Studies in American Literature (378-0-20)

Topic

OK, Boomer

Instructors

Lauren Michele Jackson

Meeting Info

University Hall 118: Mon, Wed 11:00AM - 12:20PM

Overview of class

The products and pastimes young people have been accused of killing off are too numerous to name. Among them: bar soap, home ownership, casual dining, vacations, wine, napkins, diamonds, golf, football, and crude oil. In turn, baby boomers have left their own path of the destruction, causing affordable tuition, retirement, and the social safety net to pass right out of style. The eternal strife between millennials and their parents has quite overshadowed other sorts of inter-generational conflict: millennials and Zoomers have their own beef and boomers were once young people with their own gripes with The proverbial Man. And why has Gen X gotten to stay out of the fray? (Who is Gen X, anyway?)

This course explores idea of generations: what defines them, what binds them, why we so strongly identify with them. How do generational labels and traits become accepted truths? When is it useful politically, socially, culturally, and rhetorically? How does generational thinking stand-up to the nuances of social and economic differences of race, gender, and class? We will ask these and other questions by studying a range of cultural texts (novels, news articles, television, and film) alongside critical readings from scholars. Possible texts: Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion, Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (dir. Leslie Harris), Reality Bytes (dir. Ben Stiller), Office Space (dir. by Mike Judge), Kids These Days by Malcolm Harris, and Severance by Ling Ma.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
SDG Reduced Inequality
SDG Peace & Justice
SDG Gender Equality