Entertaining Social Change
AMST 315
Spring 2020
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 309, FGSS 315 |
| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
| Course Cluster: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory Certificate |
"Our problem," Tom Frank writes," is that we have a fixed idea of what power is, of how power works, and of how power is to be resisted." This is especially true of "entertainment" as a transformative power. Our aim will be to advance critical entertainment studies. A thread that connects all of our texts will be: how has the systemic critique of social contradictions been popularized as fascinating in modern times? We will consider the diverse strategies that progressive songwriters/performers, radical historians (working with cartoonists), and mainly moviemakers have developed to entertain Americans--to teach, persuade, provoke, seduce, and move them through laughter, tears, and not least of all ideas--so that Americans will be more inclined to entertain social critique that inspires social change. We will explore the popularizing (and sometimes the selling) of social critique in several genres: graphic history (Howard Zinn, Paul Buhle); songs/song lyrics of folk-protest singers (such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Phil Ochs), of folk-rock stars (such as Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, and Father John Misty), and of the developers of hip-hop (such as Gil Scott-Heron, Public Enemy, and NWA); and politically edgy comedy (Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert). We will devote most of our attention to movies (STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, THE PEOPLE SPEAK, MALCOLM X, MEDIUM COOL, NETWORK, EL NORTE, SMOKE SIGNALS, BEFORE THE FLOOD, THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION, SALT OF THE EARTH, MATEWAN, 99 HOMES, THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, THE BIG SHORT). And we will place special emphasis on self-reflexive movies about entertainment and about labor/social movement organizing. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(ENGL)(FGSS)(FILM-MN)(HRAD-MN) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 50% - 74% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Movies include:
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, dir. F. Gary Gray (2015)
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, dir. Martin Scorses (2013)
THE PEOPLE SPEAK, dir. Howard Zinn, Chris Moore, Anthony Arnove (2009), featuring Howard Zinn
MALCOLM X, dir. Spike Lee (1992)
MEDIUM COOL, dir. Haskell Wexler (1969)
NETWORK, dir. Sidney Lumet (1976)
EL NORTE, dir. Gregory Nava (1984)
SMOKE SIGNALS, dir. Chris Eyre (Cheyenne and Arapaho) (1998)
BEFORE THE FLOOD, dir. Fisher Stevens (2016), featuring Leonardo DiCaprio
SALT OF THE EARTH, dir. Herbert Biberman (1954)
MATEWAN, dir. John Sayles (1987)
99 HOMES, dir. Ramon Bahrain (2014)
THE BIG SHORT, dir. Adam McKay (2015)
Other texts (in some cases including movies related to them) include (others TBA):
Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE: A GRAPHIC ADAPTATION (2008) (graphic history)
Malcolm X, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X (1965)
Naomi Klein, NO IS NOT ENOUGH: RESISTING TRUMP'S SHOCK POLITICS AND WINNING THE WORLD WE NEED (2017)
Steve Almond, "THE JOKE'S ON YOU . . . THE DAILY SHOW AND THE COLBERT REPORT" (2012)
Jake ROSENFELD, "LITTLE LABOR: HOW UNION DECLINE IS CHANGING THE AMERICAN LANDSCAPE" (2010)
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Examinations and Assignments:
Each student will write a brief "book": title page, contents page, 2-page introduction, chapter 1 (first 7-page essay), chapter 2 (second 7-page essay), chapter 3 (third 7-page essay), 2 page afterword. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
Each student will team up with another student a couple of times during the term to raise questions about the texts we are "unpacking" together. For most of the term we will be discussing movies and showing key scenes in class to "unpack" together (scenes chosen by the students raising questions and by the professor). Most films will be streamed with no fee. In very few instances, students will have to have "rent" access to Netflix or another source to stream a film |
| Instructor(s): Pfister,Joel Times: ...W... 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: DWNY208; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 4 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 10 | 1st Ranked: 2 | 2nd Ranked: 2 | 3rd Ranked: 2 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 4 |
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