the concept of "restful meditation" that we do to the concept of "healthy babies," especially given that the ideological systems connected to these concepts were used to justify and facilitate two of the worst genocides of the twentieth century.
I'm going to try to do better in today's class, but I still feel weird about it, like, Hello children, let me sell you lies.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-20 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-02 05:09 pm (UTC)I mean, I appreciate black robes and sandalwood and lovely temple gardens as much as the next bitch, but it's important to put aesthetic movements in an appropriate historical context... especially in a college classes?
It's like Art Deco - I love it, and I will probably never stop loving it, but it didn't come from nowhere, you know? And there's no reason not to talk about the context just because it isn't 100% European.
The point of scholarship is to document, contextualize, and analyze with as much objectivity as possible, but I feel like social media has put us in a weird moment where any discussion of "culture" has become politically fraught. So on one hand, I feel weird about bringing the concept of cultural capital into an introductory undergraduate class... but, on the other hand, it's super relevant in this particular case.
I don't have any sort of conclusion to offer, unfortunately, except to say that the struggle is real, and it's a relief to hear that someone else gets it.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-21 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-02-23 10:06 pm (UTC)I felt a little guilty for pushing an ideological agenda so forcefully, but these kids are all right.
no subject
Date: 2020-02-24 11:37 pm (UTC)