Course Description:
This course will explore U.S. literary engagements with New Left and revolutionary politics during the 1960s. One of our primary concerns will be to examine how literary texts negotiated the psychopolitical dilemma that defined the New Left, that of trying to psychically remove oneself from the social and political structures that constitute one as a coherent individual. To this end, we’ll be interested in seeing how writers across genres used literary techniques to both construct and deconstruct identity and theorize consciousness in the context of a revolutionary historical moment.
We will be grouping our readings by genre, and this serves two functions. First, it will allow us to ask whether the forms and conventions associated with a particular literary genre offered unique tools for political critique. Second, this approach avoids grouping the texts along lines of political agenda. Though that approach has its merits, breaking a study along lines such as “Black Nationalism,” “The Student Left,” “Civil Rights,” “Psychedelic Counterculture,” and “Women’s Liberation” tends to suggest a false separation among these intimately (though certainly not harmoniously) related agendas, all of which we will be discussing during the course.
The course will begin with a historical introduction to the period, and we will continue to historicize the texts we read with secondary reading throughout the semester, including theoretical writings, popular texts, music and film.
Assignments:
Mid-term (20%) and Final (20%) exams comprised of short answer questions and essays. One comparative essay (25%) on two texts, examining through close readings either how two texts use similar literary techniques to treat differing issues, or how two texts of different genre treat similar issues. One research based essay (25%) that utilizes historical source material(s) (newspaper, television, music, film, essay, first editions of works, etc.) to make an argument about a literary text we’ve read. Instruction in historical research will be covered in class. Participation (10%) includes active discussion in class, posting to online forum, informal class presentations, and attendance.
Required Texts:
The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader // Amiri Baraka (Thunder’s Mouth)
Columbia Guide to America in the Sixties // David Farber and Beth Bailey (Columbia)
The Fall of America: Poems of these States 1965-1971 // Allen Ginsberg (City Lights)
A Stranger in a Strange Land // Robert Heinlein (Hodder & Stoughton)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest // Ken Kesey (Penguin Classics)
The Armies of the Night // Norman Mailer (Plume)
Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972 // Adrienne Rich (Norton)
Early Works: Actos, Bernabe and Pensamiento Serpentino // Luis Valdez (Arte Publico Press)
Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test // Tom Wolfe (Bantam)
Course Reader
Weeks 1-2, What were the 1960s?: Histories and Documents
Week 1:
“The Port Huron Statement” // Students for a Democratic Society
“The Ten-Point Program” // Black Panther Party
Scenes from The Invasion of the Thunderbolt Pagoda, The Graduate, and Weathermen Documentary
“Periodizing the 60s” // Fredric Jameson
Week 2:
“The American Sixties: A Brief History” // David Farber and Beth Bailey (in CG)
selections from The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage // Todd Gitlin
Weeks 3-6, The Novel: Narrative and Imagining New Worlds
Weeks 3-4:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest // Ken Kesey
selection from One Dimensional Man // Herbert Marcuse
Weeks 5-6:
A Stranger in a Strange Land // Robert Heinlein
“Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine a Future?” // Fredric Jameson
Weeks 7-10, Lyric Poetry: Constructing Consciousness
Week 7:
The Fall of America: Poems of these States 1965-1971, “Wichita Vortex
Sutra” // Allen Ginsberg
“Debating the Counterculture” // Michael Wm. Doyle (in CG)
Week 8:
Black Magic // Amiri Baraka
“Concerning Violence” // Franz Fanon
Week 9:
selections from Diving into the Wreck: Poems 1971-1972 // Adrienne Rich
“The Women’s Movement” // Beth Bailey (in CG)
Week 10:
Selected Poems from Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, And Communiques of the Weather Underground
Selected Poems from Campfires of Resistance: Poetry from the Movement
“The New Left” Doug Rossinow (in CG)
Weeks 11-13, Drama: Obscenity, Experimentation, and Outrage
Week 11:
Dutchman // LeRoi Jones
Experimental Death Unit 1 // Amiri Baraka
“Black Art, Nationalism, Black Institutions” // Amiri Baraka
Week 12:
Selected Work of Teatro Campesino (Luis Valdez)
Week 13:
Paradise Now // Living Theatre (screening of Marty Topp’s film)
The Beard // Michael McClure
Weeks 14-16, Autobiographies: A New Way
Week 14:
selection from Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1967) // Tom Wolfe
“Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream” // Joan Didion
psychedelic music and concert posters (available on course website)
Weeks 15-16:
The Armies of the Night // Norman Mailer