COURSES--Fall 2002

ASCP 81500 - American Aesthetics GC: T, 11:45 a.m.-1:45 p.m., Rm. TBA, 2/4 credits, Prof. Joan Richardson [33782]{Cross listed with ENGL. 80200}

ASCP 81500 - American Language from Whitman- Mencken GC: Thurs, 11:45 a.m.-1:45 p.m., Rm. TBA, 2/4 credits, Prof. Marc Dolan, [37783] {Cross listed with ENGL. 85000} 

From Dante Alighieri's fourteenth-century Italy to Ngugi wa Thiong'o's twentieth-century Kenya, one of the most formative phases of any nation's cultural history is the quest for a distinctively national literary language. This seminar will examine the central phases of that quest in the United States: the search for an appropriately "American language" in the expansive years between the Civil War and World War I. As the union turned more and more into a nation, the seemingly formalist questions generated by this search inevitably became embroiled in the omnipresent concerns of racial equality and subcultural incorporation. Should American oral culture and American written culture obey different rules? Can there ever be such a thing as proper American speech? If so, who speaks it? Beyond speech, might consciousness itself necessarily vary from culture to culture, or even subculture to subculture? No theoretical background is assumed for this course, but some theory (e.g. Gramsci, Bakhtin, Ong) may be introduced along the way. Ideally, the seminar will draw on any number of theoretical approaches (historicist, Marxist, sociological, postcolonial, deconstructionist, linguistic, rhetorical, pragmatic), so that we can approach our questions from a number of mutually illuminating angles. Course requirements include active participation in class discussions, a relatively brief presentation summarizing relevant scholarship on a text under study, and a longer presentation and essay reflecting original scholarship in the field Required texts may include: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1860 edition); John W. DeForest, Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty (l867); Sarah Orne Jewett, Deephaven (1877); George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes (1880); Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884-85); Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896); Abraham Cahan, Yekl (1896);Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain (1903); Gertrude Stein, Three Lives (1909); Sui-Sin Far, Mrs. Spring Fragrance (1912); William Carlos Williams, Kora in Hell: Improvisations (1920); H.L. Mencken, selections from The American Language (1919-1948)

ASCP 81500 - Perversity & Contemporary American Poetry GC: T, 2:00-4:00 p.m., Rm. TBA, 2/4 credits, Prof. Wayne Koestenbaum, [37784] {Cross listed with ENGL. 87200} 

All verse is perverse, but this seminar makes special claims for the place of perversity in the contemporary American poetic scene. "Perversity" implies sexual errancy but also points to other "wrong" turns, including aesthetic felicities we could not live without. We will emphasize the role of objects--Things--in the work of consciousness, whether sublime or everyday. Sometimes these objects are inanimate, material; sometimes they are phantasmal fetishes. Indeed, the course could be subtitled, after an Amy Gerstler poem, "The Sexuality of Objects." We will read one volume of poetry per week. The syllabus in no way represents the entire field of contemporary American poetry; the quixotic list reflects, instead, my allegiances. Many of these poets are queer; all are living and refractory, and practice refusal. Some of the following will appear on the syllabus: Adrienne Rich, Marilyn Hacker, Eileen Myles, Thom Gunn, Myung Mi Kim, John Ashbery, Ha Jin, Louise Glück, Harryette Mullen, Reginald Shepherd, Anne Carson, Wanda Coleman, Frank Bidart, Richard Howard, David Trinidad. And more... (We will start with Adrienne Rich, and probably devote two weeks to her poems.) Some of these names may be obscure to you: part of contemporary poetry's perversity is its sectarian hiddenness. Requirements: a final essay, and a class presentation (which will take the form of a two-page position paper).

An introduction to research at presidential libraries; a survey of the literature of presidential studies; a selective examination of presidential autobiographies, authorized biographies, and memoirs by important aides and appointees; an analysis of selected studies of individual presidents; an overview of the commercial presidential biography industry

ASCP 81500 - American Orchestral Music 1790-1990 GC: W, 2:00-5:00 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. John Graziano, [37786] {Cross listed with MUS. 86100} 

A detailed survey of symphonic music in the United States from the end of the eighteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. We will explore the types of music written through the latter part of the nineteenth century,by composers such as Hommann, Heinrich, Fry, Stoepel, and Bristow, as well as the composers of the second New England School, including Beach, Chadwick, Parker, Paine, and Foote, and New York composer Edward MacDowell. The survey of twentieth century composers includes those active during the first half of the century (Griffes, Carpenter, Copland, Harris, etc.), as well as those associated with new trends in the last half (Foss, Glass, Adams, DelTredici, Torke, etc.). Two major papers and class presentations are required.

This course will examine the interplay between the distinctive American party system, the issues and cleavages which emerge at different periods in American politics, and the changing shape of the American electorate, as well as shifting patterns of electoral alignment. We will begin by considering some of the main perspectives which purport to explain the behavior of voters, the role of parties, and the origins of electoral systems. Then we will turn to a review of long term shifts that have occurred in the United States in the scale of voter participation, in the class, racial and gender skew of the electorate, and in the cleavages which organize the electorate, paying particular attention to the character of the party system that developed after the Civil War, and its persisting impact on national electoral politics. Lastly, we will turn to developments in American electoral politics in the past two decades, including the evidence of recent realignment or dealignment, and changes in the character of the American parties. Finally, we will consider the prospects for a democratic reinvigoration of electoral politics in the United States.

This course will cover the history of landscape painting in America from the Colonial period through the late 19^th century. Among the topics to be addressed will be the landscape backgrounds of Colonial portraits; the various interpretations of both the Hudson River School and Luminism; the impact of British Pre-Raphaelite Painting in America; and the American Barbizon Tradition. Grading will be based upon attendance, participation, and a final examination, though in certain cases a paper and class presentation will be allowed as substitution for the examination. Auditors permitted.

An exploration of the origins and early development of American literature. This course investigates the Puritan world view and its influence on American literature; the interactions between white society and the cultures of Native Americans and African Americans; the decline of Puritanism and the emergence of the American Enlightenment; and the political and social writings that led to the American Revolution. We will study representative colonial genres, including sermons, histories, journals, captivity narratives, religious and secular poetry, and political tracts. Among the authors considered are Anne Bradstreet, John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, Edward Taylor, Mary Rowlandson, Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin, St. Jean de Crevecouer, Thomas Jefferson, and Phillis Wheatley. Active participation in class discussions is encouraged. A 15-page term paper is required.

ASCP 82000- Lit of the American Civil War GC: T, 2:00-4:00 p.m., Rm. TBA, 2/4 credits, Prof. Fred Kaplan, [37790] {Cross listed with ENGL. 75100} 

Readings in fiction, poetry, and non-fictional prose centering around the American Civil War experience. The touchstone text for this course will be the two-volume Library of America edition of Lincoln, Speeches and Writings, 1832-1865. The course readings will radiate outward from Lincoln's words to considerations of, among others, Stowe, Whitman, Twain, Grant, James, and Crane. To some extent, we will be focusing on Lincoln as a writer and on literary discourse in America in regard to language, vision, and national trauma. We will be reading memoirs and autobiography as well as fiction and poetry. For example, the two Henry James works that we will discuss are his novel, The Bostonians, and Notes of a Son and Brother, his early twentieth-century autobiographical consideration of how the Civil War affected the James family and their world. The other works we will discuss are Mark Twain, "The Private History of a Campaign that Failed," Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, & Pudd'nhead Wilson; Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage; Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs; Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas; Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin; Mary Chestnut, The Private Diary of Mary Chestnut & Mary Chestnut's Civil War; Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1855), Drum Taps, & "Memories of President Lincoln," & Abraham Lincoln, Speeches and Writings, 1832-1865. Each student will be required to present an oral report and to write one essay for the course.

This course examines the lives of American women-- European, Indian, and African--from the colonial period to the early 19th century. Close attention will be paid to the following topics: demographic patterns and their impacton family structure; women and property; women and the law; women and work; religious institutions and practices; and variations in gender roles. The intersection of gender, race and class in shaping women's identities will be a central theme. Readings will include both secondary and primary sources.

ASCP 82000 - American Theatre/Drama Between World Wars GC: M, 2:00-4:00 p.m., Rm. TBA, 3 credits, Prof. David Savran, [37792] {Cross listed with THEA. 86100} 

The period between World Wars I and II witnessed the decline of vaudeville, minstrel shows, musical revues, melodrama, and burlesque and the emergence and consolidation of the forms that would dominate the American theatre for the remainder of the century, including the relatively highbrow, serious drama and the musical comedy. At the same time, theatre saw its preeminence as both a performing art and as a vital part of popular culture wane in the face of a new challenge from Hollywood, the sound-synchronized motion picture. This course studies a wide range of theatrical entertainments to chart the theatre's relationship to other cultural forms, both popular and elite, from movies and jazz to high Modernist art and architecture. It will also analyze the emergence of theatrical forms (like the Freud-inspired drama and the Living Newspaper) in relation to the political, philosophical, and economic upheavals of the period. Readings will include books and essays about the history of the different forms, theoretical works on Modernism, playscripts, and writings on the sociology of culture.

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