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Oz Mania in the English Department
Oz is alive and well in the English Department. This year our students were presented with an opportunity to explore L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz, its sequels and its textual spin-offs in three different English courses, taught by Professors Michelle Herman, Susie Kneedler and Les Tannenbaum.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto." There are few Americans who wouldn't be able to identify the famous movie from which that phrase originates. The answer, of course, is The Wizard of Oz, the movie adaptation of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's story that has since become an American classic, inspiring a variety of movies and sequels, including the movie The Wiz and the musical Wicked. The cultural richness of the Oz story makes its uses and interpretations in the classroom as varied as the magical land itself.
In Les Tannenbaum's recent Honors section of English 110, student familiarity became one distinct advantage of using the Oz story, as most students have a personal connection to the text. Students, however, aren't always aware of the political and cultural importance of the story or its adaptations. The Wiz, for example, gave African-Americans "a piece of the Oz pie," and dealt with issues African-Americans were facing in the U.S. in the late seventies.
"This is a uniquely American myth," said Tannenbaum, "The core beliefs of it are distinctly American: the belief, for example, that the power is in the people. The Wizard, who represents the government, is himself ‘something of a humbug.' "
"Oz becomes a model of American culture, revealing so much about [students'] own lives and American life in general. It's enjoyable, but it also becomes the means for people to educate themselves on a variety of topics."
In Michelle Herman's Honors Special Topics in Literature seminar, students studied Oz retellings and responses, to understand how a culturally prevalent story is adapted and interpreted, and made into new art. The class examined everything from the musical Wicked to Geoff Ryman's recent postmodern novel, Was. The focus on Oz allowed the class the "best possible way to look at retellings as a modern cultural phenomenon," said Herman, "as well as gave us a chance to talk about what constitutes art."
Susie Kneedler, who uses the Oz story in a number of classes, considers the uniquely feminist aspects of the text by L. Frank Baum, and privileges its vision of Oz over the Hollywood movie, in which, Kneedler says, "everything is exaggerated." The books, however, are "revolutionary in their portrayal of women."
"The students have a strong reaction to Dorothy Gale [as portrayed in the books]. She's allowed to get angry, to have opinions. It's so unfamiliar to have a girl character portray these characteristics."
"The books admire women and girls even in their anger," said Kneedler. "The women and girls [in the books are] absolutely admirable: beautiful and strong, gentle, and capable of anger against injustice"
Oz in the classroom allows teachers to make an important pedagogical point: that a familiar story or idea, when analyzed, opens up to reveal the unfamiliar, allowing our students to see analysis as a way of opening new worlds.
