Keith Gandal

Learning about America through its literature

by Tom Parisi

Faculty members in the NIU Department of English are using a novel approach, quite literally, to help foreign scholars better understand American culture.

Eighteen professors from such countries or regions as Argentina, Cameroon, China, Gaza, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Syria, Thailand and Ukraine will visit NIU this summer for an intensive six-week Fulbright Institute devoted to the study of contemporary American literature.

The English Department and International Training Office will host the scholars from June 30 to Aug. 12. The program will include trips to Chicago, New York City and Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. All the while, the foreign professors will study a diverse sampling of contemporary American novels, from works on urban, suburban and rural life to the literature of the American West.

“We have a need to understand other cultures, and they need to understand ours as well, maybe now more than ever,” says English Professor Keith Gandal, director of the program. “The hope is to plant the seeds of cultural understanding through literature study. Just as we have stereotypes about other countries, they have stereotypes about us, and contemporary literature helps erase those labels.”

The U.S. State Department is providing $210,000 for the Fulbright American Studies Institute program titled, “Redefining American Spaces.” Professors from the NIU Department of English and numerous invited scholars from across the country will teach the institute sessions.

“Although the foreign participants are scholars of American literature, most aren’t as familiar with contemporary literature as you might expect,” Gandal says. “Modern works are not yet institutionalized, so they’re not frequently taught in other countries.”

NIU hosted a similar Fulbright Institute last summer. Because it was successful, the State Department increased funding by 15 percent for this year’s initiative. Foreign academics who visited campus last year returned to their countries with a new perspective of the United States that is being conveyed to their students, Gandal said.

The literature study at NIU, for example, inspired an Italian professor to teach her first literature course in English. Professors from Jordan and Nigeria are working to establish American studies programs at their universities. And many of the participants are teaching new American literature courses in their countries. Two of last year’s participants also are planning to return to DeKalb to enroll at NIU for further study.

“We’ve stayed in touch with last year’s participants,” Gandal says. “They felt that they learned a great deal in the academic sessions and at the same time had a tremendous experience of America, from rock-climbing in Colorado to listening to the blues at a Chicago nightclub.”

New to this year’s itinerary is the four-day tour of New York City. Academic sessions will be held there at City College of New York.

“NIU is ideal for hosting this institute because of its proximity to Chicago, the suburbs and farmlands. These are all areas that are explored in contemporary literature,” Gandal says. “But we also wanted to extend the study to other areas that are rich in literature. The Colorado portion of the program gives participants a flavor for the rugged American West. And we’ve added New York because it is the literary capital of the United States.”

For more information on the NIU-hosted Fulbright Institute, see http://www.engl.niu.edu/fulbright/.

6-23-03