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Hms 801 the Art of Protest karsten h. piep 2018 8a (jul-dec) 3 credit hours [email protected] (513) 421-0551 HMS 801 THE ART OF PROTEST Protest Chilean Junta Rachel Romero, (1975), Library of Congress. “Protest Literature says to the reader, have hope—you are not alone. And if it does nothing but that, it has done something profoundly important.” —Howard Zinn SEMINAR DESCRIPTION Throughout human history, social protest, conflict, and political struggle have been constants. Among the first written examples of social protest on record is Aristophanes’ comedy, Lysistrata (411 BC), in which the women of Athens collectively refuse their husbands until these cease to engage in endless warfare. The play is commonly read as an outcry against the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) that destroyed ancient Greece. Other early instances of social protest and outright rebellion include Plutarch's fairly sympathetic depictions of the Sparatcus Rebellion in ancient Rome (73-70 BC), the New Testament’s accounts of the life of Jesus Christ—no doubt one of the most influential social reformers in history—and the “heretical” 14th-century treatises by John Wycliffe and Jan Huss, as well as the Ninety-Five Theses posted in 1517 on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg by a renegade monk called Martin Luther. With the onset of the Enlightenment and, later, large-scale industrialization in Europe, social protest in all its forms and varieties became a staple of modern politics. In the US American HMS 801: The Art of Protest 2 context, the wrtings of Thomas Paine, the Declaration of Independence as well as subsequent “Declarations of Independence” by William Apess on behalf of the Cherokee and David Walker on behalf of African Americans tesify to this—as do more recent examples such as Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Ida B. Wells’s Southern Horrors (1892), Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906), Jane Addams’s “Why Women Should Vote” (1910), John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Richard Wright’s 12 Million Black Voices (1941), Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” (1956), Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963). Through a series of brief and highly selective case studies, this interdisciplinary seminar invites participants to explore the rich traditions of protest literature in the United States, India, South Africa, and other regions of the world. Using a broad definition of “protest literature,” our course focuses on the production and consumption of dissent as a site of progressive social critique, using a wide variety of print, visual, and oral forms. We will examine the historical links between modes of protest and meanings of literature, and explore how various expressions of dissent function as aesthetic, performative, rhetorical, and ideological texts within specific cultural contexts. Moreover, taking a sociological bend, we will investigate the underlying causes and sources of protest as well as its ultimate impact on society at large. Race, gender and class will serve as a critical prism to gauge the complexities of individual motivation, policy impact and societal change. Individual and collective actions that constitute the disruption of the status quo will be analyzed and drawn from historical cases such as late 19th-century protests against poverty, the Indian struggle for liberation from colonial rule, and the anti-Apartheid movement. Our “readings” include novels, poetry, speeches, short stories, pamplets, photographs, posters, films, music, and more. INTEGRATION OF PROGRAM THEMES Hardly any act of expression and representation is closer intertwined with the goals of exposing and rectifying perceived social wrongs than social protest art and literature. As this seminar will show, though, the art of social protest is not merely bound up with the efficacy of its aesthetic, rhetorical, and performative appeals. Equally important is the protesters’ attentiveness to the views and wants of others. For as Rosa Luxemburg famously reminded Vladimir Illyich Lenin, “Freedom is also always the freedom of the one who thinks differently.” This attentiveness to difference—not coincidentally a foundational theme of the Ph.D. Program in Interdisciplinary Studies—will help us to critically reflect on the aims and methods of various forms of social protest by raising crucial questions such as which injustices are being exposed, which social ills are being tolerated, and whose interests are ultimately being served. Moreover, bearing in mind Howard Zinn’s observation that social protest literature “works on the supposition that social change comes through the combined and cumulative actions of many people, even if they do not know one another or are not aware of one another’s existence,” we will analyze, assess, and critique individual expressions of protest within their larger cultural and socio-historical contexts. INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING Protest as such is one of the most basic forms of human expression and thus applies to all subject matters and fields of study, not just literature, philosophy, religion, or history. In 1945, for example, a group of theoretical physicists, headed by Albert Einstein, made headlines by protesting against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and in 2002, Time magazine named three businesswomen “Persons of the Year” for having blown the whistle on Enron’s corruption schemes. More recently, in the wake of the so-called "Arab Spring" and the Occupy Wall Street HMS 801: The Art of Protest 3 movement, Time magazine declared "The Protester" person of the year. Thus, both the research and the analytical/critical/creative assignment components of this seminar offer participants ample opportunities to apply new insights gained to their individual intellectual and practical pursuits. LEARNING OUTCOMES AND COMPETENCIES HMS 801 pays particular attention to UI&U Doctoral Learning Outcome II: Critical and Creative Thinking as well as Ph.D. Program outcomes V.iii and V.iv that require students to “situate scholarly and creative work within the relevant literature, debates, and artistic expressions of the field(s)” and to “offer creative interpretations of data, texts, artifacts, performances that bridge personal insights and scholarly debates.” In addition, by the end of this seminar participants will be able to: Identify and describe some of the mechanisms and circumstances that lead to the formation of social protest movements. Identify and describe various forms of social protest as well as their generic, aesthetic, and rhetorical characteristics. Critically assess and evaluate the achievements and shortcomings of various forms of social protest, before the backdrop of specific socio-historical moments and with an eye towards the difficulties of negotiating preferred methods and desired outcomes across race, class, and gender lines. Evince the ability to engage in sustained and comprehensive research (bibliographically, quantitatively, qualitatively, or otherwise) and to present their findings in a coherent, expressive, and persuasive manner. Reflect on and creatively/critically apply (synthesize) methods and philosophies of social protest to their own particular work in the areas of leadership, public policy, and/or the humanities. ASSIGNMENTS, PROCEDURES, EVALUATION, AND GRADING CLOSE READING RESPONSES (CRR): To facilitate the close reading of and critical engagement with texts, seminar participants will be divided into two groups and post altogether four reading responses. These responses should be between 300 and 600 words long (1-2 double-spaced pages) and contain specific references to and/or quotes from the text under discussion. Rather than attempting to summarize an entire reading, the responses should focus on one idea, theme, or issue and pursue it in greater depth, recording comments or criticisms, and raising questions. BRIEF COMMENTS (BC): In order to allow for group discussions, seminar participants who are not posting their close reading response will post one or more brief comments on one or more of the responses. The length of these comments may vary from a few lines to an entire paragraph. Early on in the semester, participants will submit a 1-2 page PROPOSAL, in which they outline their projects, relate them to the pertinent issues of the seminar, state their research questions, and describe their research plans. Two weeks later, participants will provide a PRELIMINARY BIBLIOGRAPHY that lists relevant texts and/or research in their fields of study. This list, then, will be expanded into an ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (20 entries minimum) that briefly summarizes key arguments and/or findings in the field. HMS 801: The Art of Protest 4 Based upon their annotated bibliographies, participants will produce a 5-8 page LITERATURE REVIEW that succinctly describes the state of research in the field by highlighting areas of agreement and disagreement, suggesting possibilities of synthesis, raising questions, and pointing out the direction of future research. During this process, participants will probably want to revise and/or refine their initial theses and approaches. Participants have three options for their RESEARCH PROJECT. (1) A more or less traditional 20- 25 page research paper that, building upon the literature reviews, identifies and carefully analyzes one or more examples of social protest in the arts or literature and advances a well- supported, original argument that advances the ongoing debate within the field.
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