Contemporary Visions of the Self, Character, & Tradition

Paul Benzon, Fall 2002

Assignment #4: The Relationship Between Culture and the Character of the Individual

In your last assignment, I asked you to apply Malcolm Gladwell's idea of "the power of context" to the situation of political representation that Lani Guinier critiques, and to assess the moral implications of the transformations you suggested. While Gladwell suggests that seemingly small factors in our immediate environment can cause large changes in human social behavior, in "Selections from Dreaming Me: An African-American Woman's Spiritual Journey," Jan Willis discusses her experience as an individual as a result of a choice between the conflicting cultures of Tibetan Buddhism and Black Panther politics. For your next paper, I would like you to use Gladwell and Willis' essays to explore how we as humans interact with our surroundings on the level of culture.

What is the relationship between culture and the character of the individual? To what extent do cultural surroundings shape who we are through contextual influence? How do our seemingly primary cultural identities affect how we act as individuals when we enter another culture?

Some questions to consider as you begin thinking about your paper: While both Gladwell and Willis discuss changes within individuals as the result of changes in their environments, they seem to do so on different levels. Are these levels indeed different, and if so, what are the implications of that difference for individual character? Or, if you see them as the same, what does that suggest about the relation between culture and character in the contemporary world? How does each author complicate the relationship between cultural surroundings and character that he or she puts forth, and how might each author's position complicate, confirm, or contradict the other's? What might Gladwell's emphasis on "the little things" and Willis' examination of cultural difference have to say to one another, and what conclusions might you draw from this?

If you feel it would help strengthen or develop your project in this paper, you may make reference to de Waal and/or Guinier, although you are not required to do so.

Assignment #5: The Contemporary Media and the Implications for Selfhood

In your last assignment, I asked you to use Malcolm Gladwell's "The Power of Context: Bernie Goetz and the Rise and Fall of New York City Crime" and Jan Willis' "Selections from Dreaming Me: An African-American Woman's Spiritual Journey" to make an argument about the relationship between culture and the character of the individual. For your next paper I want you to take a closer look at this dynamic through the role that media plays in the contemporary world.

While Willis discusses her experience as an individual as a result of a choice between two conflicting cultures, in his essay "Thinking 'Above the Stream': New Philosophies," Mitchell Stephens assesses the ways in which the rise of visual media within our culture might be interacting with and changing how we think and communicate. What implications do contemporary media have for selfhood, and how might we respond to these implications?

Some questions to consider as you begin thinking about your paper: Is the change from a culture of the written word to a culture of the image that Stephens describes an indication of the transformation of the self or a cause of this transformation, or does it play some other role entirely? What does this process tell you in turn about the relation between media, culture, and selfhood on the whole? In her narrative, Willis travels from what we might call a "media-rich" culture to one with virtually no media at all. How do the changes she undergoes-or doesn't undergo-compare to the effects Stephens attributes to emergent visual media, and what might those two things suggest? How do "new video" and ancient religion each function within their respective cultures, and what is the relation between these functions? What conclusions can you draw from the visions of selfhood that each author presents?

For this essay, you are required to use at least three connections between Willis and Stephens to explore your position. If you feel it would help strengthen or develop your project, you may also discuss any of the authors we have previously discussed, although you are not required to do so.

Assignment #6: The Role of Tradition in the Contemporary World

In your last assignment, I asked you to use Jan Willis' "Selections from Dreaming Me: An African-American Woman's Spiritual Journey" and Mitchell Stephens' "Thinking 'Above the Stream': New Philosophies" to explore the relations and the potentials for action between media and selfhood. In his essay "The Ganges' Next Life," Alexander Stille explores Veer Bhadra Mishra's "complex double identity" (598) as both a manhant and an engineer, and the relationship of this identity to Mishra's attempt to save the Ganges River-a holy space of ancient Indian culture-through modern Western science.

What role should we assign to tradition in the contemporary world? Are traditional ways of thinking and living ultimately obsolete in the twenty-first century? If so, what does humanity lose in this transition, and what does it gain? How can we prepare ourselves for this change? If it is possible to sustain tradition within the contemporary world, is this always a desirable action, or are there losses involved as well? How might we achieve such a fusion most effectively? Can tradition provide a useful solution to the problems that the contemporary world poses? Is the relation between tradition and modernity different for cultures and individuals, or for different cultures? Should it be? Who should be given the power to make these decisions, and why?

For this paper, you are required to closely analyze relevant material from Stephens, Willis, and Stille at least three times each to explore your position-do not merely use their language to narrate your discussion. Your goal is to develop an independent project that is both engaged with and responsible to the perspectives and theories the authors present, but does not merely paraphrase their ideas or adopt them as your own, and to then explore that project through analysis of their perspectives and theories. In doing so, your paper should think creatively, connectively, and multiply.

If you feel it would help strengthen or develop your project, you may also discuss any of the others authors we have previously discussed, although you are not required to do so.