Entertaining Social Change
AMST 315
Fall 2016
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 309, FGSS 315, CHUM 334 |
| Certificates: Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory |
How has the systemic critique of social contradictions been popularized in modern times? We will consider the diverse strategies that artists, songwriters/performers, radical historians (working with cartoonists), and moviemakers have developed to entertain Americans--teach them, fascinate them, move them, persuade them, provoke them, make them laugh--so that Americans will be more inclined to entertain social critique. We will explore the popularizing (and the selling) of social critique in several genres: art (Barbara Kruger); graphic history (Howard Zinn, Paul Buhle); songs/song lyrics (Woody Guthrie/protest folksingers); folk-rockstars such as Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Jackson Browne, Ani DiFranco, and Father John Misty; Gil Scott-Heron, NWA (and the political development of hip-hop); politically edgy comedy (Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks); and movies (No, Network, Wall Street, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short, Up In the Air, Falling Down, Matewan, Blue Collar, Malcolm X). |
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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: Less than 50% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Movies include:
NO, dir. Pablo Larraín (2012)
NETWORK, dir. Sidney Lumet (1976)
BLUE COLLAR, dir. Paul Schrader (1978)
FALLING DOWN, dir. Joel Schumacher (1993)
UP IN THE AIR, dir. Jason Reitman (2009)
MATEWAN, dir. John Sayles (1987)
WALL STREET, dir. Oliver Stone (1987)
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, dir. Martin Scorses (2013)
THE BIG SHORT, dir. Adam McKay (2015)
MALCOLM X, dir. Spike Lee (1992)
Other texts (in some cases including movies related to them) include (others TBA):
Barbara Kruger, REMOTE CONTROL: POWER, CULTURE, AND THE WORLD OF APPEARANCES (1994), selected artwork
Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF AMERICAN EMPIRE (2008) (graphic history)
Paul Buhle and David Berger, BOHEMIANS: A GRAPHIC HISTORY (2014)
LENNY dir. Bob Fosse (1974), selections from Lenny Bruce's writings
Woody Guthrie, BOUND FOR GLORY (1943), Guthrie lyrics plus other protest song lyrics
CSNY DÉJÀ VU, dir. Bernard Shakey [Neil Young] (2008), CSNY lyrics, Jackson Browne lyrics, Ani DiFranco lyrics, Father John Misty lyrics
WHO IS GIL SCOTT-HERON? dir. Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (2015), Scott-Heron lyrics
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, dir. F. Gary Gray (2015), NWA lyrics
Malcolm X, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X (1965)
Robert W. McChesney, BLOWING THE ROOF OFF THE 21st CENTURY: MEDIA, POLITICS, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR POST-CAPITALIST DEMOCRACY (2014)
Juliet B. Schor, THE OVERWORKED AMERICAN: THE UNEXPECTED DECLINE OF LEISURE (1991)
Stephen Greenhouse, THE BIG SQUEEZE: TOUGH TIMES FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER (2008)
Andrew Ross, NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: LIFE AND LABOR IN PRECARIOUS TIMES (2009)
Ellen Meiksins Wood, "The Separation of the Economic and the Political in Capitalism," NEW LEFT REVIEW 127 (May-June 1981): 61-95
Ellen Meiksins Wood, DEMOCRACY AGAINST CAPITALISM: RENEWING HISTORICAL MATERIALISM (1995)
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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 conclusion. |
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.
Most films will be streamed, but we may be viewing some that cannot be streamed on Sundays. |
| Instructor(s): Pfister,Joel Times: ..T.... 07:10PM-10:00PM; Location: CFH106; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 4 | JR major: 4 | | |
| Seats Available: -1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 1 | JR non-major: 2 | SO: 3 | FR: 1 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 4 | 1st Ranked: 1 | 2nd Ranked: 2 | 3rd Ranked: 1 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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