| College English textbooks are regarded as the important carrier for cultivating intercultural communication skills and achieving intercultural understanding.How college English textbooks interpret and construct others has an irreplaceable role in shaping college students' cultural views of others,guiding college students how to treat others,getting along with others,and forming intercultural understanding.Studying the changes of "the other" in college English textbooks is not only helpful to promote the research on the important "the other" issue in critical textbook research,but also to understand the connotation of “the other” in college English textbooks and understand the essence of cultural changes of college English textbooks.It is of great significance to improve the reality of college English textbook culture selection and adaption,and to realize the purpose of college English intercultural education.Based on Stuart Hall's cultural representation theory,the study regards “ the other” as the entry point,and treats college English textbooks as a system of cultural representations about “the other”,which makes “the other” in college English textbooks has the specific “meaning” under the effect of sharing cultural codes.In order to analyze the changes of “the other” in college English textbooks and interpret the cultural and political significance behind the change,this paper constructs a cultural analysis framework of "the other" in the college English textbooks,which is used to investigate the 465 texts of other countries in the 12 sets of 40 college English textbooks in the past 70 years since the foundation of People's Republic of China through longitudinal historical investigation,horizontal comparative analysis,and comprehensive representation theory discussion.The paper explores the trajectory of “the other” in the college English textbooks and the deep meaning behind the change from four levels,they are: "what changes","how it changes","how is the change","how should it change".With the content analysis method supplemented by the historical investigation method and the comparative analysis method,based on the historical investigation of the three background factors "society,discipline,educational standards" of the textbook knowledge selection and the cultural analysis of "the other" in textbooks,the paper intends to reveal the history and characteristics of the changes of “the other” in college English textbooks in different historical periods,and to explore the process and essence of the representation of “the other” and its cultural significance.Meanwhile,based on the problems the changes may bring,the paper intends to build an ideal path for cultural selection and adaptation of college English textbooks.The main findings are as follows:First,college English textbooks use representation strategies of “the other” to construct self-imagined western others.Based on the statistical analysis of 465 foreign country texts,and the division of the historical development stages of college English textbooks in the history of foreign language education from other foreign language educational professionals,the paper divides the historical development of “the other” in college English textbooks into 4 stages.They are: an initial formation period(1949-1965),severe damage period(1966-1977),recovery development period(1978-1998)and stable development period(1999-2019),respectively.Based on the frequency of the foreign countries mentioned in texts,seven major western powers are identified as the basic objects of cultural content analysis.Through the historical investigation of the social background,disciplinary background,and educational standards that can affect the choice of textbook knowledge and attitudes to western culture in each historical period,combined with the framework of “the other” cultural analysis,the paper summarizes the characteristics of “the other” in each period.The study finds that under the combined influence of socio-political,diplomatic,economic,and cultural factors,70 years of college English textbooks use different representational strategies of “the other” to form different characteristics of “the other” in four periods.They are: "the opposite capitalist other" under the binary opposition strategy,"the absent bourgeois other" under the exclusive and negative strategy,"the equivalent American technological other" under the simplification and reduction strategy,and "the coexisting Americanized humanistic other" under the strategy of essentializing.Second,college English textbooks construct the “self-oriented”other based on national ideology.Based on the historical investigation of the changes of “the other” in stages,the paper further compares and summarizes the features of "the other" changes horizontally in the 70-year college English textbooks.After another comparative analysis from the features of the cultural content change of seven main western countries in textbooks,analysis from the interaction between the external factors of the textbook and the internal cultural content changes of “the other”,and analysis from the overall characteristics of the change direction and degree,the paper finds that the content of college English textbooks in China presents an "positively oriented,Americanized,technologically advanced,and socially unequal" image of “the other”.Also,the changes of the internal and external interactions present the " self-oriented" other based on national ideology,which is specifically expressed from the two different presenting ways of “the other”: the one is the social system differences under the socialist political ideology;the other is social culture differences under the socialist cultural ideology.Besides,the overall feature of the changes of “the other” presents a nonlinear development process intertwined with sudden and gradual changes.Third,after reflecting on the history and characteristics of the changes of “the other”,the changes of "the other" in college English textbooks essentially reflects the process of self-oriented "othering" dominated by the state power.With the help of Hall's theory about the relationship between representational differences and power/knowledge,and the relationship between representational differences and identification,the paper regards power / knowledge and identification as the two sides of cultural representations.The relationship between the representation of “othering” and the state power,and the relationship between the representation of “othering” and the national identity in college English textbooks are discussed in details,so as to demonstrate the the essence of so-called "othering" in college English textbooks under the control of the state power.The paper finds that “the other” in college English textbooks is always in the relationship between the selforiented “egoistic-self” and “the other”,that is,it is either in the relationship between the subjective self and “the other”,which means the other is in the opposite relationship with the self,and the other is in a position dependent on the subject's culture;or it is in the intersubjective self-other relationship,which means “the other” is forming a mutually beneficial interest relationship with the self.At the same time,the paper further analyzes the inequality issue that may arise from the practice of othering,which helps to lay the foundation for further breakthroughs in the dilemma of “othering” in college English textbooks.Finally,the paper puts forward the path of “otherness-centered” cultural selection and adaptation of college English textbooks.Based on the analysis of the process,characteristics,essence and problems of “the other” changes in the representative college English textbooks since the foundation of People's Republic of China,the paper believes that in order to solve the inequality problems brought by the practice of “the other” representations in college English textbooks,the selection and adaptation of other cultures in college English textbooks should first balance the relationship between social needs and human subjectivity,and pay attention to the display of human subjectivity in the selection of textbook culture;it also should balance the relationship between national culture and world culture,so as to build a "cultural diversity and world integration"-centered integration pattern.After handling the above two major relationships,based on Levinas' theory of otherness,the paper discusses the otherness-centered college English textbook culture selection and adaptation path from 3 dimensions,which are "affirming the otherness","establishing a responsible asymmetric relationship between the self and the Other" and "facing the Other ",so as to construct a cultural symbiosis organism with "difference and symbiosis",and to achieve a truly “equal” intercultural communication,dialogue and understanding. |
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