32206

SoSe 23: The Long Sixties

Tobias Alexander Annamalay Jochum

Kommentar

This seminar provides an overview of literary texts that came to define the 1960s (considered here from the mid-1950s to end of the Vietnam War in 1973). A highly mythologized period in American history, the Sixties loom large in the cultural imagination as a battleground over the soul of the country, fought out on multiple political and cultural fronts. Taking as a point of departure dissenting voices breaking free of the conformist pressures of the Eisenhower era, we will then trace political movements around racial and gender equality, sexual liberation and opposition to the war in Indochina via their literary contributors and commentators. Two major geographical anchors will be the Lower East Side in New York City and the Bay Area in California, historical sites where countercultural forces coalesced into conspicuous "scenes" that set the tone for the nation as a whole. The seminar conceives two broader trajectories: One grounded in the collective struggles of the time (around the expansion of rights within a larger renegotiation of the nation as a whole); the other marking a turn away from a "terrestrial" realpolitik and towards new frontiers and alternative futurities. Outwards into the cosmos, now opening to human exploration at the dawn of the space age; and inwards through the popularization of non-Western spiritual practices and the psychedelic experience. (Unsurprisingly, some of the most poignant reflections of these themes can be found in science fiction writing at the time.) Course readings will be drawn from a wide range of genres, including poetry and popular music, creative nonfiction and genre fiction. Authors include Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, James Baldwin, Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, Samuel R. Delaney, Kurt Vonnegut, Joan Didion, Richard Brautigan, and N. Scott Momaday. We will also discuss influential works of theory by Betty Friedan, LeRoi Jones, and Herbert Marcuse. Note: The syllabus remains deliberately open for student input and suggestions. Therefore, if you are interested in taking this seminar, please do not miss the first session. Schließen

14 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Mi, 16:00 - 18:00 14 Termine

Mi, 19.04.2023 16:00 - 18:00

Dozenten:
Dr. Tobias Alexander Annamalay Jochum