Reenacting Justice: Guns in America
HIST 209
Spring 2024
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
AMST 293, STS 209 |
This seminar, developed in collaboration with visiting guest instructor Glenn LaVertu (Parsons), combines readings, discussion, archival research, storyboarding, project-based learning, legal analysis, and filmmaking in presenting new takes on an old genre: Westerns. We will read and watch Westerns alongside study of the development of the American legal system, considering the aesthetics of justice, narrative, and guns. Students will work on film and theater projects related to the manufacturing, use, and mythologization of "Old West" in popular culture, television, and film. Film projects will be screened and discussed at the Center for the Study of Guns and Society's annual undergraduate conference on Thursday, April 25, and Friday April 26, 2024, and at the presentation of "Stories of Carceral Connecticut," a celebration of student projects for the Mellon Foundation project, "Carceral Connecticut," on Friday, May 3, 2024. (Both events are required). The course will consider the aesthetics of storytelling, guns, and justice, as well as be a lab for creating and narrating new stories. Engaging with contemporary debates about Westerns as manifestations of American gun culture, the purpose of the project is to draw parallels between the way in which gun violence is portrayed in film, particularly period, Western movies, and the realities of gun violence today. The final project is an opportunity to expose multiple points of view regarding gun violence and justice and their socio-political effects, and to write and develop new scripts, storyboards, and film scenes, as well as study old ones.
Assignments and Grading System:
Grading is based on weekly assignments and participation, an in-class midterm on the readings, and a final project.
Requirements:
- Class Participation (20%): Regular attendance, submission of weekly 1-2 pg written critical reflections on assigned topics (e.g. a primary source, an advertisement or magazine article, a report about a field trip or movie, etc. ) Participation in the April 25 evening student mini-film festival and April 26 all-day undergraduate research conference is required.
- Midterm (40%): In-class midterm on the readings and discussions (in class; Thursday before break).
- Final project (40%): (20% for the project; 10% on the written artist's statement; 10% for the presentation at the April 25 mini-film festival night and April 26 panel).
Required Texts
(Available for purchase at the bookstore, and available for free reading on Olin e-reserve through the Course Moodle).
- *Joyce, Justin A. Gunslinging Justice: The American Culture of Gun Violence in Westerns and the Law (Manchester Univ. Press 2018).
- Densley, James ed. The Conversation on Guns (JHU Press, 2023).
- Light, Caroline E. Stand Your Ground: A History of America's Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense (Beacon Press 2017).
- McKevitt, Andrew C. Gun Country: Gun Capitalism, Culture & Control in Cold War America (Univ of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2023).
Additional writings (e-reserve at Olin Library and on Moodle) are by Kelly I. Aliano, The Performance of Video Games: Enacting Identity, History and Culture through Play (2022); Vanessa Agnew et al, Handbook of Reenactment Studies: Key Terms (2023); and Priya Satia; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; Richard Slotkin; Gillian Rose; Carol Anderson, Jennifer Carlson, Terrence H. Witkowski, Lindsay Livingston, Peter Boag, Joan Burbick, Jelani Cobb, and more. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS HIST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST)(HIST-MN)(HIST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
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