AHSEM-UA 165 - Edmund Wilson and the Art of Cultural Criticism

Institution:

New York University

Subject:

Description:

Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) was the greatest cultural critic that America has ever produced-or so a good many cultural critics of our own time have come to believe. Wilson belonged to a circle of writers from the First World War generation that included John Dos Passos, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. He wrote novels, poetry, plays, and diaries. But mostly he wrote book reviews and essays on literary, political, and historical topics, which ran in the New Republic, the New Yorker, the New York Review of Books and other magazines. Reading a substantial sampling of Wilson's work, we will examine a series of large topics, including the cultural atmosphere of Greenwich Village early in the 20th century; the rise of literary modernism; the influence of Marxism; the literature of the Civil War; and various traditions of American thought and literature over the centuries. We will pay close attention to Wilson's style of journalistic writing: his emphases on clarity, on conversational ease, and on emotional forcefulness. Students will be asked to apply Wilson's principles of writing to their own compositions-an extremely useful thing to do for any student who seeks to become a better writer. Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in 20th-Century America AHSEM-UA 168 Cross-listed with History as HIST-UA 664. Please note that this course does not satisfy the advanced research seminar requirement for the history major. Nash. 4 points. Conflicts over racial equality, freedom of speech, and equal protection under the law that were guaranteed in the Constitution have been contested terrain throughout U.S. history. These struggles sharpened in the 20th century as African Americans fought to end racial segregation, women sought equal rights, business interests resisted labor militancy, while federal and state governments suppressed radicals and other dissenters. This seminar examines the legal struggles and the social movements that took place as Americans fought for civil rights and civil liberties during periods of war, industrial unrest, and social change. It explores these stories by analyzing legal history through the lenses of political, social, and cultural history. This is an interdisciplinary course. Students study novels, poems, and oral memoirs; view films; and read historical monographs that speak to this big and important subject. The Tamiment Library, one of the most important repositories in the United States documenting the history of radical politics, civil rights, and civil liberties, is our laboratory. Students work with archives and other special collections on a weekly basis, learning how to use and evaluate these primary sources, interpret evidence, make analytical arguments, and develop research questions.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.nyu.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 998-1212

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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