An Introduction to American Studies: Performative Embodiments: The Body in American Culture Instructor: Caroline McKenzie email: [email protected] Tuesdays & Thursdays 4:30 – 5:45 p.m. Classroom: Rec 112 Office: HEAV TBA Required text: Burgett, Bruce and Glenn Hendler. Keywords for American Cultural Studies. New York: New York University Press, 2007. The construction of “America” has been a social, cultural, political and economic process fraught in both past and present with complications, contradictions, and contestations. To address the U.S.’ process of nation- building through inclusion and exclusion, this course will introduce you to the construction of identity and difference; the cultures of everyday life; and the transnational. Through these three avenues, this course will explore the meanings given to diversity, freedom, citizenship and subjectivity within situated contexts and discourses of “embodied identities.” This course will introduce you to the key analytical categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, place and dis(ability). As we explore the construction of identity and difference; the cultures of everyday life; and the transnational through the lens of “the American body,” we will examine the ways in which American studies has addressed how collective and impersonal forms of political agency are routinely embodied in propertied, white men . .. The circulation of such ‘overembodied’ identities as public icons and spectacle has been crucial to the protection of established political privilege. At the same time, the visibility of disqualified political subjects within public culture has also generated important opportunities for contesting their disqualification. (“Body,” Ava Cherniavsky, Keywords for American Cultural Studies, 28). A wide range of works, including texts exploring the basic issues and concerns of American Studies and various critical theories (feminist theory, queer theory, critical race theory and literary theories) will be used in conjunction with novels, short stories, poems and television shows that explore embodied identities and conceptions of the American body. McKenzie, Caroline 2 As an introductory course in American Studies, three main ideas motivate this course. First, an interdisciplinary approach -- that is, a method not confined by the traditional boundaries of the disciplines -- better enables us to examine and interpret significant values, events, ideas, and cultural phenomena that have shaped our understanding of American society. No single academic discipline and no single subject matter can fully illuminate these and related issues: by bridging traditional categories of knowing we can more thoroughly comprehend the objects of our study. Second, as a way of raising the question of what it means to be "American," this course investigates the gaps between America as it imagines itself and America as it is. For example, we may live in the "Land of Opportunity," but the power to access opportunities is not distributed equally: throughout American history, social factors like class, race, and gender have played crucial roles in determining who will vote, attend certain schools, work in a certain job, live in a particular place -- in determining the degree to which the American dream becomes possible. Because the tension between American ideals and American realities becomes most visible during historical or cultural crises, we will examine several such moments of conflict. Finally, we will ask: what is American history? How has history been told and how should it be told? How do we decide which "facts" to include and which ones to omit? Throughout the semester, you will be asked to watch films and television shows centered on a theme of your choosing. Some of the themes, topics and possible choices of this course include (but are not limited to): GENDER: • beauty pageants/beauty (Paris is Burning, Toddlers & Tiaras, Little Miss Sunshine, Black Swan, Body Typed, Smile, Miss Congeniality, Smile, Miss Firecracker, To Wong Foo, Happy Texas, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Beautiful, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil) • femininity (Just about any Hollywood/mainstream film) • masculinity (Fight Club, Rocky, G.I. Jane) • purity (purity balls, debutantes, virginity pledgers, The Purity Myth) • pregnant bodies, (Precious, Juno, For Keeps, Junior, Nine Months, Father of the Bride 2) McKenzie, Caroline 3 SEXUALITY: • pornography (Don Jon, Boogie Nights, Wonderland, Orgazmo, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Graduate) • sexuality (TransAmerica, Boys Don’t Cry, The Scarlet Letter, If These Walls Could Talk 2, Lars and the Real Girl) • drag (To Wong Foo, The Birdcage, RuPaul, Divine, Mrs. Doubtfire, ) • sex research (Kinsey, Masters of Sex) • sex work (Midnight Cowboy, Pretty Woman, Magic Mike) RACE: • slavery (Django Unchained, 12 Years a Slave, Kindred, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Beloved) • racism (The Color Purple, The Women of Brewster Place, Native Son, Rosewood, Higher Learning, Crash, “Desiree’s Baby” by Kate Chopin, Black Like Me, The Help, A Time to Kill, Corrina Corrina, Jungle Fever, Do the Right Thing, Mississippi Burning, Mi Familia (My Family), Driving Miss Daisy, The Lone Ranger, The Wire, The Earthseed Series, Smoke Signals, American History X ) • police profiling and police brutality • black hair and Black Looks (Good Hair; bell hooks) CLASS: • poverty (Bastard Out of Carolina, Hidden in America, The End of Poverty?, Down and Out in America, Jenny is a Good Thing, Poor No More, The Price of Sugar, Our Day, Waging a Living, Half the Sky) • wealth (American Psycho, There Will Be Blood, Wall Street, Iron Man, The Great Gatsby) ABILITY & HEALTH: • AIDS/HIV (Philadelphia, Longtime Companion, Jeffrey, Rent, Out of Control: The AIDS Epidemic in Black America; Girl, Positive; Go Toward the Light, The Ryan White Story, And the Band Played On, Yesterday, Angels in America, Dallas Buyers Club, Love! Valour! Compassion!, It’s My Party, The Cure ) • addiction (Leaving Los Vegas, The Lost Weekend, Drugstore Cowboy, Clean and Sober) • Size/obesity (“The Biggest Loser,” Fast Food Nation, The Nutty Professor) McKenzie, Caroline 4 • cancer (“Cancerland,” 50/50, Breaking Bad, Terms of Endearment, The Big C) • abortion (If These Walls Could Talk I, Lake of Fire, 12th & Delaware, A Private Matter, After Tiller, For Colored Girls, The Cider House Rules) • mental health (Prozac Nation, A Beautiful Mind, Rain Man, Mask, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Girl Interrupted, Perception, Mind Games, The Black Box) • Suicide (Ordinary People, The First Wives Club, “The Yellow Wallpaper”) • eating disorders (Political Animals, Thin, Killing Us Softly, Dying to Be Thin, Perfect Illusions) MISCELLANEOUS • Politics: Our Brand is Crisis • prison (The Shawshank Redemption, “Oz,” “Orange is the New Black,” The Longest Yard, “The Wire”) • American superheroes (Batman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Superman, The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor, The X-Men, Captain America) • Supernatural (True Blood, The Walking Dead, Grimm, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film and tv show), Angel, Twilight, E. T.: The Extra- Terrestrial, Ghostbusters, Predator, Blade, Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Diaries, “Salem,” “Charmed,” “Sabrina the Teenage Witch,” Warlock) • plastic/cosmetic surgery (“Nip/Tuck”) • body modification (“L.A. Ink,” “Nip/Tuck”) • bodybuilding (Generation Iron, Pumping Iron, Pumping Iron II: The Women; Bigger, Stronger, Faster;) • sports (Raging Bull, Million Dollar Baby, Happy Gilmore, Slap Shot, Little Giants, Bull Durham, Hoosiers) • advertising (Mad Men) • The Salem Witchcraft Trials (The Crucible,“Salem”) • military (A Few Good Men, Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket, G.I. Jane, Platoon, Pearl Harbor, We Were Soldiers, G.I. Joe) • Westerns (True Grit, 3:10 to Yuma, The Searchers, High Noon, Shane, Unforgiven, Red River, The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Stagecoach, Cat Ballou, McKenzie, Caroline 5 Lonesome Dove, The Magnificent Seven; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Rio Bravo, Tombstone, The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Shootist) • gambling (The Cooler, Rounders, Maverick) • drugs (Blow, The Wire, Traffic) Since you’ll be given some leeway in terms of what you read and view in this class, I suggest that you think early on about some themes that might interest you. Not everything has to be on the same theme, but making smart choices in your readings/viewings can make it easier when it comes times to write your paper. Some major themes include: themes on “America,” freedom, democracy, individualism, equality, opportunity and identity. Consider the following genres in film/tv, such as medical, police/detectives, lawyers, vampires, mental illness, friendship, love, sex, drugs, dystopia, technology, Army/Navy/Marines, crime, animation, “tv” families, witches, serial killers, historical remakes, religion, angels, high school, birth, death, suicide, education, youth, teens, elderly, super heroes/super powers, immigrant experience, humor, westerns, “chick flicks,” “bromances” Attendance I expect a good deal of activity and instruction every time we meet, so you must attend class regularly. Many times, whatever you miss cannot be made up. In order to participate in discussions, activities, peer reviews, and in other instruction, you must be present. I realize that sometimes you have illnesses or circumstances beyond your control, so I am allowing you three absences without attendance penalty. Beyond 3 absences, your final letter grade will be lowered. This means if you