English 190
Research Seminar: The Art of Reconstruction
| Section | Semester | Instructor | Time | Location | Course Areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Spring 2021 | de Stefano, Jason
|
MW 9-10:30 |
Book List
Du Bois, W. E. B.: The Souls of Black Folk; Hurston, Zora Neale: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”; Tourgée, Albion: A Fool's Errand
Other Readings and Media
Additional readings and other course materials will be provided on bCourses.
Description
This course will explore the role and legacy of art in the most important project of American self-creation since the nation’s founding: the post–Civil War era known as Reconstruction. The diverse group of writers, painters, sculptors, and other artists who collaborated with politicians, activists, and public figures in this project from around 1860 to 1890 sought to reconstitute the nation’s political community as a multiracial democracy that guaranteed representation to all. In the wake of slavery and civil war, they fought for the authority of African Americans as citizens of US government and as co-authors of the national experiment. The operative tropes of this transformation—collaboration, representation, authorship—carried their aesthetic valences alongside their political ones. Consequently, we will treat reconstruction not only as a historical period or phenomenon but also as an aesthetic and activist orientation. We will explore how the concept of reconstruction has persisted as an ideal of social justice and form of artistic praxis. As such, texts will range across genres and history, from the era of Reconstruction to today. We will read and view works by Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Zora Neale Hurston as well as by contemporary writers and artists like Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ava DuVernay, and Arthur Jafa.
Please click here for more information about enrollment in English 190.
Other Recent Sections of This Course
spring, 2021 |
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Research Seminar: Literary Collaboration: Samuel Coleridge and William and Dorothy Wordsworth |
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190/4 |
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190/6 |
Research Seminar: Black Postcolonial Cultures: Real and Imagined Spaces |
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fall, 2020 |
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spring, 2020 |
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fall, 2019 |
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190/6 |
Research Seminar: Literature on Trial: Romanticism, Law, Justice |
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190/8 |
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190/10 |
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spring, 2019 |
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190/1 |
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190/2 |
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190/3 |
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190/5 |
Research Seminar: California Books and Movies Since World War I |
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190/6 |
Research Seminar: Carnal Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Literature |
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fall, 2018 |
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190/1 |
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190/2 |
Research Seminar: Laughter and Vision: Explorations in the Novel of Ideas |
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190/3 |
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190/7 |
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190/9 |
Griffin, Ben
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190/10 |
No instructor assigned yet.
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190/11 |
No instructor assigned yet.
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190/12 |
Research Seminar: California Books and Movies Since World War I |
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spring, 2018 |
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190/1 |
Research Seminar: Trials of Literature: Romanticism, Justice, and the Law |
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190/2 |
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Research Seminar: The Faerie Queene: The Ethics of Imagination |
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190/10 |
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190/11 |
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190/12 |
Research Seminar: California Books and Movies Since World War I |
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190/13 |
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