Introduction to 20th-Century American Literature (273-0-01)

Instructors

Susan A Manning

Harris Matthew Feinsod

Meeting Info

University Hall 102: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

This course explores the linked histories of poetry and performance across the Americas (from Harlem to Havana, and from Chicago to Mexico City and Buenos Aires). We'll focus especially on modern and avant-garde poetry and dance from their origins to the present. Along the way, we'll consider how experimental writers and artists of color navigated racial discrimination, how poets and performers understood their relationship to national and international politics, and how their extraordinary formal experiments in language and embodiment sought to imagine new social possibilities. Students will learn to describe how the expressive capacities of poetry and dance have shaped major episodes in 20th and 21st century cultural history.

Poets may include José Martí, Rubén Darío, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, Amiri Baraka, Pedro Pietri, and Claudia Rankine. Performers may include Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, Katherine Dunham, Pearl Primus, José Limón, Merce Cunningham, Eleo Pomare, Bill T. Jones, and Will Rawls.

Class Attributes

Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area

Associated Classes

DIS - University Library 5722: Fri 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - University Library 5746: Fri 11:00AM - 11:50AM

DIS - University Library 5722: Fri 12:00PM - 12:50PM

DIS - University Library 5746: Fri 12:00PM - 12:50PM

DIS - NO DATA: NO DATA