Galleries of Student Hypertexts: The Interpretation of Cultures


This section of "What Is Culture?" consists of four galleries. Each gallery contains an introduction, one or two model hypertexts which are more or less permanent parts of the exhibit, and -- eventually -- a number of student-authored hypertexts. If you are a WSU student interested in contributing a hypertext to one of these galleries, or if you're interested in proposing a new gallery, please contact the authors. If you teach at WSU and would like your students to produce course projects for display in these galleries, you, too, are encouraged to contact the authors.

The goal here is to explore ways in which cultural systems operate. One of the ideas we emphasize in our baseline definition of culture is that culture is constantly being negotiated -- a better understanding how cultural systems are shaped, reproduced and changed gives you more power to participate in that process of negotiation. Writing about these processes is one of the best ways to work toward that enhanced understanding.

The gallery topics here are arbitrary and overlapping, designed as a framework for illustration rather than for definition; we encourage you to make connections between these categories and to question the boundaries and distinctions being made between them. We also encourage you to read the hypertexts in these galleries with a critical eye -- all of the authors here, including (and most importantly) the student authors, are attempting to illustrate interpretive processes, but by no means are any of us claiming that our interpretations or processes are definitive. They are, in fact, as relative as is culture itself.
Return to What Is Culture? page.