Entertaining Social Change
AMST 315
Fall 2017 not offered
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| Crosslisting:
ENGL 309, FGSS 315, CHUM 334 |
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; the political development of hip-hop (Gil Scott-Heron, NWA); politically edgy comedy (Lenny Bruce, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert); and movies (Malcolm X, Straight Outta Compton, No, Network, Where to Invade Next, Matewan, Wall Street, The Big Short). |
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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) |
Major Readings:
Movies include:
MALCOLM X, dir. Spike Lee (1992)
LENNY dir. Bob Fosse (1974)
STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, dir. F. Gary Gray (2015)
CSNY DÉJÀ VU, dir. Bernard Shakey [Neil Young] (2008)
NO, dir. Pablo Larraín (2012)
NETWORK, dir. Sidney Lumet (1976)
MATEWAN, dir. John Sayles (1987)
99 HOMES, dir. Ramon Bahrain (2014)
WALL STREET, dir. Oliver Stone (1987)
THE BIG SHORT, dir. Adam McKay (2015)
Other texts include (others TBA):
Barbara Kruger, 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 Bruce, selected writings
Woody Guthrie lyrics, Pete Seeger lyrics, Jackson Browne lyrics, Ani DiFranco lyrics, Father John Misty lyrics, Gil Scott-Heron lyrics, Public Enemy lyrics, NWA lyrics
Thomas Frank, "Alternative to What?" (1997)
Malcolm X, THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOLM X (1965)
George Saunders, "Exhortation," in THE TENTH OF DECEMBER (2012)
Jake Rosenfeld,"Little Labor" (2010)
Thomas Geoghegan, WERE YOU BORN ON THE WRONG CONTINENT? HOW THE EUROPEAN MODEL CAN HELP YOU GET A LIFE (2010)
Thomas Frank, PITY THE BILLIONAIRE: THE HARD-TIMES SWINDLE AND THE UNLIKELY COMEBACK OF THE RIGHT (2012)
Matthew Desmond, EVICTED: POVERTY AND PROFIT IN THE AMERICAN CITY (2015)
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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- 10 page essay), chapter 2 (second 7-10 page essay), chapter 3 (third 7-10 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. Most films will be streamed, but we may be viewing some that cannot be streamed on Sundays. |
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