Cultivating Critical Self-Reflection in an International Context: The Development of an American Studies Curriculum in Turkey

Abstract

Many literature professors in the U.S. strive to foster skills of critical self-reflection: we ask students to be responsible to textual evidence, historical context, and the implications of the interpreter's acts. Recent teaching also stresses the transnational contexts for literary expression and interpretation. But what happens when these pedagogical practices are transported to classrooms abroad? This essay addresses this broad question through the problem of developing an American Studies curriculum in Turkey. The authors outline the conceptual genealogy of departments of "American Culture and Literature" in Turkey and then relate it to narratives of emergence for American Studies in the U.S. and other countries. The authors then discuss the evolution of the curriculum they revised. They conclude by assessing the outcome, especially noting the difficulty of cultivating critical self-reflection in a social and institutional setting that has few of the safeguards for freedom of expression found in the U.S.