Understanding America
Units
are organized into five historically situated narratives about national
culture, belonging, and identity that have been struggled over in various
ways in the U.S.United States:
The
West
The American Hero
The Liberated Women
The Melting Pot
Free Choice
In this honors seminar, we will explore a diverse range of historically situated ideas about national culture, belonging, and identity in the United States as they are struggled over in such contentious and resilient American narratives as: "the West, "the American hero," "the liberated woman," "the melting pot," and "free choice." Using popular culture--including fiction, music, fashion, TV, and Hollywood cinema--as well as independent films and theoretical and historical texts, we will study how differently situated authors and performers articulate understandings of America in ways that reproduce, recall, and rework these dominant narratives. Discourse analysis is the tool we will learn about and use throughout the seminar as we proceed with this task.
1) Four short (3-5 page) papers synthesizing the materials we have studied for each study unit ("The West," etc.). This is not an "informal journal" assignment, but a call for short essays in which you organize your reflections around a thesis and support it with cited examples. Topics will be assigned, though there will be some flexibility in how you approach these, so long as you engage the discussions, readings, and films of that unit. (25% of grade)
2) Individual or group presentation on artifacts hailing the narratives we are studying. In other words, if you are doing "The Melting Pot," bring in an example of popular music, a news item, an advertising campaign, cartoon, literature, legislation, public policy, or you-name-it in which you can trace a narrative or counter-narrative pertaining to discourses about immigration, assimilation, pluralism, difference, etc., that we discussed in that section. How does the artifact you selected relate to themes that we have observed through our readings, films, and discussions? A paper will not be required of you for the unit on which you present. (25% of grade)
3) Final paper. (35% of grade)
Class participation will count for the remaining 15% of the grade.
Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (Harper, 1994).
Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Beacon, 2002).
Richard Kluger, Simple Justice (Random House, 1975).
Patricia Limerick, Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001).
Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Wooden Fish Songs (Boston : Beacon Press, 2000).
Louise Newman, White Women's Rights (Oxford University Press, 1999).
Americo Paredes, George Washington Gomez: a Mexicotexan Novel (Houston, Tex. : Arte Publico Press, 1990)
Leila Rupp, A Desired Past: A Short History of Same Sex Love in America (Chicago University Press, 1999)
Juliet Shor, Do Americans Shop Too Much? (Beacon Press 2000)
Garry Wills, John Wayne's America: the Politics of Celebrity (New York : Simon & Schuster, 1997).
Owen Wister, The Virginian (New York : Grosset & Dunlap, 1999).
Selected articles on reserve in Watson Library.
The staff of Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD), 135 Strong, 785-864-2620 (v/tty), coordinates accommodations and services for KU courses. If you have a disability for which you may request accommodation in KU classes and have not contacted them, please do as soon as possible. Please also see me privately in regard to this course.
Week 1
Aug. 22
Introduction to seminar themes, goals, key terms, and participants. What is American Studies? What is discourse analysis?
Week 2
Aug. 27
Reading: Limerick, Something in the Soil, Introduction and Part I, "Forgetting and Remembering" (13-105) Sign-ups for presentations. Be prepared to sign up for either an individual or group presentation on one of the five sections, "The West," "The American Hero," "The Liberated Woman," "The Melting Pot," or "Free Choice." See description of assignment above.
Aug. 29
Reading: Limerick, Part II, "Beleagured Great White Men" (107-165)
Week 3
Sept. 3
Reading: Half the class will read Limerick, Part III, "Environmental Impacts." The other half will read Limerick, Part IV, "The Historian as Dreamer." Be prepared to relate and comment on some of the main points of these chapters with one of your peers.
Sept. 5
Library Research Class--
Meet with American Studies Bibliographer, Gordon Anderson. Do not come to our classroom–meet instead in the Clark Instruction Center, Watson Library, just past the Reference Desk on the third floor, at our regularly scheduled class time. Attendance is mandatory and there is an assignment: Find a peer- reviewed scholarly journal article on any topic pertaining to the "American West" or America as "the West" in a global context. You will be asked to use this article in your essay on "The West," so be sure to find one that interests you! Bring to class the citation for your article on Tuesday.
Week 4
Sept. 10
Reading: Owen Wister, The Virginian (all) How does our reading and discussion of Limerick impact our impressions of Wister's novel? Of other representations of the American West? Films (excerpts): The Searchers, Dances With Wolves, and Smoke Signals. Citation due for the journal article you found on September 5.
Sept. 12
Reading (articles on reserve): Susan Lee Johnson, "A Memory Sweet to Soldiers: The Significance of Gender in the History of the American West," The Western Historical Quarterly 24:4 (November 1993), 495-517; Rayna Green, "The Pocahauntus Perplex," from Ruiz and Dubois, Unequal Sisters (1990, 1st edition). How might we analyze gender, race, class, and nation in representations of the American West?
Week 5
Sept. 17
Reading: Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (all). If some discourses are powerful enough to permeate everyday life, and if those dominant discourses benefit some people more than others, then what can be done to create more democratic "common sense" through other kinds of stories? Can people make totally new discourses that bypass pre-existing discourses? Where would these come from? Can people make counter-discourses that subvert dominant discourses? Can counter-discourses change everyday life?
Sept. 19
FIRST SHORT ESSAY DUE SEPT. 19
Presentations: "The West"
Week
6
Sept. 24
Reading: Garry Wills, John Wayne's America (Parts 1-4; 11-189)
Sept. 26
Reading: Wills (Parts 5-Conclusion; 191-314 ) Film: (excerpts): John Wayne films (TBA), Thelma and Louise; music video: KD Lang, "Pullin' Back the Reins."
Week 7
Oct. 1
Reading: Americo Paredes, George Washington Gomez (Parts I-III)
Oct. 3
Reading: George Washington Gomez (Parts IV and V)
Week 8
Oct. 8
Reading: Richard Kruger, Simple Justice (chapters distributed among groups to share with peers) and (article on reserve in Watson) Bill Tuttle, from Embattled Lawrence.
Oct. 10
SECOND SHORT ESSAY DUE OCT. 24
Presentations: "The American Hero"
Week 9
Oct. 15
Reading: Louise Newman, White Women's Rights (chapters TBA)
Film: Drop Dead Gorgeous (excerpts)
No classes Oct. 17, Fall Break
Week 10
Oct. 22
Reading: Newman (Chapters TBA)
Oct. 24
Reading (articles on reserve): Chandra Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourse;" Elsa Barkley Brown, "Polyrhythms and Improvisations;" and Sherna Gluck, et al, "Whose Feminism, Whose History?: Reflections on Excavating the History of (the) US Women's Movement(s)" from Nancy Naples, Community Activism and Feminist Politics: Organizing across Race, Class and Gender.
Week 11
Oct. 29
Presentations: "The Liberated Woman"
THIRD SHORT ESSAY IS DUE
No class October 31
Week 12
Nov. 5
Reading: Ruthanne Lum McCunn, Wooden Fish Songs (3-201).
Nov. 7
Reading: McCunn (205-381)
Film: Ethnic Notions (60 minutes)
Week 13
Nov. 12
Reading: Leila Rupp, A Desired Past: A Short History of Same Sex Love in America.
Film: Black Is, Black Ain't (86 minutes)Nov. 14
Readings (articles on reserve): bell hooks, "Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance," from Black Looks (Boston: South End Press, 1992); and Michael Rogin, "Democracy and Burnt Cork": The End of Blackface, the Beginning of Civil Rights," Representations, No. 46. (Spring, 1994).
Film: The King of Jazz (excerpts)
Week 14
Nov. 19
Presentations: "The Melting Pot"
FOURTH SHORT ESSAY DUE
Week 14
Nov. 21
Reading: Juliet Shor, Do Americans Shop Too Much? (all)
Film: (excerpts) Toy Story
Week 15
Nov. 26
Reading: (articles on reserve): Marlene Gerber Fried, Abortion in the United States: Barriers to Access," Health and Human Rights: An International Journal Vol. 4, No. 2 (2000), 175-194; Rosalind Petchesky, "Rights and Needs: Rethinking the Connections in Debates over Reproductive and Sexual Rights," Health and Human Rights: An International Journal Vol. 4, No. 2 (2000), 17-29.
Film: (excerpts) Citizen RuthNo Class November 28
Week 16
Dec. 3
Reading (articles on reserve): Lani Guinier, Chapter 9 from Lift Every Voice, electoral politics articles TBA. Film: (excerpts) ElectionDec. 5
Presentations: "Free Choice"
FIFTH SHORT ESSAY DUE
Week 17
Dec. 10
Reading: Robin D.G. Kelley, Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, vii-134.
Film: This is What Democracy Looks Like
Dec. 12
Reading: Kelley, 135-198.
Final papers are due on Thursday, December 19, by 2:00 noon
