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Hello again folks: I just wanted to clarify my earlier comments on posting to H-AMSTDY. I'm sure any one of you who has taught will have sometimes been amazed at the interpretation gap between what you intended (for example, in assignments) and what came to be understood. This is not exactly a classroom situation, but the interaction does have some points of similarity. I want to encourage people to contribute to the list, but at the same time I want to make sure that people understand the specific focus of our interest as subscribers. I wrote something earlier which I feared might confuse you: > ...local interest IS fun, but let us remember that we are an >American Studies list, and that our focus is on various ways >that American experience has been or can be framed... My intention here is not to disparage references to local events, places or occasions. We cannot understand social experience if we do not know or cannot describe what happened to certain individuals or communities at a given time and place. The substance of our scholarly research invariably relies for subject-matter on particularities of experience. I do not want to make you think that the list prohibits you from discussing the things that especially appeal to you. What I do urge--and I think this is appropriate--is that we try to see our posts as contributing to the making of meaning in American experience. A particular house, one's own feelings about a group label, the occurrence of a virus, a family connection with events constructed by historians--these are certainly crucial in the formation of cultural perspectives, but ultimately they are by themselves more useful as a *means* towards what we want to be considering here, which I guess might broadly be described as how experience affects identity. I realize this is a very young list (a baby list!), and I'm very proud of the contributions you have thus far made, and of the conversations we are beginning. I have long looked for a way to connect with other American Studies people about our field, and I feel tremendously enriched by being a part of this list. I just want to make sure we keep on track. I hope that you can take what I'm saying in the spirit of a gentle reminder rather than as in any way an admonition. Keep them posts and messages coming! Jeff Jeff Finlay H-AMSTDY Moderator finlay_j@spcvxa.spc.edu PS I realize I have been rather longwinded again here. What can I say? I had my formative education in a system that punished people who weren't hypotactically inclined!
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