English R1A

Book List

Galati, Frank: John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath; Graff, Gerald: They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing; Rauchway, Eric: The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Very Short Introduction; Steinbeck, John: The Grapes of Wrath

Other Readings and Media

Films: Pare Lorentz, The Plough That Broke the Plains; John Ford, The Grapes of Wrath; Christopher Nolan, Interstellar

Photography: Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother; Matt Black, The Geography of Poverty

Music: Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Ballads; Bruce Springsteen, The Ghost of Tom Joad; Rage Against the Machine, Renegades

Theater: Builders Association, House/Divided (play)

Description

In this course, we will explore the aesthetic forms and social locations of the Dust Bowl and consider the ways in which these forms and locations have echoed in the American cultural imagination since the Great Depression. We will develop your practical fluency in college-level academic writing. In total, you will produce a minimum of 32 pages of writing, including a short diagnostic essay at the beginning of the semester. Full attendance, weekly reading responses, team teaching, writing workshops, and participation in classroom discussion are all required to earn a passing grade in this course.