Should Remediation be Eliminated on the College Level

New realities in post secondary education are prompting educators, students, legislators and taxpayers to question the appropriateness and efficacy of remediation or “developmental education” at four year colleges and universities throughout America. The catalyst for the debate on remediation in the college setting was the decision by the Board of Trustees at CUNY to phase out remedial course work in the four year colleges in New York, limiting students in need of developmental education to the area’s community college system. Many colleges and four year institutions throughout the country are now considering joining CUNY, opting to either refuse to accept students who meet minimal criteria or by making admission conditional upon meeting certain requirements in a timely manner. I will argue that limiting educational avenues compromises educational equity which is promoted by the American ideals of equality and self improvement through education.
The rhetorical arguments to preserve the integrity of the university as an elite enclave of higher learning are many and faceted. Defenders of this policy shift employ a mixture of rhetorical appeals – focusing mainly upon logos or the scientific proof of statistics which illustrate the state of need for remediation and the discouraging long term educational outcomes of students who receive such services in a university setting. The statistics also evidence the assertion that time and resources are diverted from other college ready students in the learning environment – reframing the question of education equity and the societal implications. Another factor which can be quantified is the burdensome tuition costs for remediation at the university level, both for taxpayers, students and their families. As a nation, currently under extreme budgetary constraints, we must determine at what cost we will continue to subsidize the education of people who are statistically unlikely to succeed.
While I agree that the University is not intended to be a haven for substandard students, statistics reveal that students may arrive unprepared to perform college level work for various reasons. Students who experience language barriers, returning adult students and those with disabilities (both learning and physical) often require some level of remediation, but this necessity does not conclusively prove that they are incompetent college students incapable of mastering the curriculum. Many of the issues facing these students may be adequately addressed through appropriate counseling and support services. To deny these students entrance to the University would deprive the institution of the diversity of student population which is often sought. Additionally the increased time, cost and difficulty of pursuing remedial education prior to university admission may serve as a deterrent to reaching long-term educational goals. Unable to improve their job prospects, some of these students will become a financial burden to society.
Students transitioning from high school to college may also require some level of remediation, but the statistics fails to take into account overall individual performance and strength of skill sets. Most students who transition directly from high school to a four year institution have performed well (sometimes completing honors level classes), earned their diploma and met the basic college entrance requirements (including grade point average and SAT scores) – as determined by the college. Relegating the unprepared high school students to remediation at community colleges superficially addresses the issue, but will perpetuate a cycle of exclusion and elitism in four year colleges and universities.
The implications for the decision to completely eliminate remediation from the university setting are broad and profound for the individual, the educational institution and society. Individuals who require additional preparation must choose to accept limited academic choice or refrain from pursuing higher learning. The educational system must scrutinize how K-12 programs are failing and explore what changes need to be made to produce students who are prepared to compete and produce on the college level – a goal that will require the collaborative effort of all levels of the educational system.














Annotated Bibliography

Diploma to Nowhere. Rep. Strong American Schools. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. .
This report offers thorough and current statistics on national rates for remediation and the costs involved. It explores the experience of high school students transitioning to college, including polling on their perceived level of preparedness before and after beginning college courses. The objective of this report is to be the impetus for school reform, so it uses information that puts the effectiveness of high school education and college preparation completely ineffective. This report is cited in several of the other articles in this bibliography, so although it is not a journal article I felt it was important to include it.

Hamilton, Kendra. "Rhetoric Vs. Reality." Black Issues in Higher Education 18.21 (2001): 31-34. EBSCOhost. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. .
Hamilton’s article attempts to correct misperceptions in the debate about developmental education, putting into perspective the total cost of remediation in higher education. She also explores the stigma associated with remediation and challenges the ideas that minorities require more remediation than whites, or that students who are accepted into Ivy League Institutions do not require remediation. This article offers answers to several of the assertions made in the case for eliminating remediation, and stresses the positive outcome of students who receive developmental education.

Hollis, Leah P. "Academic Advising in the Wonderland of College for Developmental Students." College Student Journal 43.1 (2009): 31-35. EBSCOhost. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. .
Hollis articulates the belief that many developmental students are often plagued by poor preparation and difficult socioeconomic situations which make attaining success in a university setting near impossible. She suggests an advisement model designed to help support and encourage these high risk students by assisting them become familiar with campus expectations and encouraging their strengths. The interaction of counselors offers guidance, but also an increased sense of belonging on a campus which can help the student to become more invested in their program of study and more likely to succeed.

Perkins- Gough, D. "Unprepared for College." Educational Leadership 66.3 (2008): 88-89. Wilson Web. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. .
This article citing many statistics in the report “Diploma to Nowhere” emphasizes the experience of high school education and the student’s perception that they had not been adequately prepared for college curriculum. The article suggests collaboration between secondary and postsecondary instiutions to better design programs of study that would benefit the students and lessen the need for remediation.


Richardson, Jeanita W. ""Who Shall be Educated?": The case for Restricting Remediation at the City University of New York." Education and Urban Society 37.2 (2005): 174-92. Http://eus.sagepub.com. Web. 25 Oct. 2009.
This article chronicles the history of CUNY, providing background and reasoning for the decision by the Board of Regents to become the first university system in the nation to eliminate remedial course work. The article offers counter arguments to the reasons offered for the policy shift specific to CUNY. Richardson also discusses the impact on the Urban and minority students who typically make up the CUNY student population.

Rhetoric as Barrier

John Locke argued that rhetoric can be a barrier to understanding. In "An Essay on Human Understanding" he warned of the ambiguity of language, especially concerning complex thoughts - which are "the names of substances, being annexed to ideas that are neither the real essences, nor exact representations of the pattern they are reffered to, are liable to yet greater iimperfection and uncertainty, especially when we come to a philosophical use of them" (823). The idea of sovereignty is certainly such a word/idea that has evolved in its meaning and shifted in its usage as chronicled in the essay by Lyons. Locke argues that complex ideas are culture bound, communal or even individual in nature and that the inability to unviersally apply a shared meaning to such a term is what leads to controversies and miscommunication. The seemingly intentional obscuring of ther term sovereignty holds a two fold dimension of ambiguity for the Native American who had to learn to approach this term both from a acquired language perspective, but also from the perspective of a community which did not share the same perception or understanding of the term, and still do not. The evolutionary nature of the term soveriegnty is an example Locke's idea of the "Abuse of Words" which fail in communicating because the United States Government has continually and willfully distorted the term sovereignty, "when they appley them (words) very unsteadily, making them stand, now for one, and by and by for another idea" (825). The shift in perception of the Native American peoples, initially regarded as a sovereign people with whom treaty agreements were sought to the incresingly minimized status of a "domestic dependent nation" support Lyon's assertion that the Native Americans are barraged by "rhetorical imperialism: the ability of dominant pwoers to assert control of others by setting the terms of the debate" (1132). The only way to counter this is through the development of rhetorical sovereignty which Lyons suggests, because although assuming the language of the "white man" may seem counter intuitive, it is only through a combination of knowledge and will demonstrated by masteryof the language of the oppresor that people will begin to lose the prejudice and misconceptions of indians as barbarian and less than human.

Rhetoric in Popular Culture

Oftentimes when we think of the term “rhetoric” we envision a politician giving a speech trying to persuade us of something. Though we are correct to connect the term rhetoric with an effort to persuade us of something, this view of rhetorical speaking can be extremely limiting. Examples of rhetorical speech abound in our everyday lives and may be found in everything from newspaper editorials to product advertisements to eulogies. Familiarizing ourselves with the objectives and technicalities of rhetoric can assist us in being more able to spot rhetoric, allowing us deliberate more carefully issues presented for our consideration.
In the classic tome Rhetoric, Aristotle defines rhetoric as “the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion’ (Bizzell 181.) Within this theory he distinguishes the various types of rhetorical speaking into three distinct classifications 1) forensic (attacking or defending someone for a past deed), 2) deliberative/political (arguing for or against a future action to be pursued) and 3) ceremonial (presently praising or censuring someone). Aristotle also indicates that there are three general types of appeals by which a rhetor may persuade their audience, by relying on the ethos or credibility of the speaker, logos, an appeal to the audience’s logic and pathos an appeal to the audience’s emotion.
The final scene of the film version of “The Taming of the Shrew” offers many layers of rhetorical speech, a few of which will be highlighted for this discussion. Katherine speaks to the congregants of the royal banquet hall on the subject of female obedience by using forensic, political and ceremonial speech to make her case and reach the varied stations of the assembled audience within the hall. She uses forensic speech to shame the other wives for their inappropriate behavior and ceremonial speech to promote the character of the husband – hers specifically, but the ideal of husband in general. She also uses political or deliberative speech to promote the cause of wifely subservience. This public shaming by Kate reveals her ethos or credibility to the audience by reminding them of her own past behavior. This is reinforced when she describes how she has had a change of heart, that she has finally stopped acting against her soft nature. She publicly demonstrates her husband’s dominance over her by allowing him to place his foot on her hand. These acts may be read as sincere or exaggerated – dependent upon the audience.
Kate’s appeal to logos, or the logic of her audience is significant for the use of language. She uses terminology and examples that relate to war and weaponry. The character also compares the marital relationship to the interchange between a monarch and his subjects, saying “Such duty the subject owes the prince, even such a woman owes her husband.” This analogy is effective for two reasons – it is relatable to the audience who are participants in the relationship between subject and monarch, but also because it uses the enthymeme. By definition an enthymeme is a three part deductive argument in which one part of the argument is left unstated but assumed to be true. Though Kate does not refer to it in her speech it was the belief that God had created people and their institutions, both personal and governmental. Kings were placed upon the throne by “divine right” - that they had been chosen by God and that their earthly authority was the will of God. Though not directly addressed in this speech is the assumption that the institution of marriage was also designed by god, and that husbands were given the same responsibility and authority over wives that monarchs were granted over their subjects. It also relates the seriousness of wifely disobedience to a criminal offense by making it comparable to treason.
Casablanca is another film which illustrates many of the ideals of rhetoric outlined by Aristotle. In the scene, Rick is trying to convince Ilsa to board the plane for Lisbon with her husband. He uses several Aristotelian devices in his attempt to persuade her. In the very first lines of the scene he reminds her “Last night you said I was to do the thinking for both of us.” This line establishes Rick as the voice of Ethos, because Ilsa has already given him the authority as decision maker. He then appeals to her logic by reminding her that if they stayed “9 chances out of 10 they would end up in a concentration camp”. This assertion is corroborated by a peripheral character, Louis – which again helps to reinforce Rick’s credibility and correctness in judgment. He further appeals to Ilsa’s pathos by reminding her of her responsibility to stay with her husband “to keep him going,” as well as introducing the sentiment of regret if she fails to go with her husband. Rick again emphasizes his nobility and sincerity by refusing to compare the romatic trivialities of three people to the tumult of a war torn world.
These two examples from classic films illustrate rhetorical speech, sharing the objective of persuasion. The rhetors portrayed attempt to demonstrate (the appearance of) sincerity and tailor their arguments to their specific audience, whether to a roomful of hearers or a single judge. Both characters called upon proofs that were suitable and relatable to those they were trying to convince. Aristotle’s model of rhetorical theory has been satisfied in distinctly different ways, relying upon the nuances of language and delivery to reach the ultimate goal of persuasion.

Formalist Influence on American Modernism and Modern America

American writers in the first half of the twentieth century were faced with a world of uncertainty, alienation and a departure from traditional belief systems. They literally lived within a social and economic “Wasteland” brought on by an era of rapid industrialization and shifting social and political conventions. They were impacted by philosophical questioning and reframing of fundamental belief systems in every field by people like Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx. These modernist writers struggled to confront this rapidly changing landscape, which was marked by these radical shifts in thought and behavior, but also by the profoundly shaping events of two world wars and a depression. These devastating events and intense social and cultural shifts left writers to chronicle the despair and alienation which was experienced as a result. Authors and poets were equally challenged to rethink or reconsider the purpose and significance of their field of discipline as well. Writers of this era began to experiment with the use of language with a two fold mission: to carefully consider the purposeof their art, not only in using it to entertain or creating a cathartic experience, but using their texts as active agents to effect change and renew optimism, by shaping readers ability to perceive or experience.
In the 1930’s American author John Dos Passos authored a series of novels which would become know as the U.S.A. Trilogy in which he explored social and political ideas and conventions, but he did so while using the words and the various styles of language to actively engage the reader, forcing the reader’s attentiveness to the details of both the technicalities of the written word presented on the page, while prompting the reader to consider the intent and veracity of those very words.
The very first page of the novel The Big Money suggests to the reader that they must be observant of the use of language in this novel, as in the sentence “He began to feel cold and sick and got back to the bunk and pulled the stillwarm covers up to his chin” (Dos Passos 1). Throughout the novels in the trilogy, Dos Passos regularly uses this form of collapsing language – compounding words that are not traditionally combined - to draw attention to the actual words and highlight their meanings and implications. In his essay, “Art as Technique” Viktor Shklovsky argued against the ease with which people pass over words and the concepts that they convey. He pointed that the problem was “Complete words are not expressed in rapid speech; their initial sounds are barely perceived” (Shklovsky 15) The casual ease of dismissal of language and the ideas it represents was troubling to the group of literary critics known as the Russian School on Formalism. They recognized the danger in becoming immune to language through overexposure. Shklovsky wrote that “Habitualization devours work, clothes, furniture, one’s wife and fear of war” (Shklovsky). He implied the danger of losing the experience of perception is not limited to small objects or trivial concerns, but is an all encompassing threat which distorts the reader’s ability to receive and process. He promoted the technique of “defamiliarization” or making a familiar object seem new and strange. He suggested that “A work is created “artisitically” so that its perception is impeded and the greatest possible effect is produced through the slowness of the perception” (Shklovsky 19).
By collapsing words Dos Passos aimed to slow the reader’s sense of perception, causing them to focus more carefully on the individual words and their implications –emphasizing the importance of what they represent. In the example of word collapsing from page one of the novel, the significance of the words collapsed is not great, but serves to prepare the reader for the use of experimentation in language present throughout the body of the series. Other examples within the trilogy indicate a desire to draw attention not only to the subject of the passage, but also the mode of representation. In the excerpt “The Body of an American” Dos Passos collapses longer grouping of words and the frequency of collapsed words is so densely employed in the passage as to foreground the language. He successfully draws the reader’s eye to the page and pricks the consciousness. The passage reads:
“Whereasthe Congressoftheunitedstates by aconcurrentresolutioadoptedon
the4thdayofmarch lastauthorizedthe Secretaryofwar to cause to be
brought to the unitedstatesthe bodyofan
americanwhowasamemberoftheamericanexpeditionaryforcesineuropre
wholosthislifeduringtheworldwarandhisidentityhas
notbeenestablished for burial in the memorialampitheatreofthenational-cemetaryatarlingtonvirginia.” (Dos Passos, Heath 1676).
This section is very difficult to cipher and requires concerted effort on the part of the reader to separate words to reveal the meaning. The fluidity of the phrases also indicates an automatism and callousness of an announcement of this nature devoid of emotion or respectful personalization. Shklovsky made a point of indicating how people can become defamiliarized from the trivial to the profound like the “fear of war” and its horrific results, and these lines certainly convey that.
The segment from “The Body of an American” is also a helpful example in illustrating the stratification of language used by different segments of society. The language is identifiable as a professional stratification, but even within the designation of professional, the jargon is specifically characteristic of “officialese.” Officialese is defined as “the pompous, wordy, and involved language typical of official communications and reports.” (officialese, 1). Another use of professional language within the text is the term “Taylorism” which is the scientific management of engineering production which achieves the optimum level of efficiency possible. This use of language is impactful within the body of the novel because it effects characters and plots in pursuit of the capitalistic ideal.
The format of the novels is broken up into four types: narratives, biographies, Camera Eye and Newsreels. Dos Passos demonstrated the heteroglossia which Mikhail Bakhtin discussed in “Discourse in the Novel”, by expressing several different types of language coexisisting within the novel as spoken by various characters through their narratives. Dividing the novel in this way allowed Dos Passos to explore a multitude of language styles and varied forms of professional language (which has been discussed), journalistic, stream of conciousness, and slang. Dos Passos uses each of these varied forms to critique social ideology with which he disagreed.
The portions of the novel entitled “Camera Eye” employ stream of consciousness, which was a fairly new literary technique in the 1930’s. The first examples of this type of writing appear around 1915 in a series of novels by Dorothy Richardson, and the technique was also used by writers like Joyce, Woolf and Faulkner. It is clear though, that Dos Passos pioneering use of this technique was meant as yet another method of defamiliarizing or revisioning events and ideologies to help the reader gain a different perspective. Stream of consciousness method was presented in concert with the narratives and biographies to emphasize elements within the novel. But the stream of consciousness episodes also “implicate the narrator in the narrative, serving to underscore his moral commitment to the act of writing” (Doctorow X).
The Newsreels, as mentioned above helped set the tone, incorporating events significant to the live of the characters or the propulsion of the plot line. The story line of Charley Anderson who is involved in Florida real estate is validated, as the headlines from Newsreel LXI tout “TOWN SITE OF JUPITER SOLD FOR TEN MILLION DOLLARS” AND “like Alladin with his magic lamp, the Capitalist, the Investor and the Builder converted what was once a desolate swamp into a wonderful city with a network of glistening boulevards” (Dos Passos 272). These headlines take on special meaning for the reader who has learned that these real estate dealings are tainted by political corruption and price manipulation. He used lyrics from songs or advertisements to chronicle shifting social attitudes and set the tone for the text. They were also used by Dos Passos as indicative of the sensationalistic and sometimes false information which was disseminated as credible news. Again the various sections of the novel work together to help the reader gain knowledge which enables them to realize a sense of unreliability and artifice which is present in the newspapers, forcing the reader to question what certain images or words signify to them rather than simply accepting what they are exposed to.
The ideas which Shklovsky posited, which had an incredible impact on the writing of modernist writers including Dos Passos are still pertinent today. The modern equivalent of habitualization could be desensitization. It is common to hear people complaining about the children being desensitized to violence on television and through exposure to television programming, but we find these effects everywhere in our day to day lives. In “The Body of an American” Dos Passos chose to explore a most significant and grievous situation, the death of a soldier protecting his country. Today, as our country is involved in wars in two different countries we face similar situations of returning fallen soldiers. During the administration of President George W. Bush photographic images of the returning coffins were banned. There was a great outcry by many Americans who argued that failing to make these images available made the deaths of these soldiers an abstract concept, making it difficult to understand the ultimate price of war quantified by. The issue was revisited when President Obama assumed the presidency in 2009, and the ban was repealed. Media outlets clamored to photograph and publish the first images of the coffins carrying the bodies of Americans, but as the weeks went by the demand for and publication of such photos has diminished greatly.
It is necessary in defamiliariztion to continually innovate new techniques or develop new methods which will again heighten the perceptive ability of the reader or audience. This progression is evident especially in the entertainment industry which has continually pushed against standards in television, feature films and publishing, We are a media and information based society which is constantly exposed to ever increasing methods intended to shock and unsettle. This ratcheting up of images and actions with the intent of capturing attention can be seen all around us from clothing advertisements to music lyrics advocating sexual experimentation. The most extreme image of this intentionally provocative and unsettling in recent memory was the videotaped beheading of American of a young American man in 2004. Despite its shocking nature and profoundly disturbing nature, this incredibly heinous act is something that easily passes out of our consciousness as we move on with our day today routines. Just as the body of the young soldier described in “The Body of an American” the young man’s experience and his identity is lost to us. Do you remember his name?

Did it prick your conciousness?

Nick Berg - Murdered May 7 2004

Works Cited
Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Discourse in the Novel.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Rivkin. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 674-685.
Dos Pasosos, John. The Big Money. Boston: Mariner Books. 1933.

Dos Passos, John. “The Body of an American.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Vol. D. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton, 2006. 1676-1680.
“Officialese” . 11 May 2009.
Shklovsky, Viktor. “Art as Technique.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Rivkin. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 15-21.

Formalism in American Modernism and Modern America

American writers in the first half of the twentieth century were faced with a world of uncertainty, alienation and a departure from traditional belief systems. They literally lived within a social and economic “Wasteland” brought on by an era of rapid industrialization and shifting social and political conventions. They were impacted by philosophical questioning and reframing of fundamental belief systems in every field by people like Nietzsche, Darwin and Marx. These modernist writers struggled to confront this rapidly changing landscape, which was marked by these radical shifts in thought and behavior, but also by the profoundly shaping events of two world wars and a depression. These devastating events and intense social and cultural shifts left writers to chronicle the despair and alienation which was experienced as a result. Authors and poets were equally challenged to rethink or reconsider the purpose and significance of their field of discipline as well. Writers of this era began to experiment with the use of language with a two fold mission: to carefully consider the purposeof their art, not only in using it to entertain or creating a cathartic experience, but using their texts as active agents to effect change and renew optimism, by shaping readers ability to perceive or experience.
In the 1930’s American author John Dos Passos authored a series of novels which would become know as the U.S.A. Trilogy in which he explored social and political ideas and conventions, but he did so while using the words and the various styles of language to actively engage the reader, forcing the reader’s attentiveness to the details of both the technicalities of the written word presented on the page, while prompting the reader to consider the intent and veracity of those very words.
The very first page of the novel The Big Money suggests to the reader that they must be observant of the use of language in this novel, as in the sentence “He began to feel cold and sick and got back to the bunk and pulled the stillwarm covers up to his chin” (Dos Passos 1). Throughout the novels in the trilogy, Dos Passos regularly uses this form of collapsing language – compounding words that are not traditionally combined - to draw attention to the actual words and highlight their meanings and implications. In his essay, “Art as Technique” Viktor Shklovsky argued against the ease with which people pass over words and the concepts that they convey. He pointed that the problem was “Complete words are not expressed in rapid speech; their initial sounds are barely perceived” (Shklovsky 15) The casual ease of dismissal of language and the ideas it represents was troubling to the group of literary critics known as the Russian School on Formalism. They recognized the danger in becoming immune to language through overexposure. Shklovsky wrote that “Habitualization devours work, clothes, furniture, one’s wife and fear of war” (Shklovsky). He implied the danger of losing the experience of perception is not limited to small objects or trivial concerns, but is an all encompassing threat which distorts the reader’s ability to receive and process. He promoted the technique of “defamiliarization” or making a familiar object seem new and strange. He suggested that “A work is created “artisitically” so that its perception is impeded and the greatest possible effect is produced through the slowness of the perception” (Shklovsky 19).
By collapsing words Dos Passos aimed to slow the reader’s sense of perception, causing them to focus more carefully on the individual words and their implications –emphasizing the importance of what they represent. In the example of word collapsing from page one of the novel, the significance of the words collapsed is not great, but serves to prepare the reader for the use of experimentation in language present throughout the body of the series. Other examples within the trilogy indicate a desire to draw attention not only to the subject of the passage, but also the mode of representation. In the excerpt “The Body of an American” Dos Passos collapses longer grouping of words and the frequency of collapsed words is so densely employed in the passage as to foreground the language. He successfully draws the reader’s eye to the page and pricks the consciousness. The passage reads:
“Whereasthe Congressoftheunitedstates by aconcurrentresolutioadoptedon
the4thdayofmarch lastauthorizedthe Secretaryofwar to cause to be
brought to the unitedstatesthe bodyofan
americanwhowasamemberoftheamericanexpeditionaryforcesineuropre
wholosthislifeduringtheworldwarandhisidentityhas
notbeenestablished for burial in the memorialampitheatreofthenational-cemetaryatarlingtonvirginia.” (Dos Passos, Heath 1676).
This section is very difficult to cipher and requires concerted effort on the part of the reader to separate words to reveal the meaning. The fluidity of the phrases also indicates an automatism and callousness of an announcement of this nature devoid of emotion or respectful personalization. Shklovsky made a point of indicating how people can become defamiliarized from the trivial to the profound like the “fear of war” and its horrific results, and these lines certainly convey that.
The segment from “The Body of an American” is also a helpful example in illustrating the stratification of language used by different segments of society. The language is identifiable as a professional stratification, but even within the designation of professional, the jargon is specifically characteristic of “officialese.” Officialese is defined as “the pompous, wordy, and involved language typical of official communications and reports.” (officialese, 1). Another use of professional language within the text is the term “Taylorism” which is the scientific management of engineering production which achieves the optimum level of efficiency possible. This use of language is impactful within the body of the novel because it effects characters and plots in pursuit of the capitalistic ideal.
The format of the novels is broken up into four types: narratives, biographies, Camera Eye and Newsreels. Dos Passos demonstrated the heteroglossia which Mikhail Bakhtin discussed in “Discourse in the Novel”, by expressing several different types of language coexisisting within the novel as spoken by various characters through their narratives. Dividing the novel in this way allowed Dos Passos to explore a multitude of language styles and varied forms of professional language (which has been discussed), journalistic, stream of conciousness, and slang. Dos Passos uses each of these varied forms to critique social ideology with which he disagreed.
The portions of the novel entitled “Camera Eye” employ stream of consciousness, which was a fairly new literary technique in the 1930’s. The first examples of this type of writing appear around 1915 in a series of novels by Dorothy Richardson, and the technique was also used by writers like Joyce, Woolf and Faulkner. It is clear though, that Dos Passos pioneering use of this technique was meant as yet another method of defamiliarizing or revisioning events and ideologies to help the reader gain a different perspective. Stream of consciousness method was presented in concert with the narratives and biographies to emphasize elements within the novel. But the stream of consciousness episodes also “implicate the narrator in the narrative, serving to underscore his moral commitment to the act of writing” (Doctorow X).
The Newsreels, as mentioned above helped set the tone, incorporating events significant to the live of the characters or the propulsion of the plot line. The story line of Charley Anderson who is involved in Florida real estate is validated, as the headlines from Newsreel LXI tout “TOWN SITE OF JUPITER SOLD FOR TEN MILLION DOLLARS” AND “like Alladin with his magic lamp, the Capitalist, the Investor and the Builder converted what was once a desolate swamp into a wonderful city with a network of glistening boulevards” (Dos Passos 272). These headlines take on special meaning for the reader who has learned that these real estate dealings are tainted by political corruption and price manipulation. He used lyrics from songs or advertisements to chronicle shifting social attitudes and set the tone for the text. They were also used by Dos Passos as indicative of the sensationalistic and sometimes false information which was disseminated as credible news. Again the various sections of the novel work together to help the reader gain knowledge which enables them to realize a sense of unreliability and artifice which is present in the newspapers, forcing the reader to question what certain images or words signify to them rather than simply accepting what they are exposed to.
The ideas which Shklovsky posited, which had an incredible impact on the writing of modernist writers including Dos Passos are still pertinent today. The modern equivalent of habitualization could be desensitization. It is common to hear people complaining about the children being desensitized to violence on television and through exposure to television programming, but we find these effects everywhere in our day to day lives. In “The Body of an American” Dos Passos chose to explore a most significant and grievous situation, the death of a soldier protecting his country. Today, as our country is involved in wars in two different countries we face similar situations of returning fallen soldiers. During the administration of President George W. Bush photographic images of the returning coffins were banned. There was a great outcry by many Americans who argued that failing to make these images available made the deaths of these soldiers an abstract concept, making it difficult to understand the ultimate price of war quantified by. The issue was revisited when President Obama assumed the presidency in 2009, and the ban was repealed. Media outlets clamored to photograph and publish the first images of the coffins carrying the bodies of Americans, but as the weeks went by the demand for and publication of such photos has diminished greatly.
It is necessary in defamiliariztion to continually innovate new techniques or develop new methods which will again heighten the perceptive ability of the reader or audience. This progression is evident especially in the entertainment industry which has continually pushed against standards in television, feature films and publishing, We are a media and information based society which is constantly exposed to ever increasing methods intended to shock and unsettle. This ratcheting up of images and actions with the intent of capturing attention can be seen all around us from clothing advertisements to music lyrics advocating sexual experimentation. The most extreme image of this intentionally provocative and unsettling in recent memory was the videotaped beheading of American of a young American man in 2004. Despite its shocking nature and profoundly disturbing nature, this incredibly heinous act is something that easily passes out of our consciousness as we move on with our day today routines. Just as the body of the young soldier described in “The Body of an American” the young man’s experience and his identity is lost to us. Do you remember his name?

Works Cited
Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Discourse in the Novel.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Rivkin. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 674-685.
Dos Pasosos, John. The Big Money. Boston: Mariner Books. 1933.

Dos Passos, John. “The Body of an American.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Vol. D. Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton, 2006. 1676-1680.
“Officialese” . 11 May 2009.
Shklovsky, Viktor. “Art as Technique.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Rivkin. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 15-21.

"Yep, I'm Gay" Sexuality Identity and Confession

In “Imitation and Gender Insubordination,” Judith Butler explores the notion of sexuality, by stating that “compulsory heterosexuality sets itself up as the original, the true, the authentic” (Rivkin and Ryan 722). In 1987 the television sitcom “Ellen” starring Ellen Degeneres featured the character of Ellen Morgan. Morgan was a likable young woman struggling to define herself in many aspects of her life. The show regularly focused on social relationships and workplace experiences. One element featured in the show were the regular pressures the character faced to date, “find a good man,” and become involved in a romantic relationship. This sense of “compulsory heterosexuality” was resultant from societal and familial pressures upon the title character – but also from within herself. Butler’s assertion that sexuality is performative was reflected by the character’s earliest presentation in the series which featured her wearing make-up, a softer hairstyle and more feminine clothing choices.
Throughout the course of the show, Ellen Morgan became more frustrated with the challenge of trying to find a relationship, and more overwhelmed and by the constant pressure to meet up to societal ideals. Butler would argue that the Ellen’s attempt to fit into the heterosexual ideal “is always the process of imitating and approximating its own phantasmic idealization of self-and failing” (Wexler 2) Ellen’s romantic relationships were bound to fail because she was not being true to herself, and was allowing socially constructed ideas of normative behavior to define her identity.
In History of Sexuality, Michel Foucault examined the different cultural perceptions of sexuality and how they were framed in both religious and scientific terms. Foucault discussed the notion of “unnatural” sexuality being sinful, and later the need to confess evolving out of a religious act into a need for processing identity through speech and self acknowledgement. In the following scene from season four, Ellen is recalling a dream she had in which the lesbian references and stereotypes are abundant. Her desire to conform is so strong that she is only able to access her true identity during a subconscious dream state. Though the scene is constructed in an entertaining way, Foucault would recognize this as Ellen’s desire to not only hide her true desires from society, but also – more poignantly, from herself.

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Several times during the scene Ellen is referred to as a gay woman or lesbian. As she begins to take on this identity, she is no longer described as simply a person or a woman, but as a gay woman or lesbian. Foucault wrote that those who assumed or declared their identity as anything disparate from the norm, became the other – “The ‘perverse’ became a group, instead of an attribute,” (Wexler 2) in fact, Foucault went so far as to say that these “others” were so separate that they were actually viewed as a separate “species.”
The scene concludes with Ellen turning to the mental health provider for clarification or validation of her obvious desires. Foucault believed that the science of sexuality was instituted as a way of ordering or regulating “other” sexual behavior. But in this process, the individual who struggles with their sexual identity may finally voice or confess their true desires, and in doing so, the dirty shameful secret of “other” sexuality loses its taboo and stigma.

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The notion that talking about sexuality causes it to lose its power is validated by the groundbreaking decision of the writers of the comedy series to confront the struggles of a featured character not only being gay, but inviting the viewer to accompany the character along on the search for identity. In 1987, homosexuality was rarely referenced on episodic television, and no regular featured characters were depicted as gay, and in little over twenty years it is easy to point to multiple examples of gay characters and exploration of homosexual issues on shows like Friends, Brothers and Sisters, Will and Grace and Grey’s Anatomy. This representation of homosexuality in a more personalized form helped many viewers to challenge their constructed views of lesbian and gay men as something more that "other", allowing them to challenge their own ideas about identity and sexuality.

Works cited - under construction.

Michel Foucault and Self Imprisonment in The Handmaid's Tale

Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punish” provides an example of a city whose viability has been challenged by a natural disaster (plague). This situation, which could potentially result in chaos and disorder, offers agency for the government to assume total control of its populous – while acting in the guise of protector. This scenario is similar in many ways to the systemic domination and subjugation of the citizenry described in Margaret Atwood’s novel, “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In this story, governmental chaos and natural catastrophes serve as a catalyst for a group of extreme religious fundamentalists to overtake the United States government. The newly formed government then makes sweeping changes to law and effects societal conventions.
Foucault’s text examined the power structure in society. In his Panopticon example he outlined the necessary modalities for effecting individuals to become prisoners internally, monitored and controlled by their own sense of control and discipline. He described four practices –establishment of a power hierarchy segregation, training, and military surveillance which may be seen illustrated in The Handmaid’s Tale. In the novel, the citizenry is divided into hierarchical groups and labeled – Wives, Commanders, Guardians, Handmaids, etc. These characters are designated by title and also by specific wardrobe which serve as constant reminders of their position and power level in the society envisioned in the fictional Republic of Gilead. The handmaid, who serves as narrator in the novel, describes the practice of separating the segment of society to which she belongs – essentially alienating them. The women, proven childbearers, are culled and then taken to “Red Centers” where they are then indoctrinated into their new purpose. These practices provide “the great confinement on the one hand; the correct training on the other” (Foucault 553). The handmaids are then subject to regular medical examinations and rituals which regularly reinforce their position in the new society and insinuate a global control over the lives of the handmaids. The handmaid’s are also aware of the ever-present “Eyes,” governmental spies, whose purpose is to reveal illicit behavior which is punishable by torture or death. This constant state of fear reaffirms the notion that “each individual is fixed in his place. And, if he moves, he does so at the risk of his life…or punishment” (Foucault 551).
The layered control and loss of individuality by those who are controlled by such a power structure lose any sense of agency and therefore lose any internal drive to fight against the oppressive structure or control. Foucault wrote that “he who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power… becomes the principle of his own subjection.” This notion of inability to effect control can be seen in the character of handmaid Offred who has several opportunities to shape her outcome (by spying for the resistance movement, stealing a weapon and using it to defend herself or escape, etc.), but her sense of self and power has been so meticulously diminished that she becomes complicit in her subjugation.

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. New York: Random, 1986.

Foucault, Michel. “Discipline and Punish.” Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Rivkin. Malden: Blackwell, 2004. 549-565