The archive that was built in regards to Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan includes “Intertextual Twins and their Relations ,” by Catherine Rainwater. She grapples with twins in the aboriginal sense and how they were considered a “balanced pair” (Hogan 93). Ruth and Moses Graycloud were described as two parts of one being. They felt each other’s joy and pain. This twin metaphor could refer to the battle between two worlds. The one where emotions are contained and the one where emotions are lived. The world between living and existence.

Twins played an important role in Linda Hogan’s novel Mean Spirit. They allow the audience to see both sides of the same situation.

In regards to the documtnary 13th, by Ava Duvernay, the theme of  power drives the narrative on the 13th Amendement. Those who hold the power make the rules, as mentioned in The System, “patriarchy is a way of organizing social life through which such wounding, failure, and mistreatment are bound to occur” (Johnson 36). The system doesn’t break but evolves to benefit itself, it reforms. He describes the stages of mistreatment by minorities in America, from slavery to the Jim Crow Era to the systematic imprisionment of minorities, Duvernay sytematically displays the oppresion through imprisionment of those that can’t afford to escape the flawed social/justice system. The director makes indesputible points through experts and research, she engages the audience to imagine beyond their experience and to recognize those affected by racial violence. After watching this film and completing the readings, I wonder about those that are mixed race since they are not represented in the power struggle represented in the documentary. At what point do you identify with one race/culture over another? As mentioned in The System, “patriarchy is more than how people think, feel, and behave (Johnson 36). This oppresion is not tied to minorities specifically but is also apparent in gender disparities.

Power is the driving force of systematic oppresion in America from slavery to the prison inductrial complex.

The myth of American Exceptinalism is prevalent in the writing by John O’ Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity.” O’Sullivan states “it is so destined, because the principle upon which a nation is organized fixes its destiny”  because our nation was new and being explored,the optimism and hope permiated our area, the U.S. was thought of the land of endless opportunity. Many of the myths explored by Stephen Walt are expressed in the essay by John O’ Sullivan. O’Sullivan belived in manifest destiny, which was the right as Americans to settle in lands in the pioneer American West,. The five myths expressed by Stephen Walt in “The Myths of American Exceptionalism” are realised in the Manifest Destiny by John O’ Sullivan. O’Sulllivan wants to excuse all faults from previous allegiances. He declares a brand new unaffiliated nation which allows civilians to renounce their former cultures and faults. One of the myths expressed in “The Myth of American Exceptionalism” by Stephen Walt is the U.S taking responsiblityfor most of the good in the world ( Walt 5). O’Sullivan states, the expansive future is our arena, and for our history” (Sullivan 1). The idea is that the U.S. is unique and more considerate than other nations.

Myths as in relation to American Studies and American Exceptionalism reveal the beliefs that are unsubstaintiatedthat the American experience is superior to that of other nations.

In regard to American Studies, the word interdisplinary, as an instituitional structure, is the idea of looking at events or ideas from multiple perspectives, or “disciplines,” such as history, philosophy or sociology (Deloria 17). As academia changes and adopts new “disciplines” it is difficult to differientiate the relevant from the irrelevant.  “The anthrolopoligist Clifford Geertz put it, to transgress boundaries between disciplines,” (Deloria 19), he wanted to explore more than one point of view, put these toghter and have a more sound perspective. By refusing to adhere to one specific path academics crossed these paths to create new courses of study. To explore the meaning of interdisciplinary I am going to use a simple item, garlic. Garlic can be viewed as an ingredient in recipes, a way to ward of vampires in folk lore or a cause of bad breath. Depending on your view you might view something as simple as garlic as any of these one things but by using interdisciplary studies you may ask why is it a main ingredient in certain parts of the world more than others, why it became a part of folk lore or the reasons for it causing bad breath and finally what links do these questions share.

Interdisciplinary means looking at something with the education, view, and knowledge of a specific background and adding other points of view together to create a broader understanding.

 

 

Gene Wise outlines in his article, the evolution of our pursuit to understand the American culture from more than one academic discipline, the birth and history of American Studies.

 

In his pursiut to capture the history of American Studies, Gene Wise states that, “we should try to understand our own movement as we would any other experience in America-that is, critically, in cultural and institutional context” (Wise 167). In studying this field, Wise suggests we see changes as ‘paradigm dramas’  so we can study movements or shifts in America from more than one perspective. It was thought that people were only studying what was happening but not fully understanding why they happened and the repercussions. We have different periods of scholarship the 1930’s-1950’s “functioned to make the American past intellectually ‘usable'” (Wise 179) based on asssumptions that the ‘American Mind’ had a unique sense of self based on their past experiences. So American Studies began organically through integrated studies of historical events by examining underlying forces and revolting against academic formalism (Wise).

 

 

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton