Social Thought & Polic. Econ 491H - STPEC Focus Seminar I
Fall
2018
01
4.00
Ruth Jennison
TU 4:00PM 6:30PM
UMass Amherst
80718
South College Room W211
ruthj@english.umass.edu
A four credit honors seminar for STPEC students who have completed STPEC 391H. Seminar topic changes each semester. Fulfills the STPEC Focus seminar requirement.
STPEC students only STPEC 391H Course Title: The Insurrectionary Imagination: The Politics and Poetics of Anti-Capitalism and Revolution
Course Description: How do 20th- and 21st-century poets engage with the political movements and philosophies of their times? How can reading poetry enhance our study of the social and cultural contours of progressive and revolutionary movements? Weekly reading assignments will pair poetry with key primary documents and histories of anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and feminist movements, as well as struggles for gay liberation, Black self-determination, and radical environmental justice. We will pay special attention to the relationship between poetry and direct actions and street insurrections, such as the riot, the swarm, the strike, the boycott, the occupation, the commune, the sit-in, the picket and the mass demonstration. Our guiding questions will be: How does poetry offer ways for its readers to grasp the contours of capitalism as a system structured by racism, sexism, and class struggle? What strategies of resistance do modern and contemporary poets embrace and elaborate in their popular and experimental forms? What is the relationship between politics that take place in the streets and politics that take place on the page? What tensions arise between the poet acting as militant and the poet acting as artist? Most broadly: what is the relationship between art and social movements? Political and historical documents will include works by Marx and Engels, Silvia Federici, The Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, Robin D.G. Kelley, Fred Moten, the Movement for Black Lives, Angela Davis, and Chicago Gay Liberation. Poetry will include works by Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Muriel Rukeyser, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Diane Di Prima, Juliana Spahr, and Sean Bonney.
Course Description: How do 20th- and 21st-century poets engage with the political movements and philosophies of their times? How can reading poetry enhance our study of the social and cultural contours of progressive and revolutionary movements? Weekly reading assignments will pair poetry with key primary documents and histories of anti-capitalist, anti-colonial and feminist movements, as well as struggles for gay liberation, Black self-determination, and radical environmental justice. We will pay special attention to the relationship between poetry and direct actions and street insurrections, such as the riot, the swarm, the strike, the boycott, the occupation, the commune, the sit-in, the picket and the mass demonstration. Our guiding questions will be: How does poetry offer ways for its readers to grasp the contours of capitalism as a system structured by racism, sexism, and class struggle? What strategies of resistance do modern and contemporary poets embrace and elaborate in their popular and experimental forms? What is the relationship between politics that take place in the streets and politics that take place on the page? What tensions arise between the poet acting as militant and the poet acting as artist? Most broadly: what is the relationship between art and social movements? Political and historical documents will include works by Marx and Engels, Silvia Federici, The Black Panther Party, Malcolm X, Robin D.G. Kelley, Fred Moten, the Movement for Black Lives, Angela Davis, and Chicago Gay Liberation. Poetry will include works by Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Muriel Rukeyser, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Diane Di Prima, Juliana Spahr, and Sean Bonney.