-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fall Newberry Course
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:05:15 -0500
From: rosetree <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*Dear Friends,*
*
*
*Once again I'll be leading a seminar at the Newberry Library in the
Fall. Starting with a discussion of Thomas Paine's/ Common Sense/, this
course aims to review the way literature has imagined what American
could be like. These visions, utopian and dystopian, have changed
through the 200 years since Paine. We'll use as course material, in
addition to/ Common Sense/, a selection of short readings from a wide
range of authors to the present time. We'll conclude by reading two
contemporary novels: John Edgar Wideman's Philadelphia Fire and
Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. The catalog info is below, along
with the on line registration information and the telephone contact
information.*
*
*
*In addition, I've added below a more extensive description of the
course. If you have any further questions, I'll be happy to answer
them! Of course I'd be delighted if you would sign up for the class too!*
*
*
*Lew*
*
*
*
*
*Fire in the Mind: Literary Visions of a New America*
Saturdays, 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
September 29 - November 17
8 sessions, $160
_Register Online_ (Visa, MasterCard, and American Express accepted)
Writers have been among the most politically active citizens. Some of
the most memorable writing in the American canon reached beyond social
critique to offer paths to a new, free society. Books like/ Looking
Backward/ and/ The Jungle/ reached huge numbers of people in their day.
Through these and more contemporary works, we will explore the nature of
social change and the place that art has in that process.
/*Lew Rosenbaum* is Director of the Chicago Labor and Arts Festival and
editor of the/ Chicago Labor and Arts Notes/. He was owner/manager of
Guild Books./
you can register on line at
http://www.newberry.org/programs/semfall2007.html or phone seminars
manager Tom Popelka at (312) 255-3592.
Here is the syllabus for the class along with the selection of xeroxed
reading materials. We'll rely heavily on the recently published
anthology, American Working Class Literature, edited by Nick Coles and
Janet Zandy.
*Fire in the Mind: Literary Visions of a New America*
American literature and American politics are inseparably
intertwined. Novelists, poets and essayists have translated deeply
felt social concerns into some of the most memorable critiques in
the American literary canon. Writers have gone beyond the critique
to suggest what might be. This seminar probes the link between
thought and action - between the creative ideas of American writers
and the process of social transformation from which they arose, and
which they helped to develop. Out of these works a a two sided
portrait emerges: a picture of social degradation and the kernel of
a self-conscious working class. Students are encouraged to use the
lectures and discussion to explore what is the nature of social
change and what place does art have in that process.
Coming out of the rationalism and deism of the 18th century, Thomas
Paine laid the foundation for the written exposure of the issues of
the day along with a prescription for the establishment of a free
society. Starting with a review of the Paine's America and the
transformation he sought, this seminar takes excerpts from the work
of Frederick Douglass, Chief Seattle, Walt Whitman and Edward
Bellamy to examine how those themes were developed in the nineteenth
century. Five seminsr sessions concentrate on writers of the
twentieth century, with excerpts from the work of Jack London (The
Iron Heel), Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), John Steinbeck (In Dubious
Battle), Meridel Le Sueur, Richard Wright, and Langston Hughes.
In the last two sessions, we'll read two contemporary novels that
challenge the imagination in two different genres: Octavia Butler
in science fiction and John Edgar Wideman in a cross between memoir
and novel.
In the eight weeks of this seminar, participants will be required to
read three texts and approximately 150 pages of material copied into
a syllabus. The goal of these sessions is to give the participants a
sense of the sources of vision in American literature. Participants
will read / Common Sense/ for the first session, which will
introduce students to the themes of the seminar. The next 5
sessions will use the copied texts as the basis of discussion.
Butler's/ Parable of the Sower/ and Wideman's/ Philadelphia Fire/
will be texts for the last two sessions. The authors of these
seminal works all address questions of what is the "movement" and,
to a greater or lesser extent, provide a vision of what is possible.
Each session will include an hour presentation of material, followed
by an hour discussion. Seminar participants will explore questions
of class, movement and vision, and how they are represented in the
works reviewed. What is the picture of the working class that
emerges from these works? Stylistic devices are different now; but
is there also a difference in content and goals?
*Fire in the Mind: Literary Visions of a New America Seminar
Outline*
*I. The times that try men's souls: Tom Paine*
This class introduces participants to the concepts used in this
seminar and how they are used: e.g., class, working class movement
and working class literature. How does freedom and slavery present
itself in this work? * Reading*: / Common Sense/
*II & III Slavery, the eight-hour day, and utopia*
The movement of workers gained strength as it identified slavery as
the drag on the movement of free workers. The post Civil-War
explosion of populism, anarchism and socialism paralleled the
explosion of wealth during the "gilded age." The work of Walt
Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, Edward Bellamy
and Charlotte Perkins Gilman reflected and fed these movements.
* Excerpts from: Whitman*/ Leaves of Grass/*, Douglass*/ A Narrative
Life/, * Bellamy*/ Looking Backward/
*IV. When the eight hour dream becomes a nightmare*
They started out as reporters, Jack London and Upton Sinclair. They
all became socialists, each with a distinctive way of portraying
what happens to the workers as a result of the modern factory. For
Sinclair, the eight-hour day was often a lie, and life outside the
factory became a hell. Jack London took this further, when he
foresaw the political consequences of capital's concentration of power.
John Steinbeck and Meridel Le Sueur chronicled the down and out of
the depression in their most significant work. Richard Wright
portrays the urban and rural plight of African Americans, North and
South.
* Readings : Excerpts from:Upton Sinclair */ The Jungle, /* Jack
London*/ The Iron Heel/* John Steinbeck*/ In Dubious Battle,/*
Meridel Le Sueur*/ The Girl, /* Richard Wright*/ Uncle Tom's Children/
*V. Literature, the Labor Movement and Communism*
The depression at home as well as international political events
combined to influence most of the writers in the thirties. The
Soviet Union and the American Communist Party played a large role
in the political leanings of the writers, including the formation of
the League of American Writers and the American Writers
Congress. * Readings: Excerpts from*:/ In Dubious Battle/,/ Uncle
Tom's Children, /* Franklin Folsom's*/ Days of Anger, Days of Hope,/
/
/
*VI. The Time of the Toad*
The rise of the Cold War economy and what has become known
politically as the McCarthy Period had a devastating effect on
American popular culture. What happened to the American Writers
Congress, writers like Le Sueur and like Steinbeck? * Lillian
Hellman*'s speech to the House Unamerican Activities Committee,
recounted in/ Scoundrel Time/, serves as the backdrop for discussing
the writers reaction to the post war period.* Dalton Trumbo* refused
to testify, and indicted those who did with his manifesto: / Time of
the Toad./* Readings: Excerpts from*/ Scoundrel Time/ and/ Time of
the Toad./
/
/
*VII. Sisyphus? Contemporary Writers without a Movement*
In/ Philadelphia Fire/,* John Edgar Wideman* straddles the literary
genres to give us a novel of intense power and a memoir of an
intense period. In the novel he places himself as a character
returning to Philadelphia, to the site of the destruction of a black
neighborhood by the police. Does anybody remember? What has
happened to the movement he knew, to the people he knew, to the
possibilities he had once dreamed? * Reading*: / Philadelphia Fire/
*VIII. Beyond Sisyphus: What could the movement look like?*
Science Fiction is a genre which challenges borders, by its nature
refuses to be contained within the box that our senses perceive.
It's fitting to end this seminar with a consideration of the late*
Octavia Butler's* work,/ Parable of the Sowe/r. Taking place on the
(unrecognizable) west coast of the US 30 years from now, Butler
describes a world riven by extreme class divisions, exacerbated by
extreme environmental changes. Butler poses serious questions about
what kind of movement is up to the challenge presented by
experiences and possibilities no groups had ever faced before.*
Reading*:/ Parable of the Sower/
*Packet Contents and Class Outline*
The first section, selections from/* American Working Class
Literature*/, is divided according to when it will be covered in the
seminars. The next five sections are organized to be read along
with the appropriate works in the first section.
*Contents*
Section I: Selections From/ American Working Class Literature / (AWCL)
Section !!: For Class 2
Walt Whitman: Great are the Myths (from/ Leaves of Grass/)
Harriet Beecher Stowe: / Uncle Tom's Cabin/
Edward Bellamy: from/ Looking Backward/
Section III: For Class 3
W.E.B. DuBois, from/ The Souls of Black Folk/
Upton Sinclair: selection from the end of/ The Jungle/
Section IV: For Class 4
Meridel Le Sueur: from/ The Girl/
John Steinbeck: from/ In Dubious Battle/
Langston Hughes: from/ Collected Poems/
Section V: For Class 5
Franklin Folsom: from/ Days of Anger, Days of Hope/
Richard Wright: from "Bright and Morning Star," from/ Uncle Tom's
Children/
Howard Fast: from/ Peekskill USA/
Lillian Hellman: from/ Scoundrel Time/
John Beecher: from/ Selected Poems/
Section VI: For Class 6
Gwendolyn Brooks: from/ Winnie/
*Class Outline*
Class 1: Introduction (Reading is Thomas Paine's/ Common Sense/)
Class 2: Slavery, the Eight Hour Day, and Utopia
Readings: in AWCL and Packet Section 2
Class 3: When the Eight Hour Dream Becomes a Nightmare
Readings: in AWCL and Packet Section 3
Class 4: Literature, the Labor Movement, The Depression
Readings: in AWCL and Packet Section 4
Class 5: Literature, Communism, and the Time of the Scoundrels
Readings: Packet Section 5 (no readings from AWCL)
Class 6: What Happens Now?
Readings: in AWCL and Packet Section 6
Class 7: / Philadelphia Fire / (John Edgar Wideman)
Class 8. / Parable of the Sower/ (Octavia Butler)
--
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*A revolutionary poem will not tell you who or when to kill,* what and
when to burn, or even how to theorize. It reminds you (for you have
known, somehow, all along, maybe lost track) where and when and how you
might live -- it is a wick of desire.
Adrienne Rich,/ What
is Found There/, p 241
for Lew Rosenbaum reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
for Diana Berek reply to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________
Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org)
[email protected]
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
http://macmmuf.org/mailman/listinfo/list_macmmuf.org
