History 4/5/79195
History & Popular Culture

Spring Semester 2002
10:45-Noon T, Th 

208 Bowman Hall

Professor William Kenney

wkenney@kent.edu

Office Hours: 305 Bowman Hall

T, Th 9:00-10:45 & by appointment

Introduction to Cultural History, Culture Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, American Studies, Black Studies, Ethnic Studies, Woman Studies, Gay & Lesbian Studies, Popular Music Studies . . . (and all those other [historical] studies)

January 15, 17: Understanding the Conflicts between History & Popular Culture Studies

-- the objectivity dilemma

-- debates over the political meanings of "nation," "culture," "man,"

"woman" 

January 22, 24:-- the politics of culture

-- production, consumption, & criticism of culture

Read & Discuss: John Storey, Introduction to Cuture Studies and Popular Culture. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998. 

January 29, 31: Bringin' da Noise to American History

-- The Revolt Against Victorianism

-- Late 19th Century Immigration

February 5, 7-- Rise of Tin Pan Alley, Popular Sheet Music, Ragtime and Jazz

--The Legacies of Minstrelsy in 20th Century Popular Culture

Read& Discuss: Lawrence W. Levine, High Brow, Low Brow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1988.

Visit: Library of Congress American Memory Project at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/

Listen to early jazz at: http://www.redhotjazz.com/band_body.html

Sample/Survey Cover Art on Early Sheet Music:

http://www.lib.duke.edu/music/sheetmusic/collections.html

February 12, 14: Coming Through Slaughter: The Great Migration of African Americans

--Describing the Migration from Rural South to Industrial North

      --The Horror of White Racism in 1917

--Paper Topic Statement with List of Sources Due

February 19, 21: The Impact of World War I on Race Relations

-- War and Unsettled Youth

      -- Race and the Music Business

Read & Discuss: James Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.

February 26, 28: Examples of the Cultural History of Early Blues, Jazz & Country

-- How the Blues Got to Memphis

-- How Country Music Got to Bakersfield, Ca.

               -- Why Louis Armstrong Always Talked about New Orleans

-- Louis Armstrong & Jazz Autobiographies

Read & Discuss: Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans, with a New Introduction by Dan Morgenstern. New York.: DaCapo, 1986.

March 5, 7: New Trends in Music & Culture Theory: Music, Movement & the "Space in Between"

-- Jacques Attali: Music and Sacrifice/Victor Turner: Crisis & Liminality

-- Paul Gilroy on the African Diaspora/ Homi Bhabha on Unpacking &

Repacking Culture

-- 3/7: Revised Paper Statement with Expanded List of Sources Due

March 12:--James Clifford on Travel and Cultural Translation 

Read & Discuss: March 7: Homi Bhabha, "Unpacking My Library . . . Again," in Chambers & Curti, eds., The Post-Colonial Question: Common Skies, Divided Horizons. London, Eng.: Routledge, 1996, ch. 15

March 12: James Clifford, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997), chs. 1, 10.

 
 

March 14:-- Midterm Examination

March 19, 21: Jazz on the River: Music, Race & National Identity on the Mississippi

-- Jazz and the Great Migration

-- Jazz on the Riverboats

Visit: http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/raeburn/rivboatintro.htm

March 25-31: Spring Recess

April 2-4: Jazz on the River Concluded

--Riverboat Jazz, Jacques Attali & Homi Bhabha

--White and Black Swans on the Mississippi

-- 4/4: First Submission of Paper

Read & Discuss: April 4: David Chevan, "Riverboat Music from St. Louis and the Streckfus Steamboat Line,"Black Music Research Journal 9,2 (Fall 1989), 153-180.

Visit: http://www.personal.kent.edu/~wkenney/introsyl01.html#jazzlinks

April 9,11: Music, and Memory in African American History

Collective Memory & African American History 

Recordings and Collective Memory

April 16, 18:Pierre Nora and Les Lieux de Memoire

Music and Collective Memory

4/18: Return of First Submissions

Read & Discuss: Genevieve Fabre & Robert O'Meally, eds., History and Memory in African American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. 

April 23, 25, 30. May 2: Student Class Presentations

Students present a 10 minute summary of their Term Paper Hypotheses

5/1: Final Submission of Papers

May 7 @ 12:45 p.m.: Final Examination

Grades:

This course emphasizes critical reading, writing and classroom discussion of assigned materials chosen to illustrate the intellectual and artistic possibilities in culture and popular culture studies. 25% of the course grade will be based upon class participation. In order to strengthen the reading/discussion process, each student will lead the class discussion of a required reading, offering his/her understanding of the main hypotheses, evidence, and critical evaluation. In addition, all students are asked to prepare each class reading and to participate in the class analysis. Thirdly, each student will prepare a 10 to 15 minute oral presentation his term paper hypothesis. Given the importance accorded to class participation, regular attendance is required. Official medical excuses will be accepted.

For graduate students, grades will be calculated as follows: 15% Midterm exam, 15% Final Exam, 45% Term Paper, 25% Class Participation

For undergraduate Students, grades will be calculated as follows: 25% Midterm Exam, 25% Final Exam, 25% Term Paper, 25% Class Participation.

Term Papers:

Writing lucidly is an essential ingredient in advanced historical study. All students must write a term paper of approximately 10 - 15 pages that explores an important dimension of one of the major themes of the course. Those themes are: Migration, Music, Collective Memory, Blues and Jazz, Rivers in American Culture, and Louis Armstrong. One need not explore all or even more than one of these themes. If you feel comfortable working with a musical subject, you are encouraged to do so. If not, pick a non-musical theme. Whatever theme you choose, be sure to interpret it through the concepts of one or more of the theoretical works featured in this course.

If you do not yet feel confident working with theoretical concepts, focus on some major factual dimension within the historical period considered in the course. Read all major works on that person, movement, or event and be sure to discuss your interpretation with the instructor before writing the final draft of your paper.

Please be sure to pursue both library/archival research and internet research when preparing your term paper. Special problems with the placing of historical documentation on line prevent us all from depending solely on the internet.

Suggested Topics:

Analysis of Selected Themes in the Autobiographies of Jazz/Blues Musicians

Women in Jazz &/or Blues from Ma Rainey & Billie Holiday to Abbie Lincoln

Gays, Lesbians & Sexual Ambiguity in Jazz &/or Blues: Billy Tipton

Analysis of the Great Jazz Photographers

Jazz/Blues on the Internet: Analysis of the Best/Worst Sites & Why

Krin Gabbard & Jazz in the Movies

Historiography of Books that Discuss "Jazz in American Culture"

Jazz in Major Cities Compared

Jazz Abroad

Jews and Jazz

Music & the Historiography of the Great Migration

Nightclub Culture in the 1920/30s

Jazz and the White Critics

Jazz and Black Nationalism

Bix Beiderbecke & Cultural Analysis of White Jazz Icons

The Mediation of Blues/Jazz in the Recording Industry

Copyright Law in Jazz and Popular Music

A Cultural Critique of Jazz/Blues Videos

A Critique of Jazz/Blues Novels & Short Stories

Jazz in the Harlem Renaissance

Term Paper Schedule:

February 14: Paper Topic Statement with List of Sources

March 7: Paper Outline and Expanded List of Sources

April 4:First Submission of Paper

April 18: Return of First Submissions

May 1: Final Submission of Paper