Editor's Note - November 2002

Karen Heise
University of Northern Colorado
E-mail: kheise2000@yahoo.com

As we slide into the winter of 2002, it seems the global outlook is increasingly obscured by clouds of doubt and worry. The world economy remains sluggish and isn't recovering as quickly as analysts had hoped. Terrorism, while seemingly given a blow in one location, scatters like a handful of dropped mercury into thousands of locations, never to be fully recovered or cleaned up. We hear over and over that the "face" of war and the identity of our enemy have forever changed--now it has not one face, but thousands, not one identity, but possibly millions. We wonder and worry and debate about the possibility of war with Iraq. As the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's holidays approach here in the U.S., many people are feeling scattered, adrift, and left without a sense of mooring; what once was familiar and a "given" is now up for grabs, subject to re-interpretation, or capitulation to a myriad of opinions, ideas, and sometimes-violent ideologies. We are looking harder than ever for firm footing for our most constant beliefs, whatever they may be.

It is fitting, then, that our main feature by Dr. T. Ravichandran, lecturer at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, India, attempts to nail down the slippery concepts of postmodernism and how to teach a postmodern text. The fragmentation of our world has inevitably found its way into interpreting texts, but as Ravichandran notes, this breakdown (or breakup?) into bits and pieces poses quite a challenge both for the reader and the teaching professional, and it decentralizes or even negates the author's intent of the piece. A postmodern text (or a postmodern reading of any text) might induce meaning at all possible levels--and therefore no meaning at all.

As we continue to grapple with the fragmented meanings and realities of a global culture, that "gluing together" of those cultural shards often begins with language cognition. Malcolm Finney, Assistant Professor at California State University, Long Beach, brings his own research findings on language acquisition and bilingual education to our forum. Finney's work focuses on a recent class of foreign students who found that they could surmount their fears and use their own diverse cultures as tools in their ESL training. Through service learning, Finney presents a compelling account of how cultural diversity is often a strength rather than a weakness.

Speaking of cultural diversity, I am pleased to showcase Jayne Fenton Keane's supple, fluid, and powerful poetry. She is the author of The Stalking Tongue Book II, Torn, and Ophelia's Codpiece, and has received numerous Australian and international awards. As I read her works, I am reminded of how our ideas of the feminine have changed in our postmodern culture; the global view of womanhood is turning out to be much larger and richer than any of us can imagine on our own. I think you'll find her examination of the feminine to be captivating, maybe even spellbinding.

As we look into the future, how are we to react to it? And how do the differing "camps" of reactionaries react to each other? Heather Oullette, a junior at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, explores the authorial and personal implications of Virginia Postrel's book The Future and Its Enemies.

Finally, I have included a "seasonal" piece of fiction to round out this issue.

We must remember that although re-piecing the fractured is often a hard and sometimes heartbreaking task, the good news is that the human spirit has proven itself capable of rising to the occasion over and over again. Whether it is through text, language, or ties of blood, the potential for wholeness is there. It's up to us to work it into existence.

I hope you enjoy this month's offerings.

Best,

Karen Heise, Editor-in-Chief

Academic Exchange Extra invites reader responses to any writings in this issue--especially articles advancing the scholarly debate of issues raised.

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