670
PARTISAN REVIEW
for a recognition of a need to teach a cultural history, to represent
cultural values, the contributions of ethnic and racial groups which
were given less than their due."
(Campus Report,
March 9, 1988,
p. 28.) Again no evidence was cited of specific contributions of
women, ethnic, and racial groups to the dominant traditions of
Western culture that in context had not been correctly acknowl–
edged. The speaker seemed blissfully unaware that there was a
plethora of courses in the social sciences and history in which these
and related subjects were studied, and that the aim of the course in
Western Culture had never been to evaluate the contributions of the
different ethnic and social groups to Western culture but to study
its nature.
Despite denials to the contrary, the truth is that the initiating
force and major continued pressure for abolition or revision came
from those militant elements in the Stanford community who openly
criticized the course as "racist, sexist, and imperialistic." Some
members of the faculty, aware both of the falsity and irrelevance of
the charge but eager to placate the militant students by gratifying
some of their curricular demands, pleaded in extenuation of the
students' discontent the avowals of these students that the existing
course in Western Culture had failed to cure them of their sense of
alienation from Western culture.
Now for one thing, the aim of the course was never to cure
students of their sense of alienation - whatever that may be - from
Western culture but to enable them to understand the conflicting
ideals and traditions of Western culture. These ideals and traditions
had contributed to creating the world in which students were
presently living. They had been formulated and expressed to some
extent by authors who had themselves been alienated by the times
and culture in which they had lived and whose works were being
studied in the course.
There is something disingenuous about the notion that the
dissatisfaction with the course in Western Culture resulted from the
special sense of alienation of a comparative handful of students.
What about the overwhelming number who apparently were not
alienated by the course but were quite happy with it? Further, one of
the requirements of graduation at Stanford for all students is that
they take a course in a non-Western culture. Why then was it
necessary to introduce it into the course in Western Culture? Also,
there are additional elective courses in Black Studies, Chicano
Studies, Women's Studies, open to all students.
If
alienation can be
