ClassInfo

This course explores how literary language builds the collective knowledge, shared reality, and civic relationships that make up public life. Literature's power in the public sphere goes far beyond the quiet, solitary experience of reading. We will investigate how telling stories, documenting events, imagining possibilities, communicating ideals, representing conflict, and even creating fictional characters contribute to public life. Through a wide variety of texts, we will reflect on the nature of public life and on how reading and writing build civic relationships and democratic potential. This course will also offer you two tracks for actively engaging in public life. A service­-learning option will give you the experience of building literacy, developing skills in communication and public media, and strengthening roles in work and family. This recommended learning framework can engage your role as a citizen, broaden the impact of your education, and help you explore potential professional interests. Alternatively, an individually designed public project will prompt you to consider the links between literary/media culture, personal action, and public life, and to make your own intervention in these fields. To succeed in all areas of this class you must display active engagement, independent thinking and motivation, and organization.

This course explores how literary language builds the collective knowledge, shared reality, and civic relationships that make up public life. Literature's power in the public sphere goes far beyond the quiet, solitary experience of reading. We will investigate how telling stories, documenting events, imagining possibilities, communicating ideals, representing conflict, and even creating fictional characters contribute to public life. Through a wide variety of texts, we will reflect on the nature of public life and on how reading and writing build civic relationships and democratic potential. This course will also offer you two tracks for actively engaging in public life. A service­-learning option will give you the experience of building literacy, developing skills in communication and public media, and strengthening roles in work and family. This recommended learning framework can engage your role as a citizen, broaden the impact of your education, and help you explore potential professional interests. Alternatively, an individually designed public project will prompt you to consider the links between literary/media culture, personal action, and public life, and to make your own intervention in these fields. To succeed in all areas of this class you must display active engagement, independent thinking and motivation, and organization.

Meaning/practice of citizenship. Historical themes, contemporary issues in American public life: access of citizenship, tensions between social duties and individual freedoms, role of moral values in public life. Diverse literary materials. Optional service-learning component.

Telling stories is a fundamental part of human existence; we all do it, all the time, whether we are conscious of it or not. We are drawn to stories, and we use them to make sense of the world around us and our experiences. Thus they are a central component of the ways we negotiate, continuously, between our private selves and the many public roles we play (and, indeed, sometimes the line between public and private is not easy to spot). I am interested in moments when a person's life intersects with something much bigger than themselves: a massive social change, a historical event, another person's very public experiences. How does that affect us, as private citizens?

In our three central readings, we will encounter these issues in a variety of ways. In Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich tells her own story of experiencing, temporarily, a life of low-wage labor, but she also tells the stories of her co-workers for whom low-wage labor is an ongoing fact of life. Susan Collins' dystopic novel The Hunger Games tells a story of one possible future for us all, but also shows her protagonists struggling against the public story that is being built around them. Lin-Manuel Miranda's ground-breaking musical Hamilton uses modern storytelling techniques to retell the story of the founding of our nation, and shows the figures at the center of those events struggling to find their own stories within that larger narrative.

To be successful in all of the aspects of this course, you will need to display active, empathetic engagement;
independent, critical thinking; organization and motivation.

A few logistical requirements:

1. You must have hard copy editions of the Ehrenreich and Collins texts. Electronic texts are not acceptable.

2. We will also be listening to and reading the annotated lyrics of Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical Hamilton; the annotated lyrics are available online, and I will provide links to a number of ways to listen to the songs. Thus, while I will encourage you to buy the Original Broadway Cast Recording of the musical, I am not requiring it.

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Meaning/practice of citizenship. Historical themes, contemporary issues in American public life: access of citizenship, tensions between social duties and individual freedoms, role of moral values in public life. Diverse literary materials. Optional service-learning component.

Meaning/practice of citizenship. Historical themes, contemporary issues in American public life: access of citizenship, tensions between social duties and individual freedoms, role of moral values in public life. Diverse literary materials. Optional service-learning component.