DOCSLIB.ORG

A Communist Propaganda Towards American Black

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Communist Propaganda Towards American Black A COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA TOWARDS AMERICAN BLACK SOCIETY THROUGH RICHARD WRIGHT’S NATIVE SON Skripsi Disusun dalam Rangka Menyelesaikan Studi Strata 1 untuk memperoleh Gelar Sarjana Pendidikan Oleh Nama : Erik Harninta Putra NIM : 2250402039 Program Studi : S1 Jurusan : Sastra Inggris FAKULTAS BAHASA DAN SASTRA UNIVERSITAS NEGERI SEMARANG 2006 APPROVAL The final project was approved by the Board of Examiners of the English Department of the Faculty of Languages and Arts of Semarang State University on………………… Board of Examiners 1. Chairman, Drs. Triyanto, M. A. NIP. 131281218 2. Secretary, Dra. Dwi Anggani L. B, M.Pd. NIP. 131813665 3. First Examiner, Dra. Indrawati, M. Hum. NIP. 131568990 4. Second Examiner as Second Adviser, Hendrikus Joko Yulianto, S. S, M. Hum. NIP. 132233485 5. Third Examiner as First Adviser, Dra. Rahayu Puji H., M. Hum. NIP. 132158715 Approved by Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Arts, Prof. Dr. Rustono, M. Hum NIP. 131281222 iii PERNYATAAN Dengan ini saya: Nama : Erik Harninta Putra NIM : 2250402039 Prodi/Jurusan : Sastra Inggris , Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris FBS UNNES menyatakan dengan sesungguhnya bahwa final project yang berjudul: A COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA TOWARDS AMERICAN BLACK SOCIETY THROUGH RICHARD WRIGHT’S NATIVE SON yang saya tulis dalam rangka memenuhi salah satu syarat memperoleh gelar sarjana ini benar-benar merupakan karya saya sendiri yang saya hasilkan setelah melalui penelitian, pembimbingan, diskusi, dan pemaparan/ujian. Semua kutipan, baik yang langsung maupun tidak langsung, baik yang diperoleh dari sumber keperpustakaan, maupun sumber lainnya, telah disertai keterangan mengenai identitas sumbernya dengan cara sebagaimana yang lazim dalam penulisan karya ilmiah. Dengan demikian, walaupun tim penguji dan pembimbing penulisan final project ini membubuhkan tandatangan sebagaimana keabsahannya, seluruh karya ilmiah ini tetap menjadi tanggung jawab saya sendiri. Jika kemudian hari diketemukan ketidakberesan, saya bersedia menerima akibatnya. Demikian, harap pernyataan ini dipergunakan sebagaimana semestinya. Semarang, 8 Oktober 2006 Yang membuat pernyataan, Erik Harninta Putra iii MOTTO AND DEDICATION O ye who believe! Seek help with patient perseverance and prayer; for God is with those who patiently persevere (Al-Baqoro: 153). This final project is dedicated to: ⊇ my mom, dad, brothers, and sisters, ⊇ my best friends ”the three M”, and ⊇ all my friends at English Literature ’02. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, the writer would like to express my deepest gratitude to Allah SWT, God the Almighty for the blessing and ease given to him in completing this final project. His deepest gratitude goes as well to Dra. Rahayu Puji. H., M. Hum, his first advisor, Hendrikus Joko Yulianto, S.S, M. Hum., his second advisor, and Dra. Indrawati, M. Hum., as his first examiner, for their continuous guidance and valuable suggestion in finishing this final project. The writer wish also to express his gratitude to Drs. Ahmad Sofwan, Ph. D., as the Head of English Department, all lectures, and staffs for giving the writer lots of valuable experiences during his study at the department. Next, his deepest gratitude is conducted to his beloved parents, sisters, and brothers whom always support, motivate, and love him very much. His special gratitude is also addressed to his good mates at ex-Saddam, Mr. Dwi Mulyono, Mr. Ostman, Mr. Klowor, Suroso (roso-roso!), and Mr. Wiwit (thanks for supporting and entertaining me in facing the D-Day), and to everyone whom support him but their names could be mentioned. The last but not least, the writer realizes that this final project lacks many things, therefore, he hopes criticisms and suggestions for his betterment. I hope this final project will be useful for the reader. Erik Harninta Putra iii ABSTRACT Putra, Erik Harninta. Richard Wright’s Native Son. English Department. Languages and Arts Faculty. Semarang State University. This final project is a literary analysis of Richard Wright’s Native Son. The title of this study is A Communist Propaganda Towards American Black Society Through Richard Wright’s Native Son. This novel tells about an American Black named Bigger Thomas who accidentally committed two murders on Mary Dalton, a white girl and his love named Bessie Mears. The Communist, Jan Erlone and Boris A. Max then struggled to support and help Bigger in facing the problem. I chose this topic since this novel intends to spread out the Communistic ideas towards the readers especially to the American Blacks in having their sympathy to the Communism. This final project has three problems to be explored; those are: (1) What forms of Communism are presented in the novel? (2) What are the relationship between Communism and American Black society? (3) To whom is this novel addressed? The writer used qualitative method as the method of investigation. The writer took the data from the text of the novel and compiled some references from several books that were related to the subject matter and searched information on the internet in supporting this study. The data were in the form of words, phrases, sentences, and quotations which were related to the topic. The analysis of this study used sociological approach. It was found out that there are two main ideas of Communism found in the novel; they are the idea in against Capitalism and the idea of alienation. The first idea contains the Capitalist’s intention in using economic, juridical field, and the religion to oppress and exploit the minority class. The second tells that the Capitalist could also make the minority alienated from their own life. Through the novel, those ideas are often paralyzed with the idea of American Blacks’ struggles against racism and prejudice. Therefore, this novel could be regarded as propaganda in having their sympathy to the Communism. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE OF TITLE ................................................................................................ i APPROVAL........................................................................................................ ii MOTTO AND DEDICATION ........................................................................... iii AKCNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. iv ABSTRACT........................................................................................................ v TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................... vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study........................................................................... 1 1.2 Reason for Choosing the Topic................................................................. 4 1.3 Statements of the Problem ........................................................................ 4 1.4 Objectives of the Study ............................................................................. 5 1.5 Significances of the Study......................................................................... 5 1.6 Outline of the Thesis ................................................................................. 6 CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Communism.............................................................................................. 7 2.2 The Forms of Communism ....................................................................... 10 2.2.1 Human Alienation ........................................................................... 10 2.2.2 Against Capitalism.......................................................................... 11 2.3 Communism in United States of America ................................................ 12 2.3.1 The Rise and Growth of CPUSA ..................................................... 13 iii 2.3.2 Black Acceptance towards Communism ......................................... 14 2.4 Richard Wright.......................................................................................... 16 2.4.1 The Biographical Sketch.................................................................. 17 2.4.2 Wright’s Affiliation with Communist Party ..................................... 19 CHAPTER III: METHOD OF INVESTIGATION 3.1 Object of the Study ....................................................................................... 21 3.2 Types of Data ................................................................................................ 21 3.3 Approach of the Study .................................................................................. 21 3.4 Method and Procedures of Collecting Data .................................................. 22 3.5 Analysis of the Data...................................................................................... 22 3.6 Technique of Reporting the Result ............................................................... 23 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSES 4.1 The Communistic Ideas Found in the Novel............................................. 24 4.1.1 Against Capitalism........................................................................... 24 4.1.2 Alienation......................................................................................... 37 4.1.2.1 Alienation from Their Product that They Produced...................... 38 4.1.2.2 Alienation from Their Society ...................................................... 39 4.2 The Relationship between the Forms of Communism and the American Black Society that are found in the Novel ...............................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Unraveling Native Son: Propagating Communism) Racial Hatred) Societal Change Or None of the Above??
    IUSB Graduate Journal Ill 1 Unraveling Native Son: Propagating Communism) Racial Hatred) Societal Change or None of the Above?? by:jacqueline Becker Department of English ABSTRACT: This paper explores the many different ways in which Communism is portrayed within Richard Wright's novel Native Son. It also seeks to illustrate that regardless of the reasoning behind the conflicted portrayal of Communism, within the text, it does serve a vital purpose, and that is to illustrate to the reader that there is no easy answer or solution for the problems facing society. Bigger and his actions cannot be simply dismissed as a product of a damaged society, nor can Communism be seen as an all-encompassing saving grace that will fix all of societies woes. Instead, this novel, seeks to illustrate the type of people that can be produced in a society divided by racial class lines. It shows what can happen when one oppressed group feels as though they have no power over their own lives. I have attempted to illustrate that what Wright ultimately achieved, through his novel Native Son, is to illuminate to readers of the time that a serious problem existed within their society, specifically in Chicago within the "Black Belt" and that the solution lies not with one social group or political party, not through senseless violence, but rather through changes in policy. ~Research~ 2 lll Jacqueline Becker Unraveling Native Son: Propagating Communism) Racial Hatred) Societal Change or None of the Above?? ichard Wright's novel, Native Son, presents Communism in many different lights. On the one hand, the pushy nature R of Jan and Mary, two white characters trying to share their beliefs about an equal society under Communism, by forcing Bigger, the black protagonist, to dine and drink with them, is ultimately what leads to Mary's death.
    [Show full text]
  • How Bigger Was Born Anew
    Fall 2020 29 ow Bier as Born new datation Reuration and Double Consciousness in Nambi E elle’s Native Son Isaiah Matthew Wooden This essay analyzes Nambi E. Kelley’s stage adaptation of Native Son to consider the ways tt Aicn Aeicn is itlie by n constitte to cts o etion t sharpens particular focus on how Kelley reinvigorates Wright’s novel’s searing social and cil cities by ctiely ein te oisin etpo o oble consciosness n iin ne o, enin, n se to te etpo, elleys Native Son extends the debates about “the problem of the color line” that Du Bois’s writing helped engender at te beinnin o te tentiet centy into te tentyst n, in so oin, opens citicl space to reckon with the persistent and pernicious problem of anti-Black racism. ewords adaptation, refguration, double consciousness, Native Son, Nambi E. Kelley This essay takes as a central point of departure the claim that African American drama is vitalized by and, indeed, constituted through acts of refguration. It is such acts that endow the remarkably capacious genre with any sense or semblance of coherence. Retion is notably a word with multiple signifcations. It calls to mind processes of representation and recalculation. It also points to matters of meaning-making and modifcation. The pref re does important work here, suggesting change, alteration, or even improvement. For the purposes of this essay, I use etion to refer to the strategies, practices, methods, and techniques that African American dramatists deploy to transform or give new meaning to certain ideas, concepts, artifacts, and histories, thereby opening up fresh interpretive and defnitional possibilities and, when appropriate, prompting much-needed reckonings.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison: Conflicting Masculinities
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1994 Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison: Conflicting Masculinities H. Alexander Nejako College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the American Literature Commons Recommended Citation Nejako, H. Alexander, "Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison: Conflicting Masculinities" (1994). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539625892. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-nehz-v842 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RICHARD WRIGHT AND RALPH ELLISON: CONFLICTING MASCULINITIES A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by H. Alexander Nejako 1994 ProQuest Number: 10629319 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10629319 Published by ProQuest LLC (2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
    [Show full text]
  • Native Son (Questions)
    Native Son (Questions) 1 Wright writes of Bigger Thomas: “these were the rhythms of his life; indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger” … Does Wright intend us to relate to Bigger as a human being – or has he deliberately made him an embodiment of oppressive social and political forces? Is there anything admirable about Bigger? Does he change by the end of the book? 2 James Baldwin, an early protégé of Wright’s, later attacked the older writer for his self-righteousness and reliance on stereo-types… In his famous essay “Everybody’s Protest Novel” Baldwin compared Bigger to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom, and dismissed Native Son as “protest” fiction. Do you agree? 3 When Bigger stands confronted by his family in jail, he thinks… they ought to be glad he was a murderer; “had he not taken on himself the crime of being black?” Talk about Bigger as a victim and sacrificial figure. If Wright wanted us to pity Bigger, why did he portray him as so brutal? 4 How dated does this book seem in its depiction of racial hatred and guilt? Have we as a society moved beyond the rage and hostility that Wright depicts between blacks and whites? Or are we still living in a culture that could produce a figure like Bigger Thomas? https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/719-native-son-wright?start=3 Native Son (About the Author) Author: Richard Wright Born: September 4, 1908 Where: near Natchez, MS Education: Smith-Robertson Junior High, Jackson MS Died: November 28, 1960 Where: Paris, France Richard Wright was the first 20th century African-American writer to command both critical acclaim and popular success.
    [Show full text]
  • Paul Green Foundation
    Paul Green Foundation NEWS – October 2017 Native Son’s New Adaptation PAUL GREEN ANNUAL MEETING Playwright Nambi Kelley NOVEMBER 4, 2017 has written plays for NC BOTANICAL GARDEN Steppenwolf, Goodman Theatre and Lincoln Center CHAPEL HILL, NC and most recently was named playwright-in-residence at The 2017 the National Black Theatre in New York. Kelley’s adaptation of Native Son was National Theatre Conference presented to critical acclaim for the premiere December 1-3 in New York City production at the Court Theatre/American Blues Each year the National Theatre Conference Festival. Since that first production it has been Person of the Year names the Paul Green produced in New York, California, Georgia and Award winner. This year’s Person of the Year – Arizona, and published by Samuel French in 2016. Molly Smith selected June Schreiner, a highly The Green Foundation joined with the Wright acclaimed young actor. Since 1989, the Paul Estate to sanction these productions. Green Foundation has honored a “young theatre professional” with this Paul Green Award. A bit of history: Paul Green and Richard Wright’s Native Son that opened on March 24, Founded in 1925, the National Theatre 1941, at the St. James Theatre in New York City, Conference is a not-for-profit organization made was produced by Orson Welles and John up of distinguished members of the American Houseman. Of the very serious disagreement that Theatre Community; Green was instrumental in ensued between Green and Wright, Dr. Laurence the founding the organization and served as Avery, Professor Emeritus, UNC-Chapel Hill president in the early years.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Black Male's Quest for Identity As Illustrated Through
    Understanding the Black Male’s Quest for Identity as Illustrated through Native Son Martez Files The history of African-American writing merger will make them quest their own real is a complex subject. Since the foregrounding of identity, because they have become the emptied this literary canon there have been writers who out shell.” He contends that because Blackness is have attempted to present African-Americans as so diverse and Whiteness is so sovereign that Black agents of their social realities. These writers have people are becoming lost in the White world literally had to write Black people into history because their various character traits are because societal norms, historically, dehumanized suppressed by the oppressive presence of this group into anonymity. Some of the first Whiteness. His argument is one in which he writings of African-Americans that gained national presents Blacks as an “emptied-out shell” and attention are the ex-slave narratives which offer the another in which he echoes the sentiment that reader some clues as to what the human experience Whites are “sovereign,” meaning they reign of suffering was like for these people. In many supreme, even in Black literature. ways Black writers have mimicked the tradition of One might contend that Nejad does not take depicting Black characters battling human into account that this “emptied-out shell” to which experiences. Richard Wright is no different in he refers is not influenced first by White these literary pursuits as he also, expressly, sovereignty but by that of a Black parental figure. humanizes his characters. Nonetheless, some This is true in many African-American writings.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Beware of Elites Bearing Theories': Clarence Thomas on Race And
    Journal of Education & Social Policy Vol. 2, No. 1; March 2015 ‘Beware of Elites Bearing Theories’: Clarence Thomas on Race and Education William S. New, PhD Department of Education and Youth Studies Beloit College Beloit, WI 53511 Michael S. Merry, PhD Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract No matter one's political loyalties, it seems worthwhile to take seriously Clarence Thomas’s ideas about education because over the past twenty-five years most have acquired the force of law. This article explains Thomas’ views on the legitimacy and efficacy of affirmative action as a remedy to educational segregation. It also addresses his views on integration/segregation and diversity, the developments of which are intimately tied to affirmative action. Each is related to ever-shifting definitions and deployments of the notion of colorblindness. Understanding Clarence Thomas with respect to education requires an examination of his biography, as paradigmatic of many black male experiences in the second half of the 20th century. The article argues that it is unproductive to claim that Thomas’ conservatism in the realm of racial politics is either irrational or exceptional. That does not equate, however, to championing Thomas’ positions on affirmative action, diversity, and integration. Keywords: supreme court, affirmative action, segregation, educational law, colorblindness "There is nothing you can do to get past black skin ... I don't care how educated you are, how good you are at what you do – you'll never have the same contacts or opportunities, you'll never be seen as equal to whites." – Clarence Thomas, quoted by Juan Williams (1987) It would be fair to say that no black public figure in the past thirty years has been the target of more unapologetically racial slurs by liberals than Clarence Thomas.
    [Show full text]
  • The Quotation and Recirculation of James Baldwin from Black Power to #Blacklivesmatter
    Tweets of a Native Son: The Quotation and Recirculation of James Baldwin from Black Power to #BlackLivesMatter Melanie Walsh American Quarterly, Volume 70, Number 3, September 2018, pp. 531-559 (Article) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/aq.2018.0034 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/704336 Access provided by Washington University @ St. Louis (1 Oct 2018 14:55 GMT) Tweets of a Native Son | 531 Tweets of a Native Son: The Quotation and Recirculation of James Baldwin from Black Power to #BlackLivesMatter Melanie Walsh n August 9, 2014, around noon, a police officer, Darren Wilson, shot and killed eighteen-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. OThat night, hundreds of miles from Missouri, the San Diego–based community organizer Kim Moore (@SoulRevision) added a voice, via Twitter, to the national chorus of grief and protest that was swelling over Brown’s death, an outcry that had been sparked, both online and offline, by the residents of Ferguson.1 This voice was not, or not only, Moore’s own, but also that of the civil rights literary icon James Baldwin: “#MikeBrown & #EricGarner’s death speak to James Baldwin’s quote; ‘to be black a[nd] conscious in America is to be in a constant state of rage.’”2 Moore’s framing of Baldwin’s words placed them in angry, mournful dialogue with both the fate of Brown and the pass- ing of Eric Garner, another unarmed black man who had died at the hands of the police weeks earlier in Staten Island, New York.
    [Show full text]
  • Blind Justice? Alienation Within the Law in Richard Wright's Native Son
    Veramendi 1 Blind Justice? Alienation within the Law in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Susan Glaspell’s ‘A Jury of Her Peers’” An Honors Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of English University of Florida By Melanie Veramendi April 15, 2019 Veramendi 2 I. Introduction Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940) is designed around the color line, molded and warped around it through its characters and racially driven situations. The novel centers on Bigger Thomas, an African American man living in Chicago’s Southside in the 1930s and the almost inescapable presence of crime on his life. Susan Glaspell’s short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” (1917), features a crime of passion that illustrates the separation between men and women when investigating a murder, revealing the distinct disparities in their understanding of the crime, and how perceptions of justice can vary between groups. At first glance, “A Jury of her Peers” and Native Son seem to have little in common in terms of subject matter or content. Nevertheless, both deal with the ramifications of societal persecution in our legal system and how individuals can suffer from institutions that do not recognize the challenges of underrepresented communities. There is a type of focused intensity that accompanies trials and investigations that attempts to uncover the motives and intentions of one sole individual. It is an extremely alienating and discomforting process, and this is only exacerbated when intersected with prejudice and discrimination. Thus, in this essay I want to highlight the deterioration of self and the dissociation that arises in works of fiction when characters are put in legal scenarios that decide their fates without considering who they are, only what they represent.
    [Show full text]
  • The Trial of Bigger Thomas: Race, Gender, and Trespass
    Brooklyn Law School BrooklynWorks Faculty Scholarship 2006 The rT ial of Bigger Thomas: Race, Gender, and Trespass Bennett aC pers Brooklyn Law School, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/faculty Part of the Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Evidence Commons, Law and Gender Commons, and the Law and Race Commons Recommended Citation 31 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 1 (2006-2007) This Article is brought to you for free and open access by BrooklynWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of BrooklynWorks. THE TRIAL OF BIGGER THOMAS: RACE, GENDER, AND TRESPASS I. BENNETT CAPERS* Richard Wright's Native Son,1 the first novel by an African American to be featured as a main selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club,2 was nothing short of groundbreaking in the annals of American literature. The novel opens with the sound of an alarm going off-Richard Wright's wake-up call to America to open its eyes and address issues of race and class3 -and ends with its protagonist Bigger Thomas awaiting execution for the rape and murder of a white woman. Though considered incendiary in the South-Native Son was banned in Birming- ham, Alabama, for example4-across the rest of the nation, Native Son debuted as a bestseller,5 and was lauded as an instant classic. 6 Although Richard Wright went on to complete other works, including his two-volume autobiography Black Boy (1945) and American Hunger (1977), the existential novel The Outsider * Associate Professor of Law, Hofstra Law School.
    [Show full text]
  • Camera Obscuras: Black Stories on Film Wednesdays, June 2, June 23, July 14, August 18 Zoom, 6:30Pm-8:30Pm
    Camera Obscuras: Black Stories on Film Wednesdays, June 2, June 23, July 14, August 18 Zoom, 6:30pm-8:30pm Description: In this virtual course, we will discuss four recent films that vibrantly illustrate the rich humanity of Black people in the United States across several decades of struggle for freedom. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018) is based on James Baldwin’s 1974 novel and follows a family’s struggle to free a wrongly accused man in New York City. Native Son (2019) is based on Richard Wright’s novel about a young man from Chicago’s South Side who commits an act that upends his life. Also set in Chicago, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) is based on a 1982 play by August Wilson and captures the blues singer’s mission to record an album of her songs in the twenties. Passing (2021) is based on Nella Larsen’s Harlem Renaissance era novel about two friends, one who pretends to be white. The films can be rented or purchased via various online platforms. You don’t have to read or have read the books connected to these films in order to take this class. Participants will watch the films outside of class and respond creatively to scenes and stills through an individual film journal (see guidelines below). We will provide excerpts from each book that will focus our discussions on specific scenes in the accompanying film as well as its making, background, plot, character development, and themes. We’ll also use still shots and scenes from the movie as prompts for in-class writing and our own creative storytelling.
    [Show full text]
  • The Reading Cultures Core Sequence Offers an Introduction to Critical Reading and Cultural Analysis
    HUMA 14200: Reading Cultures III Spring 2021 COURSE DESCRIPTION: The Reading Cultures core sequence offers an introduction to critical reading and cultural analysis. This Humanities Course approaches cultures not simply as groups of people but as sets of shared ideas and assumptions that take shape in specific forms of representation. Our goal will be to examine how cultural knowledge is formed and transmitted across space and time via three interconnected processes: collecting, travel and exchange. By focusing on these processes and their representation in art, literature and film, we will consider how cultures are created through the stories they tell and the stories that are told about them. The spring quarter works toward understanding the relation, in the modern and post-modern periods, between economic development and processes of cultural transformation. We examine literary and cinematic texts that celebrate and criticize modernization and urbanization. We begin in the nineteenth century with Balzac’s novel Old Man Goriot and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto, and then concentrate on works that address economic, social, and cultural change and exchange in the twentieth century, including Melville’s “Paradise of Bachelors and Tartarus of Maids,” Richard Wright’s Native Son, and Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times. LEARNING GOALS: You will gain expertise in a reader-centered approach to writing. You will understand how to shape your arguments to persuade a target audience. You will increase the clarity of both your arguments and your prose. You will gain further practice in comprehending and challenging theoretical positions. You will gain further practice in close reading and literary analysis.
    [Show full text]