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AMST342
Constructing "Individuals": Toward an American Cultural History of "the Individual"
AMST342 SP
Crosslistings: ENGL300
| Section | Class Size | *Available | Times |
|---|
| 1 | 18 | 3 | Times: .T..... 7:00PM-10:00PM; |
*The number of spaces listed as available is based on class seats open for
the current phase of registration. Some seats may be taken in previous
phases while others may be held out for subsequent phases of registration.
(Last Updated on Wed Mar 4 05:00:40 EST 1998
)
We will explore a few provocative theoretical and historical
approaches to the cultural discourses, ideologies, and
concepts of "the individual" in nineteenth- and
twentieth-century America. The premise of the course is
that "the individual" can be conceptualized fruitfully as a
changing historical and cultural category rather than a
"natural" experience of one's self. Thus we will begin to
think critically about "the individual," not as a person who
is inherently individual, but as one who is fashioned as
such by historically specific economic, political,
imperialist, class, racial, gendered, sexual, body, family,
psychological, literary, and aesthetic discourses. We will
start by reading some seminal interdisciplinary discussions
(history, literary, anthropology, sociology, cultural
studies) of "the individual." We will also study key
historical and ideological movements that shaped
subjectivities, like Romanticism and the sentimentalization
of the family. Then we will focus on three areas. First, we
will examine the Carlisle Industrial School for Indians
(1879-1918)--set up to "Americanize" and "individualize" the
"Indian"--and the writings this school produced. Second, we
shall reassess the making of the middle-class "psychological
individual" through selected twentieth-century texts in
psychology, pop psychology, literature, drama, and
advertising (this will culminate with Foucault's critique of
psychoanalysis). Third, we will scrutinize Left critiques
of "the individual" and of the aesthetic values legitimated
by the ideologies of "the individual" from the 1910s to the
Cold War era.
MAJOR READINGS
Raymond Williams, KEYWORDS (1976)
Barbara Ehrenreich, from FEAR OF FALLING: THE INNER LIFE OF
THE MIDDLE CLASS (1989)
Eli Zaretsky, from CAPITALISM, THE FAMILY, and PERSONAL
LIFE (1976)
Robert Bellah et al., HABITS OF THE HEART (1985)
Barbara Kruger/Kate Linker, LOVE FOR SALE: THE WORDS AND
PICTURES OF BARBARA KRUGER (1990)
John Cheever, "The Swimmer" (1964)
Jonathan Winthrop, "A Modell of Christian Charity" (1630)
Benjamin Franklin, "The Way to Wealth"
Alexis de Tocqueville, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA (1835, 1840)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance" (1841) "Man the
Reformer (1841) "New England Reformers" (1844)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Artist of the Beautiful" (1844)
"Footprints on the Seashore" (1838), "Book of Autographs"
(1844)
Carlisle School, THE RED MAN, THE INDIAN HELPER, THE ARROW,
and other publications.
Zitkala-Sa, AMERICAN INDIAN STORIES (1921)
Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa), FROM DEEP WOODS TO CIVILIZATION
(1916)
Luther Standing Bear, MY PEOPLE THE SIOUX (1928)
Susan Glaspell, THE VERGE (1921)
D.H. Lawrence, MORNINGS IN MEXICO (1927), STUDIES IN CLASSIC
AMERICAN LITERATURE (1923)
Mabel Dodge, assorted writings on psychoanalysis and Taos
(1910s-1930s)
John Collier, excerpts from INDIANS OF THE AMERICAS (1947),
ON THE GLEAMING WAY (1949), FROM EVERY ZENITH (1963)
Mike Gold, STRIKE!: A MASS RECITATION (1926)
Clifford Odets, WAITING FOR LEFTY (1935)
John Dewey, INDIVIDUALISM OLD AND NEW (1930)
Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook, SUPPRESSED DESIRES
(1916)
Sigmund Freud, "Miss Lucy R."
Judith Butler, "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution"
(1990)
Joan W. Scott, "Experience" (1992)
Michael Foucault, THE HISTORY OF SEXUALITY: VOLUME 1 (1980)
EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS
Three seven page papers, lead
class discussion once or twice.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS
This course meets
the English Department Historicity requirement.
Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting
or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the
first class, they will be dropped from the class list.
NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form
to the Registrar's Office.
COURSE FORMAT: Seminar
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level: UG Credit: 1.00
Gen Ed Area & Dept: HA ENGL
Prerequisites:
None
- Section 01
- Pfister, J
- Times: .T..... 7:00PM-10:00PM;
- Grading Mode: A/F
- Registration Preference (1 high to 6 low, 0=Excluded) Sr: 1, Jr: 1, So: 0, Fr: 0
- Major Preference Given
- Permission of Instructor Required.
Last Updated on MAR-03-1998
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