[
Wesleyan Home Page
] [
WesMaps Home Page
]
[
Course Search
] [
Course Search by CID
]
Constructing Individuals: Toward an American Cultural History of the individual
AMST342 SP
Crosslistings: ENGL300
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 are
as. 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 20th 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 aest
hetic 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) Susa
n 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:
Lecture
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Level:
UGRD
Credit:
1
Gen Ed Area Dept:
HA ENGL
Grading Mode:
Student Option
Prerequisites:
NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Contact
wesmaps@wesleyan.edu
to submit comments or suggestions.
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459