ENGL 790/AMS 808: Studies in: Native American Renaissance 1968-Present.
In 1969, American Indian writing burst into the American literary consciousness with the awarding of the Pulitzer Prize to N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) for his novel House Made of Dawn. Taking its title from a Navajo chantway and fusing Native oral traditions with modernist techniques, it forever changed the course of American Indian writing. Since the landmark publication of Momaday’s novel, the field of American Indian literatures has grown exponentially. In essence, this course provides an overview of the construction of the field itself. We will focus on contemporary Native fiction and poetry from the “Native American Renaissance,” a movement than runs roughly from 1968 to 1983, into the 21st century along with an examination of current critical approaches and key debates in the field. Along with Momaday, primary texts may include those by Leslie Marmon Silko, Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich, James Welch, and Craig Womack, among others. Secondary texts will cover key debates over Native nationalism, cosmopolitanism and ethnocriticism from critics such as Craig Womack, Robert Allen Warrior, Jace Weaver, Gerald Vizenor and Paula Gunn Allen.
...historical, critical, cultural, technical, and aesthetic issues surrounding new media beginning as early as the 1960s to the present. Lens based, digital, and electronic art forms will be considered, including but not limited to video art, computer art, digital art, light art & projections, digital photography, and art film.
An examination of the major historical shifts, trends, and conflicts that have shaped the polycultural nature of life in the United States from 1877 to the present. In addition to tracing developments in literature, architecture, drama, music, and the visual arts, this course will investigate patterns and changes in the popular, domestic, and material culture of everyday life in America. Topics covered will include: African American cultures; circuses and world’s fairs; minstrelsy, ragtime, blues, jazz, and rock-and-roll music; the Holiness, Pentecostal, and evangelical movements; the rise of film, radio, and television; the growth of consumerism, suburbia, and urban ghettos; the advent of Cold War anticommunists and Beat Generation rebels; changing perceptions of gender, race, religion, and sexuality; the long 1960s; the civil rights, women’s liberation, and neoconservative movements; as well as war’s impact on American culture.
A multi-disciplinary course that examines the conceptual foundations of the theory and practice of funk. Employing a wide array of materials, including dance criticism, musicology, literature, and interviews, we will examine the aesthetic characteristics, philosophical principles, and performance practices associated with funk. Although most people tend to conceptualize funk in terms of the dance bands of James Brown, Sly Stone, George Clinton, and others, the earliest references to funk in English came from blues dancers and musicians near the turn of the twentieth century, and there is evidence to suggest that funk is a concept that survived the Middle Passage. As such, funk (or the funk impulse) is a fundamental element of virtually all black musical genres; it predates such terms as hot, swing, and soul, which seem to be synonyms of funk. How do we, then, account for the privileged space that funk occupies in the history of black vernacular performance? How do we document its presence and examine its cultural impact? Important clues can be found in the area of dance. And since the funk impulse is reflected most vividly in kinetic expression, especially dancing, the class will adopt George Clinton’s premise that if it makes you move your feet, “it’s the Funk.” Beginning with traditional African religions, we will examine the central role dancing played in possession rituals, and devote considerable attention to manifestations of this impulse in spirituals, blues, swing, soul, funk, and hip hop.
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