Foreign Cultures

Foreign Cultures is a requirement? Henry Cabot Lodge, noted isolationist and member of the Class of 1871, would not be thrilled. “Harvard students are learning about foreigners?” he would yell, waving his cane, pocketwatch flailing about. “At America’s premier institution of higher learning? Balderdash!” Lodge would then lurch off, muttering under his breath.

Luckily, Harvard’s isolationism has dissipated since those quaint pre-World War II days–as of a couple years ago, they even started encouraging us to study abroad! As part of your newly internationalized curriculum, you get to take a core class in the exciting field of “Foreign Cultures,” a more-or-less painless category that touts some of the College’s strongest professors and a sexy lineup of courses, ranging from Foreign Cultures 67, “Popular Culture in Modern China” to FC 63, “China’s Two Social Revolutions” to cross-listed Historical Sutdy A-13, “China: Traditions and Transformations” to FC 48, “The Cultural Revolution.” See people? It’s all about choice.

In poaching David Wang from Columbia, Harvard made a good choice. This plaid-clad professor will teach you all there is to know about FC 67, “Popular Culture in Modern China,” from cheesy puns (ever thought about love songs as “decadence through de-cadence”?) to cheesy flicks (try analyzing “Kung-Fu Hustle” in a classroom).

There’s something for everyone: sentimentalists can wallow in the perennially doe-eyed expressions of actresses whose roles were so depressing they committed suicide; action fans can get a hai(-ya!) from Jet Li’s fighting antics; and brooding emo-types will enjoy plenty of angst-ridden stories in the ridiculously long two-volume coursepack.

Don’t worry if the only thing you know (and ever care to know) about Chinese culture is kung fu—Wang is a recovering Bruce Lee fan and the course is basically tailored for beginners. Don’t bother attending the screenings—you can just as easily check them out on reserve. The Chinese-accented TFs were considered incomprehensible by some, but most people find that showing up for section was the most strenuous effort required.

If you’d rather eat food from the People’s Republic than learn about its culture, don’t fret. Foreign Cultures spans several continents, with a surprising quantity of courses centered on literature, arts, and media. For movie buffs, Kirkland House Master Tom Conley’s FC 21, “Cinema et culture francaise, de 1896 à nos jours,” places French cinematic masterworks in their cultural and historical context. The to-die-for syllabus includes Jean Renoir’s brilliant and hilarious class comedy “The Rules of the Game,” Bunuel’s surrealist shorts, Godard’s flawless “Breathless,” and Truffaut’s classic “The 400 Blows.” We hear the class is relatively painless, though it is taught in French. Parlez-vous anglais? Non!

A new offering, FC 85, “Japan Pop: From Basho to Banana,” teaches anime and manga, alongside other eclectic elements of Japanese popular culture. FC 72, “Russian Culture from Revolution to Perestroika,” taught by well-liked professor Svetlana Boym, offers Revolution-era avant-garde art, socialist realist works (including Eisenstein and the cinematic montage school), and other decidedly cool Russian stuff.

Our top pick is FC 76, “Nazi Cinema: Fantasy Production in the Third Reich,” taught by the world’s reigning authority on the subject, German department chair Eric Rentschler. Rentschy, as we affectionately call him, is a fantastic professor, and this is an eye-opening course. Weekly screenings range from Leni Riefenstahl’s visually stunning propaganda pictures, “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia” (required texts for anyone seeking to understand film history), to hilarious German romantic comedies from the 1930s (unfortunately, turns out they’re totally pro-Nazi). “Munchhausen” is a psychedelic dreamscape of circa-1945 slapstick, and the Oscar-winning “Mrs. Miniver” will make you laugh right before you start to cry. (Seriously.)

More importantly, the course material touches on philosophy, postmodernism, and theories of mass media and communication. For the Nazis, image was king–and their use of the movies to further political ends provides a piercing insight into the sinister possibilities of our own media-soaked age. What is the relationship between art and politics? Film and fascism? Goebbels and today’s political operatives? Taking this course provides the skills–and defenses–to recognize the power of propaganda in today’s ostensibly innocent popular culture.

Whoops! Looks like we’re out of space. To sum up, consider Foreign Cultures the Harvard equivalent of the New York Times Travel section: pretty pictures, local color, and if you get bored in the middle, you can always break out the crossword.