Spring 2020  |  AMST 3252W Section 001: American Popular Culture and Politics: 1900 to 1940 (66133)

Instructor(s)
Class Component:
Lecture
Credits:
4 Credits
Grading Basis:
Student Option
Instructor Consent:
No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:
In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:
UMNTC Liberal Education Requirement
Times and Locations:
Regular Academic Session
 
01/21/2020 - 05/04/2020
Tue, Thu 11:15AM - 12:30PM
UMTC, East Bank
Nicholson Hall 155
Enrollment Status:
Open (75 of 76 seats filled)
Course Catalog Description:
Historical analysis of how popular arts represent issues of gender, race, consumerism, and citizenship. How popular artists define boundaries of citizenship and public life: inclusions/exclusions in polity and national identity. How popular arts reinforce/alter political ideologies.
Class Description:
This writing-intensive course explores some of the social and cultural shifts that emerged in the U.S. at the turn of the twentieth century following a series of wars (particularly the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, wars with Native Americans, the Spanish-American War, and the Philippine-American War) and in response to new technologies that developed out of the Industrial Revolution during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Focusing on a variety of popular cultural forms (including world's fairs, film, urban night life, fiction, radio, music, and fashion) nascent during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, we will explore the ways in which culture and politics have informed one another across space and over time. We will specifically discuss how questions of race, class, gender, and sexuality--among other vectors of identity--shaped competing definitions of American national identity during this period and how various groups sought to contest such boundaries. Moreover, we will analyze the multiple meanings of the "popular" and its relation to "high" culture in order to lay bare the politics of inclusion and exclusion central to the U.S. national project. While recognizing the pleasures of popular culture, this course aims to highlight the power of popular culture as well as culture more broadly to transform the world in which we live.
Grading:
30% Final Exam
40% Reflection Papers
30% Class Participation
Exam Format:
Take-home
Workload:
70 Pages Reading Per Week
12-15 Pages Writing Per Term
1 Exam(s)
3 Paper(s)
Textbooks:
https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/66133/1203
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:
30 August 2012

ClassInfo Links - Spring 2020 American Studies Classes

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