Can Pleasure Be Serious? Appropriately Opening on April
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
International Accents International Programs | www.uiowa.edu/~intl | spring/summer 2004 | vol. 4, no.2 conference draws scholars from around the world to indulge in intellectual dialogue SERIOUS Can pleasure be serious? by teresaleasures mangum, ui associate professor in english Appropriately opening on April PCan pleasure be serious? In recent years, my students in Victorian Fool’s Day, the annual literature and culture courses have proven again and again that the resounding answer is yes. To enrich our understanding of novels such as Interdisciplinary Nineteenth- Charles Dickens’ “Bleak House” or Rudyard Kipling’s “Kim,” students dive into The University of Iowa’s outstanding collection of 19th-century Century Studies Conference, which magazines in search of Victorian views of childhood, pets, abandonment, adoption, marriage customs and fashions, street performers, missionaries, focused this year on the topic Buddhism, and colonialism. Carefully turning these crumbling pages, they discover letters of travelers to Africa and India - important locations “Serious Pleasures,” demonstrated for these novels - advertisements for tropical medicines, satiric cartoons again and again that pleasures offer of the authors and their views, reviews of abbreviated and often propagandist theatrical versions of the novels, and witty as well as poignant rich insights into the hopes, fears, comments from Victorians themselves about their reading pleasure. Drawing upon materials that we sometimes too easily dismiss as anxieties, and desires of a culture. “entertainment” or popular culture, students fashion what anthropologists would call “thick description” of the cultural context that gave rise to artifacts like novels which we tend to study in isolation. We enhance our study of the 19th century as students strive to comprehend the past through its denizens’ pleasures. At the same time, students heighten their own pleasure in studying literature by tracing the endless unfolding of popular contexts in which the novels were situated. My own study of Victorian attitudes toward aging and old age dramatically matured, shall we say, when I looked beyond predictable contexts for investigating aging, such as medical and religious literature. Like my students, I found that activities, texts, and images denigrated as foolish pleasures rather than staid scholarship often eloquently expressed feelings about aging. Cartoons, stage stereotypes, the sudden explosion of aging animal “autobiographies,” such as Black Beauty, the plans for Queen Victoria’s two coronation festivities, fashion advice to aging men and women, and characters designed more to entertain than edify, such as Bram Stoker’s undying Dracula or the age-resistant hero of Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” vividly illustrated Victorian fears of supporting an aging population, concerns about their own encroaching late life, yet also the longing to age with dignity and the respect of the community. Given my and my students’ serious desire to gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the past, I was especially grateful to bring a group of scholars to The University of Iowa who share our preoccupation with the seriousness of pleasure. Appropriately opening on April Fool’s Day, the annual Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Conference (INCS) focused this year on the topic “Serious Pleasures.” Performers and panelists repeatedly demonstrated the lessons my students have taken to heart: pleasures offer rich insights into the hopes, fears, anxieties, and figure 1 > (Above) Signora Josephine Giradelli, “The celebrated fireproof desires of a culture. By comparing how different cultures entertained female.” Engraving by C. Williams, Ca. 1818. Reproduced in Richard D. themselves in an international context, panelists also showed how national Altick. “The Shows of London,” Harvard University Press, 1978. identities—and anxieties—are revealed through leisurely pursuits. SERIOUS PLEASURES: continued on page 10 PA INTING Innovative grant builds BETWEEN understanding between THE international community, LANES local law enforcement by mansi bhatia figure 1 > (Above) UI international student Kenny Tan, 18, of Klang, Malaysia with UI police officer Sarah Weil during a ride-along Sunday, November 23, 2003. Photo courtesy of Michael Stenerson/The Gazette. >> Imagine the following hypothetical scenario . A University of Iowa international “I think the police officers also student was pulled over by a police officer one night. As the 30-year-old student began to got to know some of our cultures, step out of her car, the officer yelled, “Freeze!” The student kept moving, not understanding “what” she was supposed to freeze. For her it was a sign of respect to step out of the car, but our pride in our joint family ties, for the officer it was an act of defiance. The officer, finally realizing that she was unfamiliar the level of intellect in a non- with the rules, motioned for her to stand still, and she complied. Although this is a fictional scenario, it could become a very real situation in Johnson County – home to English speaking international more than 2,500 international students and scholars who attend The University of Iowa. “ crowd. They have had very little Misunderstandings arise out of miscommunication, or in not having the opportunity to have experiences with individuals from other cultures,” says Claire Cardwell, an international- international exposure, and I am student adviser with the UI Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS). Cardwell has glad to have taken this ride to ward spearheaded a program called “Painting the Lanes for a Better Understanding: Between the International Community in the Johnson County Area and Local Law Enforcement.” off some of their misconceptions This program came to fruition when Cardwell, in collaboration with Johnson County or lack of knowledge.” law enforcement agencies, received a $10,000 grant from NAFSA: Association of International Educators to provide information about American laws to international – Rina Chaudhary, UI humanities student, India students. The grant is matched with $30,000 from UI International Programs. The program that started in June 2003 is providing an opportunity for the international community and local law enforcement agencies to have positive interactions. “Most of the time these two groups come in contact with one another is when there is an arrest or in writing a ticket,” said Cardwell. “The grant provides an opportunity for the international community and law enforcement officials from Coralville, Iowa City and UI Police Departments and the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office to have a better understanding of what causes each group to react or behave in a certain manner.” Iowa City Police Chief R. J. Winkelhake believes that this is a good start. “Any kind of interactions with international students will prove to be beneficial,” says Winkelhake. “What an officer perceives as a dangerous situation, the student sees as a courtesy. These are things that can only be learned in one-to-one interactions.” The grant has the following four main components: informational brochures in multiple languages; a Web site providing all the tools for advisors in universities across the country to start similar programs; education workshops; and interactive outreach events and activities. The year-long program consists of a series of activities and events including child-safety seat fittings, jail tours, police ride-alongs and presentations by both international students and police 2 INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS spring/summer 2004 officers. Over 430 officers, community members and international students and scholars have attended these events and workshops. The grant will also fund a brochure that will later be put on the Web site and translated into 11 languages so that dependents of international students and scholars who do not know English, may also benefit from the program. “The brochure will address issues that law enforcement agencies have identified as problems concerning the international community,” said Cardwell. “These include: moving over when an emergency vehicle is approaching; not leaving your child in the car alone; the need for car seats; and arrests for domestic violence.” The idea to apply for the grant came from Cardwell’s experiences two years ago in Kosovo. Cardwell was living in Minnesota when war broke out in the Balkans in 1992, and she was asked by a friend to assist a Bosnian woman who had sought refuge in the U.S. While helping this woman and other refugees, Cardwell realized how confusing it was for people not raised in America to understand U.S. forms, regulations and administrative requirements. Their hardships inspired her to want to work in the region and in 1999, when an uneasy peace Foreign Student was brokered in Kosovo, Cardwell decided it was time for her to go. She worked on women’s issues with an organization called Balkan Sunflower for the first six months of her Sees Officer as stay and later joined the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Friend Not Foe After assisting U.N. police officers working on sexual assault and domestic violence cases in Kosovo, Cardwell came back to Iowa City and joined the Citizen’s Police Academy. The by Mansi Bhatia academy helps promote a better relationship between law enforcement and the Iowa City > How exciting do you think it would be to community and is sponsored jointly by the four area law enforcement agencies. Training ride in the back seat of a police car? Sitting includes department tours and ride-alongs, defensive tactics, evidence collection, drug in the highly uncomfortable plastic seat that investigation, and many other areas of enforcement and operations. had probably held hundreds of prisoners, with my feet on mats that had possibly been “Cultural differences exist everywhere, and I could see a huge gap here between the soiled with drunk college students’ vomit, I police and the international community, comprising not only international students, wasn’t too sure I wanted to go with Iowa City scholars and their families but also immigrants and other diverse populations like African- Police Officer David Droll on a local patrol.