ENGL 483 (Section 001, Schedule #36134)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Fall 2018
TTh 11am-12:15pm :: 407 Hibbs
Prof. David Golumbia
Office: 324D Hibbs Hall
Fall 2018 Office Hours: Thurs 12:30-3:30pm
Texts and Contexts: The 1960s
The 1960s were the most tumultuous and mythologized period in recent US history. From the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy, King and Malcolm X assassinations to protests against the Vietnam War and in favor of civil rights for blacks, women, and other minority groups, to the Summer of Love and Woodstock, US culture shifted profoundly during this short period of time in ways that we have still not fully grasped. This class surveys writing (and to a lesser extent film and TV) from and about the period, taking it less as a chronological term than a cultural one, and so focusing especially on work produced in the mid-to-late 1960s and early 1970s, and on later retrospective work about the period. Writers and artists to be studied (final list to be determined) will include figures like James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Fred Turner, Emma Cline, Todd Gitlin, Diane Di Prima, Denise Levertov, Valerie Solanas, LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka, Richard Brautigan, Ann Charters, Ken Kesey, Thomas Pynchon, Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground, and Bob Dylan, and works like Star Trek, Shaft, Easy Rider, The Manchurian Candidate, Hair, Land of the Giants, Don’t Look Back, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. The class will be taught mostly by discussion. Student work will include short papers, vigorous class participation, and a presentation.
Texts
Texts for purchase (no specific editions are required):
- Todd Gitlin, The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage (1993)
- Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1967)
- Rhoney Gissen Stanley, Owsley and Me: My LSD Family (2013)
- Dana Spiotta, Eat the Document: A Novel (2006)
- James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time (1963)
- Angela Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography (1972)
- Emma Cline, The Girls: A Novel (2016)
- Susan Stern, With the Weathermen: The Personal Journal of a Revolutionary Woman (1975)
- Assata Shakur, Assata: An Autobiography (1987)
Assignments and
Evaluation
Evaluation will be based on written exercises and course participation as
follows:
- Final Project or Paper (60%): Students will create a final project or write a final paper due at the end of the term. There will be an opportunity to present part of this project to the class in the final week of classes. Topics and methods for this project will be developed in consultation with the instructor.
- Course Participation (40%): the instructor will assign a letter grade to each student reflecting their engaged participation in class during the term.
Course-Specific Policies
- Attendance. This course is taught primarily via discussion. Your
attendance and participation are vital to its success.
- No Late Work. No late work is accepted in this class. Work handed in
late is automatically marked down one-third grade (e.g., a B becomes a B-)
for each day it is late, and after one week becomes a failing grade for
the assignment.
- Class Preparation. You are expected to have done the primary reading and
any other primary course assignments before the beginning of course each
week.
- Honor System. All work in this course is subject to the University's
Honor System. You may work in teams for some assignments, but all
written work must be solely your own, and any reliance on published
work must be properly cited.
- Evaluations. Final grades for the course will not be released until
the entire class has submitted online course evaluations.
Official VCU Policy Statements
Please consult the Provost's official page on topics such as classroom conduct, email, the Honor System, and other important policy issues.
Week-by-Week Syllabus
Given the organization of the course, the topic names given each week are approximations at best; we'll keep returning to iterations of the same topics as the semester goes on. Each week has a primary text to read or watch, as listed here; in some cases more detail is provided on a weekly reading list.
Week 1. Introduction
Week 2. SDS, "Port Huron Statement"
- Tues Aug 28.
- Thurs Aug 30.
Week 3. The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975
- Tues Sep 4.
- Required: The Black Power Mixtape, 1967-1975 (YouTube, Amazon, Blackboard)
- Thurs Sep 6.
Week 4. Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
- Tues Sep 11.
- Thurs Sep 13.
Week 5. Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
- Tues Sep 18.
- Thurs Sep 20.
- Required: Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test; Gitlin, The Sixties, Chapters 8 and 9
- Recommended: Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels, Chapter 21 (full text on Blackboard); "Hunter S. Thompson" (Wikipedia); "Hells Angels" (Wikipedia)
- Additional: Hunter S. Thompson, Hell's Angels, Chapter 1 (full text on Blackboard); Timothy Denevi, "Things American: Ken Kesey, Hunter S. Thompson and the Hell’s Angels at La Honda: August 7th, 1965" (American Short Fiction); Emily Wachowiak, "One Legendary Party: The Hell’s Angels and the Merry Pranksters Meet at Kesey’s" ("Fear and Loathing in the Counterculture" blog); Marc Weingarten, "Hunter S. Thompson and His Gonzo Tapes" (LA Weekly)
Week 6. Davis, Autobiography
- Tues Sep 25.
- Required: Davis, Autobiography
- Recommended: "Angela Davis" (Wikipedia)
- Thurs Sep 27.
- Required: Davis, Autobiography
- Recommended: Davis, "Reflections on the Black Woman's Role in the Community of Slaves," "Rape, Racism, and the Capitalist Setting," "Opening Defense Statement Presented by Angela Y. Davis in Santa Clara County Superior Court, March 29, 1972" (all in The Angela Y. Davis Reader, complete text on Blackboard); "Angela Davis: Interview" (Frontline)
- Additional: James Baldwin, "An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis" (New York Review of Books, 1970); "Women of the Black Panther Party" (It's About Time: Black Panther Legacy and Alumni; lots of different resources here)
Week 7. No classes, instructor away
- Tues Oct 2. No class.
- Thurs Oct 4. No class.
Week 8. Stanley, Owsley & Me
- Tues Oct 9.
- Thurs Oct 11.
Week 9. New York City, Warhol
- Tues Oct 16.
- Thurs Oct 18. No class (reading period)
Week 10. Stern, With the Weathermen
- Tues Oct 23.
- Required: Stern, With the Weathermen
- Thurs Oct 25.
- Required: Stern, With the Weathermen
Week 11. No classes, instructor away
- Tues Oct 30. No class.
- Thurs Nov 1.
No class.
Week 12. Shakur, Assata
Week 13. Cline, The Girls
- Tues Nov 13.
- Required: Cline, The Girls
- Thurs Nov 15.
- Required: Cline, The Girls
Week 14. Student Protest
- Tues Nov 20.
- Required: Steven Kelman, Push Comes to Shove: The Escalation of Student Protest, Part One, Chapter 2, "The Radicals," and Part Three, Chapter 1, "The Escalation of Unreality" (complete text of the book is available on archive.org, though you have to sign up to check it out from the digital library)
Recommended: remainder of Kelman, Push Comes to Shove
- Thurs Nov 22. No class. Thanksgiving.
Week 15. Papers & Manson Family
- Tues Nov 27. Paper discussions
- Thurs Nov 29.
Manson Family & race
Week 16. Spiotta, Eat the Document
Final project is due by the end of the final exam period, 10:50am, Thurs, Dec 13, 2018, per the registrar's exam schedule. The project or paper should be submitted on Blackboard. No late papers can be accepted for the final paper assignment. There is no other final
exam for the course.
Last updated December 2, 2018.