Art and protest in 20th century America.

English Department, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Instructor: Joseph Entin (jentin@brooklyn.cuny.edu)

Course Description: This course examines twentieth-century American art that seeks to expose injustice and point the way to a more democratic, egalitarian society. We will explore

several artistic and social movements, reading them in the context of the historical periods in which they emerged. We will place particular emphasis on fiction, but will also examine drama, poetry, photography, film, and painting. Much of the art we will be discussing is expressly experimental in its shape and form, and we will be investigating the ways in which formal innovations relate to an artwork's political stance. Students will not only gain a feel for the larger cultural periods (the Depression, the Cold War, the Reagan Era) and social movements (the labor movement, the Civil Rights movement, the feminist movement) that shaped American history, but will also learn to write with insight and detail about a variety of artistic forms. We will explore the meaning of "protest" and examine art produced by a wide range of groups, including Greenwich Village bohemians, 1930s documentarians, the Beats, anti-war writers, Chicano/a artists, AIDS activists, and others.

Assignments and Procedures: Twice during the semester, each of you will take responsibility for leading a small group discussion. At the beginning of the class session, we will break into groups of 4-5 students and the day's appointed discussion leaders will facilitate an initial conversation on the assigned reading materials. On the week you are scheduled to lead a small group, you will be responsible for several things. First, you must read the materials very carefully and bring to class 5 copies of a sheet with 5-6 discussion questions about the week's readings. Second, you must identify at least three passages from the readings that address some of the questions you propose for discussion. Third, you must lead the small group conversation, starting off by describing what interested you most about the reading, presenting your questions, and then facilitating the conversation. Finally, you will write a 2-3 page paper on the readings you discussed. This paper will be due one week after the discussion itself.

In addition to these short papers, you will also write two essays. The first will be a 4-5 page essay that analyzes one of the texts we've read, addressing issues and questions we've been considering during the semester. The second paper will be a 7-10 page research paper on an aspect of protest art that interests you. You can write about a work of protest art, such as a novel, play, painting, or film; an artist; a movement or artistic collective, etc. Be creative and choose a topic that really interests you. After selecting a topic, you will formulate a research question, develop a bibliography, and submit a first paragraph before completing the final paper itself.

Readings below marked with an "*" are in the course packet.

Week 1

Introduction; in class: Langston Hughes, "Let America Be America Again"

Week 2: Bohemian New York: Feminism, Free Speech, and Labor Politics

Murray Edelman, "Art: Transformations and Challenges," from From Art to Politics *

Christine Stansell, selections from American Moderns: Bohemian New York and the Creation of a New Century *

Jack London, "The Apostate" *; photographs by Lewis Hine

Week 3: From the Thirties: Proletarian Modernism Tillie Olsen, Yonnondio

Week 4: The Cultural Front: Gender, Labor, and Ethnicity in the Depression

Muriel Rukeyser, "The Book of the Dead" *

Pietro di Donato, "Christ in Concrete" *

Week 5: The Art of Documentary

James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, selections

Research topic and question due

Week 6: Text, Image, and Racial Injustice

Richard Wright, 12 Million Black Voices

Week 7: Cracks in the Cold War Consensus: Voices from the Margins

FILM: Salt of the Earth (dir. Herbert Biberman, 1954) Ellen Schrecker, "'How Red Is a Valley': Clinton Jencks and His Union," from Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America *

Allen Ginsberg, "Howl" and "America" *; 4-5 page paper due

Week 8: Performing Chicano/a Protest

Goldman and Ybarra-Frausto, "The Political and Social Contexts of Chicano Art" *

Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit *

Week 9: The Arts of Black Power

LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Dutchman

Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure), "What We Want" *

Nikki Giovanni, selected poems *

Sonia Sanchez, selected poems *

Annotated bibliography due

Week 10: Feminism

Adrienne Rich, selected poems*

Alice Echols, "'Nothing Distant About It': Women's

Liberation and Sixties Radicalism," from The Sixties: From Memory to History *

Week 11: Narrative and the Crisis of Viemam

Michael Herr, "Breathing In," "Breathing Out," from Dispatches *

Tim O'Brien, "How to Tell a True War Story," from The Things They Carried *

Week 12: AIDS, Theater, and Politics in Reagan's America

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: Millennium Approaches Richard Meyer, "This Is to Enrage You: Gran Fury and the Graphics of MDS Activism," from But Is It Art? *

Week 13: student presentatious

Week 14: student presentatious; reflections; final paper due