HUM225: Values in American Life

HUM225-05: Values in American Life Spring 2012 T/Th 12.35-13.50 HUM 133

Sean Connelly  Office hours/ location: HUM 336 T/Th 11-12 and by appt. email: connelly@sfsu.edu

TA: Michael Villegas email: righteouslivin@hotmail.com

class blog: analepsis.wordpress.com

This course is not about “American Values” but Values in American Life, a crucial distinction that will become clearer as we proceed. From Qing-era China we will move forward in time and around the United States to study– among other myths and realities– ambition, crime, capitalism, dis/respect, violence, desire, identity, loss, greed, love, camaraderie, alienation, work, mobility, diaspora, and– always– the American Dream and its inverse. Our primary point of focus will rest with the cultural technology of the novel, though we will also consider photography, painting, “theory,” film, popular music and political discourse. We’ll need to ask basic questions in order to wrestle free from “commonsense” ideologies which attempt to think for us. The familiar ought to become strange, the script flipped, the assumptions we carry unconsciously examined and put aside or revised. What is a nation? What are a people? What is value? What is economy? What is culture? Taken together what do these concepts seem to tell us?

Protocol/Decorum/Ettiquette:

It’s expected that students will arrive on time having completed the assigned work and in possession of the appropriate text for the class meeting. With the exception of the midterm and in-class work, all assignments should be typed with name/date/course. Turn off all electronic devices. In the interests of basic courtesy, please do not text, sleep, or surf in class.

Academic Integrity:

Cheating/plagiarism will result in a zero for the assignment, possibly an F for the semester, and could result in expulsion from SFSU. Note that plagiarism includes taking someone else’s ideas without attribution and re-phrasing them. See http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

Required Texts: 

Be sure to get hard copies of the proper editions of the required texts.

Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction (CAP) by James Fulcher 978-0192802187 (recommended) A PDF version is here.

Thousand Pieces of Gold (TPG) by Ruthanne McCunn 978-0807083819

The Financier (TF) by Theodore Dreiser 978-0143105541

Blood on the Forge (BF) by William Attaway 978-1590171349

Miss Lonelyhearts/Day of the Locust (DL) by Nathanael West  978-0811218221

Atomic Aztex (AA) by Sesshu Foster 978-0872864405

A Reader (available at the bookstore):

HUM225-05 Values in American Life Spring 2012 Connelly
Table of Contents

“Value” from the Oxford English Dictionary

Ha-Joon Chang, Bad Samaritans (excerpts). New York: Bloomsbury Press. 2008.

Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto (excerpts). marxists.org

Marina MacKay, “Glossary” from The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. 2011.

Terry Eagleton, “What is a Novel?” from The English Novel: An Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 2005.

Hayden White, “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality” from The Content of the Form. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP. 1987.

Roland Barthes, “The Reality Effect” from The Rustle of Language. New York: Hill and Wang. 1984.

Catherine Belsey, “Constructing the Subject, Deconstructing the Text” from Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Robyn Warhol and Diane Herndi (eds.) New Brunswick: Rutgers UP. 1997.

Sucheng Chan, “The Exclusion of Chinese Women, 1870-1943″ from Entry Denied: Exclusion and the Chinese Community in America, 1882-1943. Sucheng Chan (ed). Philadelphia: Temple UP. 1991.

Andrew Carnegie, “The Gospel of Wealth”

Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” marxists.org

Donna Campbell, “The Rise of Naturalism” from The Cambridge History of the American Novel. Eds. Leonard Cassuto, Clare Virginia Eby and Benjamin Reiss. Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Fred Hay, “‘Blues What I Am’: Blues Consciousness and Social Protest” from America’s Musical Pulse: Popular Music in Twentieth Century Society. Kenneth Bindas (ed). Westport: Praeger. 1992.

Ellen Meiksins Wood, “Democracy as the Ideology of Empire” from The New Imperialists. Colin Mooers (ed). Oxford: Oneworld Publications. 2006.

Fredric Jameson, “Postmodernism and Consumer Society” from Postmodernism and Its Discontents. Ann E. Kaplan. New York: Verso. 1988.

A short glossary of literary terms for the study of the novel: MacKayGlossary

A Note on Reading: Ideally, students will complete a text as quickly as possible rather than reading only as much as has been assigned. Competent critical reading is a skill that develops over time. I advise you to look up unfamiliar words and take reading notes. Don’t be afraid to mark significant passages.

Films: 

We’ll screen clips from many of the following films:

American Dream; American Gangster; The Big Clock; Brother Can You Spare a Dime?; Chinese in the Frontier West; Confessions of a Shopaholic; The Corporation; Double Indemnity; Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room; Glengarry, Glen Ross; It’s Everybody’s Business; Mai’s America; Modern Times; No Logo; A Place in the Sun; Salt of the Earth; Streamlines and Breadlines; There Will Be Blood; They Live; Thousand Pieces of Gold; Where Do You Stand?; Wobblies; Margin Call; Up South; Feel Like Going Home; The Matrix; Avatar; Confederate States of America; Day of the Locust; Struggles in Steel

Grading Rubric:

Attendance (More than 4 absences will result in a “no-pass” for this portion of the final grade) 10%

Midterm (a short set of identifications and definitions) 15%

Final Exam (identifications, a substantial essay) 20%

Two 5-page papers. Paper 1 = 15% and Paper 2 = 20% for a total of 35%

Class Work (participation, random pop quizzes, in-class writing) 20%

Paper Assignments:

Minimum 5 FULL pages

MLA format (see: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ ) including a works cited page (works must be CITED– i.e., quoted– to be on this page)

No cover page/ 1” margins/ 12 pt. font (no courier)/ Double-spaced

2 SCHOLARLY secondary sources (no wikipedia, etc.) such as encyclopedia articles, books, documentaries, etc.

Paper One: Due 2/21 in class (hard copy). An electronic copy should be submitted to turnitin.com on 2/21 by noon.

Topic: A personal/academic essay on culture, economy, and national identity.

Prompt: Write an essay on the relationship between economic and cultural values in terms of your own sense of national identity. (If you do not consider yourself to be a US American discuss relevant differences and continuities between your own national identity and your perception of US identity.)

In your experience, how does economic life– ideologies and practices of capitalism, work, consumption, leisure, “the market,” etc.– shape or influence US American cultural values? Your assignment is hybrid in nature: an essay that is personal, yet which possesses a scholarly component. To that end, be sure to use MLA format, including a works cited page. Use at least two of the texts we’ve already discussed in class (up to the deadline, Feb. 21).

Paper Two: Due 5/17 in class (hard copy). An electronic copy should be submitted to turnitin.com on 5/17 by 5 pm.

Prompts:

1) Focusing on such basic literary devices as plot, character, setting, etc. compare/contrast Attaway and West’s texts in terms of the ways that they dramatize and critique modern, industrial society.

2) Using the key concepts introduced in our discussions of Blood on the Forge, analyze the significance of the encounter between a) the folk and folk culture and b) the industrialized social space of the novel’s Allegheny county mill town.

3) Examine West’s use of various aesthetic strategies (irony, the grotesque, deadpan, slapstick, the surreal) in his critique of the reification and alienation of modern life.

4) Foster’s satirical novel re-writes the history of the Americas (and more broadly the world) from the point of view of the Aztek Socialist Imperium. Identify the critical project of Atomik Aztex and analyze the specific ways that this project is undertaken or accomplished. Be sure to employ the key concepts introduced in lecture.

Turnitin.com: Go to the link provided above. You will need to sign up in order to submit your paper. The class id# is 4800075. In order to enroll in the class use this password: values.

Schedule:

(note: this schedule of readings and screenings is subject to revision.)

UNIT ONE: CLEARING THE GROUND

Texts: Marx, Chang, Barthes, Eagleton, Belsey/ Film: It’s Everybody’s Business

Key terms: subject/ivity; capitalism; ideology; value; signification; modernity

Week One 1/24-1/26

1/24: Course introduction: Value/Nation/Experience; The Crisis This Time

Sound, Image, Clip: Merle Haggard, “Okie from Muskogee”; Ke$ha, “Tik tok”; Bruce Springsteen, “Johnny 99“; Sarah Palin, “Together“

Assignment:  Bad Samaritans (excerpts); Communist Manifesto (excerpts)

pdf version of Bad Samaritans: BadSamCh1&2/ pdf version of Communist Manifesto: Manifesto (read 1st 2 sections)

1/26: Lecture/ Discussion: What is Capitalism?

Sound, Image, Clip: Capitalism; CREAM; Money

Assignment: “What is a novel?”: EagletonNovel pdf; “The Reality Effect”: RealityEffect pdf

Week Two 1/31-2/2

1/31: Lecture/Discussion: The Novel and Ideology

Sound, Image, Clip: It’s Everybody’s Business

Assignment: “Constructing the Subject, Deconstructing the Text”: pdf version: belseysubject

2/2: Lecture/Discussion: Capitalism and Affect

Sound, Image, Clip: Glengarry, Glen Ross; American Gangster; The Big Combo

Assignment: Thousand Pieces of Gold (part one); Recommended: “The Exclusion of Chinese Women”: pdf “ChanExclusion“

UNIT TWO: FRONTIERS

Texts: McCunn, Chan/ Film: Chinese in the Frontier West; 1000 Pieces of Gold (on youtube in 11 parts)

Key terms:

Week Three 2/7-2/9

2/7

Assignment:  TPG (part two)

2/9

Sound, Image, Clip: Chinese in the Frontier West

Assignment: TPG (parts three and four)

Week Four 2/14-2/16

2/14

Sound, Image, Clip: Thousand Pieces of Gold

Assignment: TPG (parts five and six)

2/16

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment: TF (Introduction and chapters I-XVI); “The Rise of Naturalism”: pdf “CampbellNatism“

UNIT THREE: Consumption and Consummation

Texts: Dreiser, Carnegie, 14th Amendment, Campbell/ Film: Margin Call or No Logo

key terms: realism, naturalism, consumer society, commodity fetishism; desire

Week Five 2/21-2/23

2/21: 1st paper due

Sound, Image, Clip: Maple Leaf Rag; the Ashcan School

Assignment: TF (XVII-XXVI)

2/23

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment: TF (XXVII-XXXVIII); 14th Amendment (google it); “Wealth” (carnegie_wealth)

Week Six 2/28-3/1

2/28

Sound, Image, Clip: Confessions of a Shopaholic

assignment: TF (XXXIX-LI)

3/1

Sound, Image, Clip: Novel Reflections on the American Dream

Assignment: Complete TF

Week Seven 3/6-3/8

3/6:

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment: “The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality”: pdf HWhiteNarrativity

3/8:

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment:

Week Eight 3/13-3/15

3/13: Review

3/15: MIDTERM

Assignment for Week Ten: Read Blood on the Forge (all)

Week Nine 3/20-3/22

Spring Break!

UNIT FOUR: INDUSTRY

Texts: Attaway, Hay/ Film: Up South, Feel Like Going Home

Key terms: labor segmentation; Great Migration; collective memory; the folk; blues consciousness

Week Ten 3/27-3/29

3/27

Sound, Image, Clip: The Migration Series

Assignment: “Blues What I Am”: pdf BluesWhatIAm

3/29:

Sound, Image Clip:  Sweet Home Chicago; Hellhound on My Train; Love in Vain; Devil Got My Woman; Black, Brown, and White; You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had;  I’m Goin’ With You Babe (remix); Poor Black Mattie; Smokestack Lightin; Whiskey and Women; TV Mama; Catfish Blues; Rolled and Tumbled; Cheaper to Keep Her; Dirty South.

Week Eleven 4/3-4/5

4/3:

Sound, Image Clip: Struggles in Steel

Assignment:

4/5:

Sound, Image, Clip: Feel Like Going Home

Assignment: Miss Lonelyhearts

UNIT FIVE: IN THE SHADOWS OF MASS SOCIETY

Texts: West, Benjamin/ Film: eXistenZ

Key terms: culture industry; irony; mass culture; reification; grotesque

Week Twelve 4/10-4/12

4/10:

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment: The Day of the Locust

4/12:

Sound, Image, Clip: The Matrix 

Assignment: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (pdf walterbenjamin) AND/OR “The Story Teller” (SF_1331-Benjamin). See also http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/SWA/Culture_industry_reconsidered.shtml

Week Thirteen 4/17-4/19

4/17:

Sound, Image, Clip: Wee Gee WeeGee2

Assignment:

4/19:

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment:

UNIT SIX: Alternate History and the Archaeology of the Future

Texts: Foster; Jameson/ Film: Avatar

Key terms: neoliberalism; postmodernism, historiographic metafiction

Week Fourteen 4/24-4/26

4/24:

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment: “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”: pdf jameson

4/26:

Sound, Image, Clip: eXistenZ

Assignment: Atomic Aztex (Ch. 1-5)

Week Fifteen 5/1-5/3

5/1:

Sound, Image, Clip:

Assignment: AA (Ch. 5-10)

5/3:

Sound, Image, Clip: CSA: Confederate States of America

Assignment: complete AA

Week Sixteen 5/8-5/10

5/8:

Sound, Image, Clip:

5/10: Course Review

Week Seventeen

Paper Two due

Final Exam on May 17 at 10.45 am in HUM 133