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Work
in Youngstown, Spring 2001
AMER
3701: Approaches to American Studies (course code 0262)
ENGL 4864: Selected Topics
in American Literature (course code 1376)
"If we regard
truth as something handed down from authorities on high, the classroom
will look like a dictatorship. If we regard truth as a fiction determined
by personal whim, the classroom will look like anarchy. If we regard truth
as emerging from a complex process of mutual inquiry, the classroom will
look like a resourceful and interdependent community."
--Parker
Palmer, The
Courage to Teach, 51
Prerequisites
For ENGL
4864: English 690, English 3701, or English 3702
General Education Information
For students completing the
"new" general education program, this counts as a writing-intensive
course.
Course goals
Over the next fifteen weeks,
we'll explore the history, experience, and representation of work in the
Youngstown area, using literature, visual images, artifacts, maps, and
other resources. We'll focus on three key ideas:
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In American culture, and specifically
in the Youngstown area, work and class help to form individual and community
identity but are also sources of conflict within the community.
-
Literature exists within a cultural
framework, not as something separate from its culture but rather as a set
of texts that are intimately involved with culture.
-
Interdisciplinary analysis can
yield rich, complex insights into representations, including literary texts,
and into the processes of identity formation, cultural negotiation, and
social change.
By the end of the semester, you
should be able to demonstrate your understanding of these concepts in the
following ways:
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Write papers and complete projects
that use specific information about work and class in Youngstown and discuss
in concrete terms how they affect the formation of identity, moments of
conflict, and community change.
-
Write about literature and other
representations in ways that position them within their cultural context,
making clear, specific links among texts and between representations, history,
and theoretical concepts.
-
Develop thoughtful, insightful
analyses of identity formation, cultural negotiation, and/or social change
that draw on multiple kinds of representations (including literature),
historical understanding, and theoretical models.
Texts
Who Built America? Working
People and the Nation's Economy, Politics, Culture, and Society, Volume
Two, American Social History Project
Out of This Furnace,
Thomas Bell
Literature, Class, and
Culture, ed. Paul Lauter and Ann Fitzgerald
Assignments
-
Single
Text analysis - Choose one reading from Lauter & Fitzgerald,
and write an analysis that explains what the text says and how it conveys
its ideas. 10%
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Text
web - Match your literary text with at least three others from
the same period, including at least one visual image and at least one artifact,
and write an essay explaining how the texts relate to each other. 20%
-
Adding
history to the mix - Using the same four texts, write an essay
that positions them within their historical setting. How does knowing the
history enhance your understanding of the texts? 20%
-
Family
history paper OR History of a local problem - For this project,
you'll either research the history of three generations of one family or
explore the history of one problem related to work in the Youngstown area.
Then write an essay that positions the history you've learned in the context
of the materials and ideas you've learned about in class. 20%
-
Integrative
Project - Choose a moment of cultural negotiation about work and
class in Youngstown, and write an analysis that links texts, historical
context, and the theoretical ideas that have formed the core of the course.
On-line exhibit or illustrated paper. 30%
Course Schedule
NB: Unless otherwise noted,
readings are from the Lauter and Fitzgerald anthology
(The dates are linked to each
day's entry in my course
journal. This link will take you to a PDF version of the complete
journal. Links below will take you to specific entries.)
Date |
Themes |
Assignments |
January
16 |
Preliminary
thoughts on work, class, literature, and interdisciplinary study |
|
January
18 |
Bring something
- a text, an object, an image - to class that represents your experiences
with work |
January
23 |
Strategies
for text analysis |
READ Dobler,
"Field Trip to the Rolling Mill, 1950"; Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" |
January
25 |
READ Gogolak,
"Inland and the Titanic"; Le Seuer, "I Was Marching" |
January
30 |
Understanding
interdisciplinarity
Reading other kinds of texts
- artifacts |
Text analysis
due
READ On-line presentation
on interdisciplinary analysis |
February
1 |
Visit
the Youngstown Historical Center for Labor and Industry. We will not
meet as a class on February 1, but you should visit the museum on your
own and tour the exhibits on the main and lower floors. |
February
6 |
Reading
other kinds of texts - visual images
|
On
course website, view Gropper painting, panoramic photos from 1908, 1905
photo, postcards, and Labor Day ad.
Meet in Computer Lab |
February
8 |
Interdisciplinarity
in American Studies
Guest speaker: Dr. Nan Enstad |
February
13 |
Class,
work, and space |
Text
webs due
READ Anderson, "Mining Camp
Residents"; Joel, "Allentown"; Springsteen, "My Hometown"; Parini, "Playing
in the Mines"; Bryner, "For Maude Callen" |
February
15 |
In-class
work with on-line map & photographs (map
exercise); meet in computer lab
READ Linkon & Russo, Chapter
One (handout) |
February
20 |
Historical
overview, Part I |
READ
from Who Built America?, pp. 25-37, Chapter 2, Chapter 4 |
February
22 |
Comparing
historical & literary approaches |
READ
Part One of Bell |
February
27 |
Connecting
literature and history |
READ
Part Two of Bell |
March
1 |
Reading
texts through history papers due
READ from WBA? pp.
274-294, 301-309, 323-342, 345-359 |
March
6 |
Labor
and conflict |
READ
from WBA? Chapters 8, 9, and 11 |
March
8 |
READ
Parts Three and Four of Bell |
March
13-15 |
SPRING
BREAK |
|
March
20 |
Learning
to tell stories - where do our stories about work come from? |
READ
Garson, "McDonald's" |
March
22 |
READ
one oral history about the 1937 "Little Steel" strike (on reserve at Maag
or from the archives at the steel museum) |
March
27 |
Reading
the conflicts |
Film:
Struggles in Steel |
March
29 |
READ
Reed, "War in Paterson"; Stein, "It's War in Youngstown" (handout); Eisenberg,
"Subway Conversations"; Barnwell, "More Than a Paycheck"; Childress, "In
the Laundry Room" |
April
3 |
Studying
local materials |
READ
Patchen, "The Orange Bears"; Local poets - handout; "Ten Years After,"
handout |
April
5 |
Film:
Steel Town |
April
10 |
Finding
ourselves in history |
Family
history papers due- bring 3 copies |
April
12 |
READ
2 other family histories |
April
17 |
Telling
our own stories - what's missing from the Youngstown story?
|
Tour
the on-line exhibit
about Youngstown (there's a link from the course website) |
April
19 |
Our
Youngstown stories - bring a text, artifact, or image that represents your
experience of work and class in the Youngstown area
Guest speaker: Bryn Zellers
(local artist showing a film he made about Youngstown) |
April
24 |
Planning
& building websites |
Exhibit
outlines due - bring 4 copies |
April
26 |
Meet
in computer lab |
May
1 |
Going
public |
Exhibit
drafts due - bring 4 copies |
May
3 |
Meet
in computer lab |
May
8 |
Finals
week |
Final
exhibits due, by 4 pm, in my box in the English Department |
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