BASQ/ANTH/FLL/PSC 220
BASQ 220 (Basque
Cultural Studies) 4-6:45 pm W -- PE 208 (Palmer Engineering)
http://basque.unr.edu/gabilondo/bascul.html
The
course will serve as an introduction to both Global and Basque Cultural
Studies, so that each location (global and Basque) gives a historically and
socially situated perspective vis-a-vis many issues such as gender,
postmodernism, otherness, postindustrial societies, etc. The goal of the course
is to explore how a minority culture such as Basque, a group excluded group
within Western culture evolves and changes as a result of globalization, while
at the same time exploring globalization from the point of view of a minority
culture. This course is also a general introduction to the courses being
offered at UNR’s Center for Basque Studies, which encompass economy, urban
planning, literature, political violence, architecture, museums, film, etc.
Course
Description
Basque culture has been a marginalized culture within Western culture. However, Basque culture has developed and grown as a result of globalization. Basques have now a postmodern culture.
Postmodernism has revalorized culture, which is a
major theoretical ingredient for the cultural studies’ focus on culture as an
industry. When Basque culture was a predominantly rural reality, an
anthropological notion of folk tradition and holistic systems of meaning was paramount;
now that the mass media and American popular culture are increasingly dominant
in Basque TV, cinema, art, and museums, the new conceptual tools of cultural
studies are most pertinent.
The course examines how Basques fare worldwide in the representations of the media, the arts, scholarship, international politics, and the Internet. From this Basque perspective the course also allows non-Basques a very concrete and specific perspective on global culture, so that the course avoids generalizations and simplifications on such a complex issue.
Here, “culture” is understood as a
set of lived practices and performances in constantly renegotiated and
contested sites of power. The course studies how tourist and museum industries,
urban regeneration and architecture, international pop and visual cultures
affect the Basques’ local politics of culture and how Basque culture affects
global culture (most clearly seen in the case of the "Basque
Guggenheim").
Finally, the course takes a “diasporic” viewpoint, that is, one anchored in the perspective of the migrant, the tourist, the international student or businessman, and cyberspacenaute. From this perspective, the Basque and global people are conceived as a heterogeneous and complex group that takes into account factors of class, ethnicity and gender in a process o validation and contestation.
50% of the grade will be derived from a 1- or 2-page (300-600 word) weekly response paper to be emailed to the professor (joseba@unr.edu) before the class. The other 50% of the grade will be based on two 10-page (3000-6000 words) papers due on weeks 8 (3-12-04) and 15 (5-10-04).
For further information and instructions on the weekly and midterm papers, check at the end of the syllabus.
Readings:
All
the articles are posted on Web CT. Some articles are contained in Basque Cultural Studies (optional). Mark
Kurlansky’s The Basque History of the World and Robert Laxalt’s novel Sweet
Promised Land are required for the course. All three books can be purchased
at the bookstore or the Center for Basque Studies. All the films and
complementary material will be available on reserve at the Basque Library
(Getchell Library, room #274).
To enter Web CT, use the last 6 digits of your
registration # as user name, and your SS # as password (unless you have already
a password).
Douglass, William, C. Urza,
L. White, and J. Zulaika. Basque Cultural
Studies. Reno: Nevada University Press, 2000.
Mark Kurlandsky. The
Basque History of the World. New York: Penguin, 1999.
Robert Laxalt. Sweet
Promised Land. Reno: Nevada University Press, 1997.
Office hours:
My office is located at the
Center for Basque Studies, Getchell Library, Room # 281. It is ok to visit,
call or email. In case of doubt whether to talk/write to the professor, always
do.
Hours: Tues and Thur
1:30-2-:30 PM or by appointment.
No weekly response paper on the first week.
Week 2:
1-28-04. Introducing the Basques from a World-Perspective
The Basques have always been exoticized as a
very unique people. Even Newsday hails Mark Kurlansky’s book as “a delectable
portrait of an uncanny, indomitable nation.” Does Kurlansy exoticize the
Basques or is his portrayal a worldly one?
Kurlansky, Mark. The Basque History of the World. 1-176.
Week 3:
2-4-04. Introducing the World from a Basque Perspective
With the guide of Kurlansky’s portrayal of
the Basques, can we see the world in a different perspective? How do Basques
view the world? What is a minority’s history of the world?
Kurlansky, Mark. The Basque History of the World. 177-351.
Week 4:
2-11-04. “Global Terrorists: Basques and the International Discourse of
Terrorism”
The international image of
the Basques is couched and recycled mostly in terms of the
international discourse of
terrorism. What is real and what fictional in such a discourse?
What are the rhetorics,
semantics, and pragmatics of terrorism? When and where was
such discourse created and
to deal with what cases? We will contrast journalistic,
political, literary,
anthropological, and terrorism expert approaches to the phenomenon of
Basque violence.
Aretxaga, Begoña. "A Hall of Mirrors: On the Spectral Character of Basque Violence." Douglass et al. Basque Politics. 115-26.
Zulaika, Joseba and
Douglass, William. “Writing Terrorism.” Terror and Taboo. 31-63.
Note: The professor will be
away on a lecture. The students have the option of attending a lecture that day
(checking attendance will suffice) or write a weekly paper on the readings.
Joseba Azkarraga, Basque
Minister of Justice. “Human Rights after 9-11.” 3:30 PM. Getchell Library.
Lower Level Instruction Room #3.
Week 5: 2-18-04. “Anthropology and the Reinvention of the
Basques: Global Science in Search of a Basque Race.”
During the last hundred and fifty years international linguistics, archeology and anthropology have played a critical role in reshaping a foundational discourse about the Basques. We will examine the scholarly and political contexts in which this modern remaking of an authentic Basque race and culture took place.
McClancy, Jeremy. “Biological Basques, Sociologically Speaking.” Chapman. Social and Biological Aspects of Ethnicity. 92-129.
Cavalli Sforza, L.L. “Technological Revolutions and Gene Geography.” Genes, Peoples, and Languages. 92-132.
Week 6: 2-25-04. “Bilbao and the
Global Capitalist System: The Raise and Fall of Basque Industry”
Since the Middle Ages the Basques were active in various commercial, military and colonialist adventures around the globe. But it was during the second half of the nineteenth century that their association with Great Britain (which at the height of her imperial power imported two-thirds of her iron ore from Bilbao) situated them at the center of global industrial capitalism. International capital was crucial to the region’s industrialization. By the same logic of capitalism, one hundred years later, at the turn of the twentieth century, a new wave of late globalization has shut down Basque heavy industry. This economic history underscores the symbiotic relationship between local and global capital.
Schorske, Carl. “The Idea of
the City in European Thought.” 409-24.
Glas, Eduardo. “The
Formation of Bilbao’s Modern Business Elite.” Bilbao’s Modern Business.
108-32.
Film:
Salto al vacío (will be screened in class).
Week
7: 3-3-04. “The Transnational Guggenheim Museum: From
New York to Las Vegas passing through Bilbao
Postindustrial
Bilbao has become world renown for having erected the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum,
universally proclaimed to be the emblematic building of the turn of the
twentieth century by Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry. This recent chapter in
Bilbao’s history provides a unique case to study the franchising and
internationalization of the museum as an institution, the ideological and
iconic functions of flagship architectural projects in renovating derelict
urban centers, the role of cultural industrial in promoting tourism and a new
economy, as well as the clashes and adaptations between local and global
cultures.
Zulaika, Joseba. “’Miracle
in Bilbao’: Basques in the Casino of Globalism.” Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies, 262-74.
Gabilondo, Joseba.
"Before Babel: Global Media, Ethnic Hybridity, and Enjoyment in Basque
Culture." RIEV 37-45 (only)
The
work of Chillida and Oteiza illustrates the extent to which world class
avant-garde sculptors can draw from the traditional culture’s quality space.
The ethnographic “premodern” Basque tradition was turned by then into a
powerful source of discourse and creativity. The interdependencies between
their “primitivism” and the dominant art fashions of the twentieth century will
be examined.
Zulaika, Joseba. “Oteiza’s
Return from the Future” Oteiza’s Selected Writings. 9-81
Selz, Peter “Chillida’s
Place in Twentieth-Century Sculpture: The Requisit of the Void” Chillida.
113-17.
Film: Chillida, Portrait
of an Artist. (will be shown in class)
First mid-term paper due on Friday (3-12-04, 5 PM by email and hard copy at my office mailbox).
Spring-break 3-13-04/3-21-04
In
the last few years, Spanish cinema has been successful in making films that
have debunked Hollywood blockbusters---after a Hollywood predominance of 50
years. The majority of filmmakers involving in this new revamping of Spanish
cinema and filmic identity are Basque and some of them have been recruited by
Hollywood (Spielberg, T. Cruise/Kidman). Most of these films do represent some
Basque characters. Thus, it is paramount to analyze why the act of watching a
Spanish ethnic minority helps to redefine Spanish identity to the point that
Spaniards prefer to watch these films over Hollywood blockbusters. At the same
time, these Spanish films do not have much repercussion in other parts of
Europe and the world; in this respect these films are not global at all.
Marti-Olivella, Jaume.
"Invisible Otherness: From Migrant
Subjects to the Subject of Immigration in Basque Cinema." Douglass et al. Basque
Cultural Studies. 205-26.
Gabilondo,
Joseba. “The Day of the Beast: Spanish Blockbusters, Neonationalism, Abject
Masculinity, and Global Repression.”
Film: De la Iglesia, Alex. El
día de la bestia. (must be seen before class. It is rather graphic, please
check with the professor if you have problems with graphic material).
Week 10: 3-31-04. New Women and the Absence of Feminism. A New
Perspective on the Difference/Equality Debate
Without a strong feminist
tradition, Basque women have gained since the end of the
dictatorship an
unprecedented public, political, and cultural presence. Yet very traditional
nationalist understandings
of femininity still clash with new positions and identities
acquired by women. The
tensions arising from this historical conflict give raise to very
interesting social and
cultural phenomena, such as women's clubs, women's parades, and
a new wave of literary
writing. Women's occupation of the public sphere poses interesting
questions and solutions that
can only be addressed from a third wave of feminism. At the
same time, masculinity,
feeling challenged, is being refashioned by hegemonic national
culture in ways that are
very problematic. The examination of these realities poses new
interesting understandings
of the discourse of difference, which seems to be prevalent in
Spain and the Basque
Country---unlike in the Anglo-Saxon world.
Kristeva, Julia. “What of
Tomorrow’s Nation?” (excerpt) Nations
without Nationalism. 15-36.
Bullen, Margaret.
"Gender and Identity in the Alardes of Two Basque Towns." Douglass et
al. Basque Cultural Studies. 149-77.
In
a typical blending of tradition and modernity, Basques are known for the
richness of their oral culture, while also having a long tradition of
calligraphers, secretaries, and clerics.
The development of science, history, philosophy, and critical
understanding requires writing. The
orality of language is permanent, but writing enlarges it and restructure
thought. In the world of electronic media there is a new stress in the oral but
without a return to the past. Such shifts in the sensoria between the oral,
aural and visualist worlds deeply affect and transform the types of culture we
are immersed in.
Garzia, Joxerra. “Historical
Antecedents” and “The Transformation of Bertsolaritza in the 20th
Century” Garzia et al. The Art of Bertsolaritza. 17-21, 21-29.
Alonso, Andoni and Iñaki
Arzoz. "Basque Identity on the Internet." Douglass et al. Basque
Cultural Studies. 295-312.
Week 12: 4-14-04. The Basque Diaspora and its Location
Against the nationalist understanding of the nation as the people of the homeland, the diaspora, which is statistically speaking the majority of Basques emerges, specially in the Americas, as the Basques that have to be rethought, listened to, and included. Furthermore, the diaspora might be the departure point to think Basques in globalization.
Novel: Laxalt, Robert. Sweet
Promised Land.
Douglass, William.
"Creating the New Diaspora." Douglass et al. Basque Politics. 208-28.
Week
13: 4-21-04. “Writing the Lack of
Identity: Literature, Nationalism and the Global Market”
Basque
literature has been till very recently at the center of the construction of
national identity, to the point that literature was the only realm in which a
national Basque Country existed as an imagined project. After a brief period in
the early twentieth century when Basque literature flourished under nationalist
ideology, the Franco dictatorship brought it to a full stop. However after the
end of the dictatorship, Basque literature, and more specifically his most
canonical writer, Bernardo Atxaga, have received national and global
recognition in such prominent places such as The New York Times Book Review or Le Monde. However, after this global recognition of a minority
writer and his tradition (similarly to what happened to Garcia Marquez or
Rushdie), Basque literature has not produced a great tradition and, instead,
other practices (TV, film) have taken its position in imagining a national
Basque Country. What is the future of
minority literatures in the new global cultural landscape?
J. Gabilondo “Bernardo
Atxaga’s Seduction: On the Symbolic Economy of Postcolonial and Postnational
Literatures in the Global Market” Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies.
106-33.
Atxaga, Bernardo. “An
Exposition of Canon Lizardi’s Letter,” “I, Jean Baptiste Hargous,” “How to
Plagiarise.” “The Torch,” Obabakoak. 34-48, 253-58, 259-72, 317-22.
The
Basque Country is the center of some of the most radical and innovative music
in Europe. Radical Basque groups such as Negu Gorriak have performed throughout
the entire European continent. Yet, one could claim that there is nothing less
Basque than punk or hip-hop. This musical blend, however, has created some of
the most recognizably Basque cultural culture. What are the politics of
appropriating global forms of music for local politics and culture?
Urla, Jacquie. “Basque
Language Revival and Popular Culture”. Douglass et al. Basque Cultural
Studies, 44-62.
---. "’We Are All
Malcolm X!’: Negu Gorriak, Hip-Hop, and the Basque Political Imaginary” Global
Noise. 171-93.
Music recordings: Negu
gorriak. Benito Lertxundi. Kepa Junkera (will be shown/played in class)
Second
mid-term paper due on Friday (5-10-04), 5 PM by email and hard copy at my
office mailbox.
Basic bibliography
Alonso, Andoni and Inaki
Arzoz. "Basque Identity on the Internet." Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies. 295-312.
Aretxaga, Begona. "A
Hall of Mirrors: On the Spectral Character of Basque Violence." Douglass
et al. Basque Politics. 115-26.
Bullen, Margaret.
"Gender and Identity in the Alardes of Two Basque Towns." Douglass et
al. Basque Cultural Studies. 149-77.
Castells, Manuel.
"Globalization, Identity, and the Basque Question." Douglass et al. Basque Politics. 22-33.
Cavalli Sforza, L.L. Genes, Peoples, and Languages. NY: North Point Press, 2000.
Douglass, William.
"Creating the New Diaspora." Douglass et al. Basque Politics. 208-28.
---. Urza, L. White, and J.
Zulaika, Basque Cultural Studies.
Reno: Nevada University Press, 2000.
---. C. Urza, L. White, and
J. Zulaika, Basque Politics and
Nationalism on the Eve of the Millenium. Reno: Nevada University Press,
2000.
Gabilondo, Joseba. “Bernardo
Atxaga’s Seduction: On the Symbolic Economy of Postcolonial and Postnational
Literatures in the Global Market” Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies. 106-33.
---. "State
Melancholia: Spanish Nationalism, Specularity and Performance. Notes on Antonio
Muñoz Molina." From Stateless
Nations to Postnational Spain / De naciones sin estado a la España postnacional.
Eds. Silvia Bermúdez, Antonio Cortijo Ocaña, and Timothy McGovern. Boulder,
Co.: Society of Spanish and Spanish-American Studies, 2002. 237-71.
---. “Uncanny Identity:
Gaze, Desire, and Violence in Basque Cinema.” Constructing Identity in Twentieth Century Spain: Theoretical Debates
and Cultural Practices. Ed. Jo Labanyi. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(forthcoming).
---. "Before Babel:
Global Media, Ethnic Hybridity, and Enjoyment in Basque Culture." Revista Internacional de Estudios Vascos
44.1 (1999): 7-49.
---. " Postnationalism,
Fundamentalism, and the Global Real: Historicizing Terror/ism and the New North
American/Global Ideology." Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 3.1
(2002): 57-86.
---. "From Maternal
Exile to Personal Utopia: Cultural Politics in Basque Women's Narrative." Ínsula
623 (1998): 32-36.
Glas, Eduardo. Bilbao’s
Modern Business Elite. Reno: Nevada University Press, 1997.
Marti-Olivella, Jaume.
"Invisible Otherness: From Migrant
Subjects to the Subject of Immigration in Basque Cinema." Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies. 205-26.
McClancy, Jeremy. “Biological Basques, Sociologically Speaking.” M. Chapman, ed. Social and Biological Aspects of Ethnicity. Oxford: OUP, 1993. 92-129.
Mitchell,
Tony, ed. Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan
University Press, 2001.
Ortega y Gasset, José. “The
Pride of the Basques.” Atlantic Monthly 207 (1961): 113-16.
Rubert de Ventos, Xavier.
"The Rationality of National Passions." Douglass et al. Basque Politics. 34-43.
Schorske, Carl. “The Idea of
the City in European Thought.” 409-24.
Seltz, Peter. Chillida.
NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1986.
Urla, Jacquie. “Outlaw
Language: Creating Alternative Public Spheres in Basque Free Radio.” Pragmatics, June 1995.
---. “Basque Language
Revival and Popular Culture”. Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies, 44-62.
---. "’We Are All
Malcolm X!’: Negu Gorriak, Hip-Hop, and the Basque Political Imaginary”
Michell. Global Noise.
Watson, Cameron.
"Imagining ETA." Douglass et al. Basque
Politics. 94-114.
Zabaleta, Inaki. "The
Basques in the International Press: Coverage by the New York Times
(1950-1996)." Douglass et al. Basque
Politics. 68-93.
Zulaika, Joseba. “’Miracle
in Bilbao’: Basques in the Casino of Globalism.” Douglass et al. Basque Cultural Studies, 262-74.
---. “Tough Beauty: Bilbao as Ruin, Architecture,
and Allegory”. J.R. Resina, ed. Iberian
Cities, Routledge, 2001, 1-17.
---. and Douglass, William. Terror and Taboo: The Follies, Fables and Faces of Terrorism. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Weekly
papers:
-
Develop
a single idea. Be as bold, opinionated, or adventurous as you want with
your idea. You can always take one of those ideas and develop them later on in
a more formal and academic fashion in the midterm paper.
-
Word
count: 300-600 words (this page has over 500 words).
-
Make
specific references to every and each article in the week. Quote them.
This is the best way to prove that you have read them and you know what to say.
-
You
don’t have to be formal in the quotational or referential system.
Midterm Papers:
-
Choose
one text/topic/nation/writer/topic and compare it with another one.
-
A
different topic. In this case the student must consult with the professor.
-
Word
count: 3000-6000 words
-
Cite
one or two bibliographical references of the first week of the course. This
will ensure that the paper is well situated within the parameters of the class
and you will correctly focus the topic of the paper.
-
The
paper must have a system of bibliographical references; it does not
matter which one as long as it is coherent and consistent throughout the paper
(footnotes, endnotes, bibliographical references in parenthesis…)
-
The
paper must have at least two new bibliographical/critical references/sources;
they have to be original (not used in class). The novel/film does not count as
a bibliographical source. The sources must be academic (journals, books…).
Newspaper articles or information from the web do not count as original sources
(although they can be used as additional/complementary sources).
-
You
have to cite and use the sources in the paper, not only list them as a
bibliographical entry. Do not translate quotes from the sources, leave them in
their original language.
-
The
paper must contain a single, original thesis that must be explained in
the introductory paragraph of the paper.
-
Factors
in consideration for grading the paper: originality of the topic, good
presentation and structure of the paper, the use of references to the works and
articles in the construction of the argument, grammar.
-
Length
of the paper must be 1500-2000 words of text, without including the
bibliography and the title. Count the word total and write it down at the end
of the paper so that the professor can see it clearly.
-
The
paper must not have any spelling errors and must be spell-checked. In case the
paper has spelling-problems that can be detected by a computer program (other
errors are OK), the paper will be automatically penalized a 15% and you will
have to spell-check the paper and turn it in again.
-
The
paper must have the name of the student, the number of the class, and the
title of the paper clearly stated on the front page. The pages must be
numbered and stapled.
-
The
paper must be turned in before the deadline (5 PM). Two copies 1- digital copy
by email (joseba@unr.edu or
zulaika@unr.edu). Plain text. Do not attach a file. Do not worry about the way
the text displays 2- hard copy (paper) in my mailbox (Gabilondo) at the Center
for Basque Studies, Getchell 281. Do not slip the paper under the door of the
office.