Faculty First Year Seminars 197JRN2 - Martha?s Vineyard in NE Imagin

Like all islands, Martha?s Vineyard is a head case, mysterious, a unique coinage, cut off, stuck-up, a loner, a bit of a drama queen. Until the 1960?s, it was a well-kept secret, an inconvenient add-on to Cape Cod, an acquired taste for people with an antisocial streak because the island such a pain to get to: who wanted to take a ferry ---- all that waiting and all that bother ---- when you could simply drive down Route Six and find yourself in Truro or Wellfleet or Provincetown. All that changed with Chappaquiddick, JAWS, and Presidents on vacation (Clinton and Obama.) In this class we will deconstruct the island on film, in literature and journalism, and in art. The following people and places and things may not be familiar now but they will be by the end of our explorations: Illumination Night, Menemsha Harbor, the Striped Bass Derby, Circuit Avenue, Inkwell, Ice House Pond, Larsen?s Carly Simon, James Taylor, Kay Graham, Jackie Kennedy, The Hot Tin Roof, Humphreys?, William and Rose Styron, Walter Cronkite, Art Buchwald, Lillian Hellman, Allison Shaw, Jabberwocky and Impossible Dreams.

Freshmen Only