WSU Currents •
Fall 2012
13
hen Winona State
University English professor Ruth
Forsythe received news that she’d
been granted a Fulbright Scholarship
to teach for five months in Japan, she
imagined the experience would be
an extended revisit to her homeland.
Although her parents are originally
from the Midwest, Forsythe was born
and raised in Japan. She moved to the
United States to attend college when
she was 18, where she studied English
at St. Olaf College and went on to
earn her Master’s and PhD in compara-
tive literature from the University of
Minnesota. She has since visited Japan
many times, but never for an extended
period, and so her decision to apply for
the Fulbright was both out of “personal
interest and academic enthusiasm.”
Forsythe was surprised, though, when
she discovered her placement was
Okinawa, a subtropical island that lies
more than 400 miles south of Japan’s
mainland. Although unfamiliar with
the island, Forsythe says she’s become
intrigued by Okinawa’s multicultural
atmosphere, something the mainland
doesn’t offer. Because her main area of
study focuses on cultural displacement
and hybridity, Forsythe says her place-
ment in the culturally rich Okinawa
“
makes sense from an academic stand-
point.”
Beginning in September Forsythe will
teach English courses at the University
of the Ryukyus, where she plans to dis-
cuss topics that include American pop
culture, politics of identity and place
in literature, as well as how Asian-
American literature has been received,
or perhaps misperceived, in the west.
“
I’m interested in how Japanese stu-
dents will respond to texts I’ve used at
Winona State,” she says. “I’m interested
in what young people now in Japan are
thinking about literature and how they
are using it in their lives.”
Forsythe has always been drawn to
literature as “a wonderful way” to
understand how people think, and she
says she’s especially interested in the
connection between cultural values and
aesthetic and how they guide narrative
structure. “I knew early on I wanted to
do more with comparative literature, to
understand the different ways writers
tell their stories,” she says. Her visit to
Japan will also be an excellent oppor-
tunity to witness firsthand how cultural
values shape the ways in which readers
approach a story.
Cultural values influence teaching and
learning styles, too. Although Forsythe
is fluent in Japanese, she will have to
contextualize material for students and
take into consideration, for instance,
that Japanese classrooms utilize lecture
over interactive strategies. Reading lev-
els in Japan differ, and, unlike Ameri-
can students, Japanese students are
not expected to come to class having
completed preliminary critical reading.
Preparing to teach in Japan is perhaps
one of the greatest challenges, but it’s
also something Forsythe enjoys. “I like
to think about what I can do to make
the material accessible to students, how
I can adjust both the content and the
way I teach.”
Forsythe hopes to expand her own
reading experience beyond the Japa-
nese canon she is so familiar with and
into Okinawa’s rich literary tradition.
Because Okinawans find themselves as
a minority of the dominant mainland,
their writers don’t receive the same
exposure as some of Japan’s other great
literary figures. Forsythe is excited to
explore some of these writers and,
especially, to raise awareness of these
texts by integrating them into her
WSU classes when she returns.
“
I always try to bring in material stu-
dents are not familiar with,” she says.
“
One of the major reasons I applied
for the Fulbright is so I can bring my
experiences back to my Winona State
classrooms, to expand their knowledge
and remind students that we do read
texts differently based on our cultural
backgrounds.”
When she’s not in the classroom, For-
sythe plans on devoting time to literary
research projects as well as learning
more about Japanese literature from her
colleagues. She hopes to find herself in
“
a community with connections,” and
to discover the tastes, sights, and sounds
of the island. Okinawans are known
to be among the most healthy and long-
lived people on the planet. “Maybe my
time there will even add on a few years
to my life,” Forsythe jokes.
In addition to having time for research
and learning the ways of the Oki-
nawan culture, Forsythe says she most
looks forward to interacting with the
students. She hopes that, through the
vehicle of literature, she can encour-
age her students to connect with the
imaginations of cultures that receive
limited exposure.
“
My hopes for my Japanese students are
my hopes for all my students: that they
will read more broadly and appreciate
literature and all it can do for us.”
Forsythe will spend her Fulbright term on Okinawa, one of Ryukyu Islands
about 400 miles south of Japan’s mainland.
W
