The United States has always been a source of fascination, both attraction and repulsion for African nationals, the Chinese, French, Mexicans and Russians. America Through Foreign Eyes is a course about the United States and Americans, but also about multiple African nations, China, France, Mexico, and Russia. Here at Rice University, we know that Africa is not a country like those that the other modules examined in this course. But because of the diversity and the enormity of the African continent, we believe that Africa is a key region of the world that deserves inclusion in this course, and we want to give you a sample of the distinct sentiments about the US found in different African countries such as Malawi, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya. The course features five modules, each covering the perceptions and interactions of a particular region with America, Americans, and Americanization. Each module is led by a different Rice University faculty member. We are multilingual specialists in a variety of disciplines and area studies with wide ranging expertise that crosses the globe. Professor Jeffrey Fleisher will present America Through African Eyes. Professor Anne Chao will present America Through Chinese Eyes. Professor Moramay Lopez-Alonso will present America Through Mexican Eyes. Professor Lida Oukaderova will present America Through Russian Eyes. My name is Julie Fette. I will present America Through French Eyes. I will also be your course guide, providing introductory lectures on cross-cultural study and leading our team in the discussion forum to guide you, our students as you respond to the material and draw comparisons among the regions we study. The Course addresses four overarching themes about the United States; democracy and modernity, globalization and capitalism, racism and immigration, and intellectual and cultural life. Our approach will be interdisciplinary. We will draw from the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, literature, philosophy, cinema studies, history, art history, archaeology, and economics. So you could think of this course as a cross between world cultures and American studies. We can use the metaphor of the double mirror to understand why certain African nationals, Chinese, French, Mexicans, and Russians focus their attention on certain topics about America at certain time periods. Anytime any scholar or traveler utters a word about the US, we can flip the mirror to ask, where is this idea coming from? What does this particular observation say about America? Yes, but what does it also say about for example Russian concerns, hopes, worries? The double mirror goes both ways. If I think that the French don't bathe often enough, maybe it's because I'm the one who is fastidious and obsessed with cleanliness. It's like a Freudian projection. Here's another collective example to illustrate the metaphor of the double mirror in cross-cultural study. If it is common for the French to critique America for its inequality between rich and poor, one must be careful not to jump to conclude that the French are anti-capitalists or that the French are lazy or that they prefer government handouts. Instead we should wonder if perhaps the French have created for themselves and thereby offered to the US, an alternative model of organizing an economy and an alternative society that's less consumerist, less profit-oriented, and less tolerant of social inequities than America's current ethos. Even though this French model is still very much grounded in a free market and global economy. By looking at both sides of the mirror, we will learn both about the US and about the social, political, and cultural roots of the other countries featured in this course. In the sixth module or week of the course, we'll reverse roles and switch the gaze back across the Atlantic or across the border or to the other half of the world. What have Americans said, thought, or perceived of African nations or of Africa as a continent, of China, France, Mexico, or Russia? For many foreign observers, America is spoken about in mythical terms. America is often represented as an exaggerated symbol rather than a complex reality. The definition of a myth is a widely held but false belief or idea. Americans embrace myths about themselves too. The myth of the US as a melting pot of cultures and nationalities is one that our culture tends to idealize about ourselves. Indeed one of the themes of the course is racism and immigration. We will analyze how integration impacts both immigrants and the host country, and their mutual perceptions. Myths can be positive or negative, but they are rarely true because they result from essentializing. The term America or Amerique in French or Meiguo in Chinese is charged with meaning. In its South America is a mythical label. I don't like it for this reason. I prefer to use the United States. But we chose America as the title of our course precisely because we want to pierce the mythical views of the United States and its citizens, and to find out what's behind that. By the way, we use America in this course to mean the United States, and we are well aware that we're not including other countries of South and North America. America is mythic. It can represent enormous abstract concepts to outsiders: degeneration, democracy, modernity, speed, industrialization, racism, multiculturalism, imperialism, civilization, anti-civilization.
