2001 Learning Objects

Cultural Narratives and the Role of Stereotypes: Images of Muslims in Contemporary US Culture

Riedel, Dagmar A.

This draft is the syllabus for a 200 level course (3 credits) at the Collins Living Learning Center of Indiana University, Bloomington, which I developed as doctoral candidate in the summer of 2001.

The course was designed to double as a topics-course in intercultural issues and as an introduction to Islam, as it approached American cultural narratives at the beginning of the G. W. Bush presidency through their representations of Muslims. The primary sources ranged from Arabic and Persian literature, which are bestsellers in their English translations, to Hollywood films, comics, and science fiction. They were accompanied with a selection of theoretical readings about semiotics. Field trips to a mosque in Bloomington and the Islamic art exhibit in the IU Art Museum provided opportunities for a reality check on the fictional representations of Muslims and Islamic culture.