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2005-2006 Seminars 1.
American Radicalism Across Three Generations The history of American radicalism in the twentieth century is more discontinuous than continuous, marked by a sequence of lefts, each of which flourished for a time and then fell apart, leaving a distinct generational gap before the emergence of the next new left. Historians puzzle over this episodic story, offering differing arguments about the fate of radicalism in American political and cultural life. Why do American leftist movements always fail? Do they leave a legacy that transcends their brief heydays? This seminar will explore three radical sequences: the Socialist Party-IWW left that flourished in the 1910s, the Communist-dominated left of the 1930s and 1940s, and the New Left that emerged in the 1960s in communities of color and among young whites. We will examine the three radical eras in both national and local contexts, using for a local source the online Pacific Northwest Labor History Projects, directed by Professor Gregory. Faculty: James Gregory Associated Event: William Cumming: The Image of Consequence, The Frye Art Museum, Aug 20, 2005 - Jan 1, 2006 2.
Manifest Destiny and Dispossession: Steinbeck, Nation, and Migration Few works come to represent an era and a nation the way that John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath represents the 1930s. The novel is synonymous with the Great Depression in the American imagination, so much so that often what we feel we know about the period comes to us through the text. How does one literary work achieve this sense of history? How does it come to color our collective memory, and what might we lose when one story gains such power? In our investigation, we will look at the way the novel and its theatrical adaptations stage the Okies' displacement and migration as the Great Depression's central story and poor white suffering as its central spectacle. We will consider Steinbeck's presentation of the novel as both an epic and a documentary record for the present and posterity, and examine how the novel both remembers and forgets in the service of the nation's collective memory. Faculty: Sonnet Retman Associated Event: The Grapes of Wrath, INTIMAN Theatre, Oct 7 - Nov 13, 2005 3.
The Viet Nam War: Myths and Memories Thirty years after the end of the war in Viet Nam, the conflict that dramatically defined the second half of the twentieth century continues to be the object of haunting memories, political controversies, and contradictory historical and commemorative discourses. As recent events have shown, this is particularly true in the U.S., where the complexities of the conflict remain poorly understood, while self-serving myths about the nature of the war and U.S. involvement are widespread. The deep rifts that the war caused among Vietnamese persist in radically different historical narratives of various Vietnamese communities at home and abroad. This seminar will provide a historical background to the war, explain key events, and illuminate the political, ideological, and cultural influences and issues that motivated its participants. We will focus on contemporary commemorations of the war, critically examine the stories they privilege, and explore ways to teach about the subject from multiple perspectives. Faculty: Christoph Giebel Associated Event: 30 Years After the Fall, The Wing Luke Asian Museum, Oct - Dec 2005 4.
Living in Place: Literature and Environment This seminar will examine how literature deals with the environment—how texts represent nature and present environmental issues, as well as why it matters that these issues be represented in literary form. Discussion will focus upon a diverse set of texts: nature writing by Edward Abbey and Barry Lopez, a journalistic essay by John McPhee, Leslie Marmon Silko's novel, Ceremony, and poetry by authors including Terry Tempest Williams. Participants will look at the emergence within the last twenty years of ecocriticism and consider representative essays. We will explore how particular aesthetic and rhetorical techniques shape our attitudes toward nature and the environment, and how the texts deal with the environment as it bears upon social relations. Collectively, the works reveal how our attitudes toward nature and other people intersect. Faculty: Gary Handwerk Associated
Events: 1.) Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land,
The Burke Museum, June 25, 2005 - Dec 31, 2005; 2.) Wilderness and Imagination,
Seattle Arts & Lectures, December 6, 2005 5.
Shakespeare's Richards Richard II and Richard III—two of Shakespeare's most admired plays—are nominally tragedies, though their tragic heroes are about as different as two characters, and two kings, could be. Both are also "history" plays, purporting to dramatize major moments of England's early days. But here again the plays differ radically: one is a power politics drama, the other a murder story with comic overtones. All in all, Shakespeare's two Richards make a challenging if fascinating pair. Seminar participants will examine the two plays to consider the uses Shakespeare makes of history. Applying our readings of the plays, we will reflect on a production of Richard III. Faculty: John Webster Associated
Event: Richard III, Seattle Shakespeare Company, Jan 5 - 29, 2006 6.
Apartheid Then and Now: South Africa and Beyond Faculty: Ron Krabill The struggle against apartheid became an archetypal fight for justice during the twentieth century. More than ten years after South Africa's first fully democratic elections in 1994, which elements of apartheid have been successfully dismantled and which remain? This seminar will examine the history of institutionalized racism in South Africa and how that history shapes both the nation and the world today. We will consider the ongoing challenges facing South Africa, such as limited access to education, acute economic inequality, extreme rates of unemployment, HIV/AIDS infection, and violence, while paying particular attention to those groups working for meaningful transformation. Participants will examine how the implications of South Africa's experience help us understand the concept of "global apartheid," an increasingly popular term among twenty-first century progressive movements. Associated
Event: Boyzie Cekwana -- Dance Theatre, On the Boards, Feb 2 - 5, 2006 7. West Coast Poetry Saturdays, February 4 and 18, 2006, UW Simpson Center, 9am-1pm This seminar will offer a historical survey of the poetries of the U.S. West Coast from the mid-twentieth century to present. The first seminar session will concentrate on the San Francisco poetry scene's rise to international prominence. We will read early pioneering writers (Robinson Jeffers, Josephine Miles, Kenneth Rexroth); move on to discuss the post-World War II countercultural poetics of the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beats; and then consider subsequent influential developments (poetries of the New Left, Language Poetry). The second session will look at two other regions, the Northwest (from Theodore Roethke to Sherman Alexie) and Southern California (from the Blank Generation onward). The class will conclude by examining new, hybrid, uniquely West Coast forms of verse such as multilingual, pidgin, and diasporic poetries. Faculty: Brian Reed Associated
Event: Poetry Series, Seattle
Arts & Lectures, Feb - Apr
2006 8.Constructing
Childhood: An Economic, Historical, and Literary Inquiry Childhood, that revered and ephemeral condition, is one of the most riveting subjects of modern life. Thrilled by nostalgia or despair for our own youth, we construct narratives of childhood that don't always ring true. Perceiving childhood through the contradictory images of American culture, we see children as miniature adults as well as particular people in various stages of human development. In this inquiry, we will map historical, artistic, and personal perspectives on child development and the meanings of childhood in twenty-first-century America. How do these perspectives reflect the socioeconomic forces of various moments and places? Each historical moment produces an image or understanding of "the child," which then influences upcoming generations. By tracing the changing historical beliefs about notions such as creativity and schooling, and by drawing on our collective experiences as adults, we will interrogate the ongoing production of childhood through time. The discussion will include how we "write" our own versions of childhood into the culture through our interactions with children. Faculty: Katharyne Mitchell and Frances McCue 9.
Folklore Past and Present Folklore provides a window on the particular worldview of a group. And yet the stories told across vast geographical distances and lengthy time spans reveal surprising continuities, too. Is a relatively small repertoire of traditional lore somehow essential to understanding human culture, society, and psychology? Looking at such European tales as "Cinderella," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "The Dragonslayer," this seminar will examine centuries-old practices of telling and retelling stories, in oral traditions as well as literary adaptations. We shall discuss various interpretations of such stories, exploring historical, psychological, structural, and contextual approaches to their meanings. In conjunction with the Pacific Northwest Ballet production, we shall follow "Sleeping Beauty" as a specific example of one capacious tale retold in manifold variation—from its earliest-known written record in sixteenth-century Italy, through its nineteenth-century incarnations in the Brothers Grimm and in Tchaikovsky's musical score, to its present-day realizations on stage and screen. Faculty: Guntis Smidchens Associated Event: The Sleeping Beauty, Pacific Northwest Ballet, April 3 - 23, 2006 10.
Powwow: Tradition and Innovation The powwow is an icon of Native American culture, yet for most non-natives, it remains a mystery. Although dance is a vital element, powwow is more than dance alone. This seminar will present the history and traditions of powwow, and discuss its various forms and cultural significance. Participants will learn about traditional and nontraditional dancers, and examine how the ceremony has changed over time. Powwow is a force for cultural preservation and adaptation that is primarily nonreligious in nature. Some argue it has more parallels with modern rodeo than with ritual events such as Sun Dance. The seminar will coincide with the annual Spring Powwow in Seattle, when participants will view a performance closehand and have an opportunity to discuss the experience. Faculty: Tom Colonnese Associated
Event: Spring Powwow, First Nations at the University of Washington, April
2006 11.
High Art vs. Mass Culture Since 1960 Critics have exhaustively analyzed and debated relationships between modern art and mass culture in the twentieth century. Utilizing pop artist Roy Lichtenstein's work as a launch point, this seminar will review what was thought to be at stake in these debates and consider their relevance for contemporary artistic practice. Who seriously worries today about the menace pop culture poses to true high art? Can high art still define itself in opposition to populism or consumerism? Has the culture industry successfully negated the distinction between art and entertainment? How are Lichtenstein's achievements assessed today, and how do they compare with the commercial-artistic productions of global art stars like Takashi Murakami and Damien Hurst? Seminar participants will consider critical essays and illustrations of contemporary art as well as discuss Lichtenstein's work on exhibit. Faculty: Patricia Failing Associated Event: Roy Lichtenstein Prints 1965-97 from the Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer and his Family Foundation, Henry Art Gallery, February 24 - May 7, 2006 12.
Urban Youth and the Promise of Hip-Hop Culture From the Bronx to Los Angeles, Seattle, Yakima, and back, scholars argue that hip-hop culture has done more for social integration than almost any other contemporary musical form. This seminar will ask if and how hip-hop culture has fulfilled its potential to bridge musical genres—and diverse communities—over the past thirty years. The discussions will focus on urban and rural youth and the promise of hip-hop culture in educational contexts. We will explore the multiple functions hip-hop culture serves for African American, Latino, Asian American, and Native American student communities. Readings will examine the appeal of hip-hop culture and discourse to white student communities. Faculty: Michelle Habell-Pallan Associated Event: Yes, Yes, Y'all, Experience Music Project, June 18, 2005 - June 2006
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