Syllabus for Roster(s):
- 20Sp ENGL 3610-100 (CGAS)
- 20Sp GSGS 3030-100 (CGAS)
Syllabus: Global Cultural Studies
GDS 3030 / ENGL 3610: Spring 2020
Michael Levenson (Office Hours: M 10:30-11:45; W 10:30-11:45, 2:00-2:30, Bryan 434)
Teaching Assistants: Samantha Wallace (Head TA), Austyn James, Wei Lu, Heidi Siegrist, Daniel Zimmerman
Course email: 20sp-engl-3610-100@collab.its.virginia.edu
TEXTS (in Newcomb Hall Bookstore)
Bhagavad Gita; Sophocles, Antigone
Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Grossman, Death as a Way of Life
Satrapi, Persepolis; Roy, The God of Small Things
Confucius, The Analects; Hamid, Exit West
Readings on Collab are marked as *
All films to be streamed and seen before lecture
Jan 13 – Introduction
Jan 15 – “Night and Fog,” (film)
Jan 20- No class
Jan 22 -- Bhagavad Gita
[sections: 1-7, 9, 11, 14, 15, 18 (pp 195-198)]
January 27 – Sophocles, Antigone
January 29 -- Gandhi, *“Ahimsa and Courage,” *“Readiness for Satyagraha,” *“Mass Civil Disobedience,” *“Immorality of the System,”
*“Swaraj, Freedom, and Independence”; 1st blog
Feb 3 – Sartre, *“Existentialism”; *“The Wall”
Feb 5 – Fanon, *“Concerning Violence” (pp 35-43, 51-59, 70-74 top); “The Battle of Algiers” (film)
Feb 10 – Achebe, Things Fall Apart (through ch19)
Feb 12 –Things Fall Apart (finish); Fela Kuti, “Music is the Weapon” https://vimeo.com/23428017; 2nd blog
Feb 17 – Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (sections 1-8, 10-11, 13-14, 16-18, 23-26, 27-28, 30-31, 33, 39-42, 45, 48-53, 56-64, 70)
Feb 19 – Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom (sections 85-90, 93-115); Fugard, *“The Island”
Feb 24 – *Dona Maria’s Story, parts 1-2; Freire, *Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Gutiérrez, *Statement of the Questions”
Feb 26 –; Borges, *“The Library of Babel,” *“The Secret Miracle, *”The South”; 3rd blog
March 2 -- Twilight Zone, “The Shelter” (Netflix);
Andy Warhol, *Popism, chapter 1
March 4 – –“Berkeley in the Sixties” video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=safaLBJKgJc
Angela Davis, *“I am a Revolutionary Black Woman”; *Che Guevara, “Socialism and Man”; *“Quotations from Chairman Mao” (sections I, III (23-29), XVII); *Isabelle Saint Saens
SPRING BREAK
March 16 – No lecture (no sections this week)
March 18 – Midterm Exam
March 23 -- Satrapi, Persepolis
March 25 -- Millet, *"Sexual Politics: A Manifesto for Revolution”; *“Redstockings Manifesto”; *Scott, “The Politics of the Veil”; 4th blog
March 30 - Grossman, Death…Way of Life (1-38, 45-52, 75-93, 98-108, 119-124, 133-36, 153-156, 168-190, 205-12)
April 1 - Darwish, *“Identity Card,” *“State of Siege”; *Doumani, “Scenes from Daily Life”; “Five Broken Cameras” (film)
April 6– Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things (through ch. 11, pg 216)
April 8 – The God of Small Things (finish); 5th blog
April 13 – Ai Weiwei, *Weiwei-isms [pp 26-36, online at Virgo]; from *Ai Weiwei’s Blogs [p 209, and Epilogue, pp 238-242, online at Virgo]
*“Ai Weiwei in Conversation: Tim Marlow” (1-4): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQfDjNSaGPo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSu5DP4EQA8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZF9OWe0knM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj2iLyrCZhU
Recommended: individual artworks:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrRq4FeMUe-cAI-mlmCDr0HgEaMsO97Ds
April 15 – Confucius, The Analects (books 1-2, 4, 7, 9, 12-15, 17); Hewitt, *“Getting Rich Quick”
April 20 – Hamid, Exit West (to pg 168)
April 22 – Exit West (finish)
April 27 -- Conclusion
Moisereen: “Martyrs of Egyptian Revolution”: (youtube: search by title); Reading: El-Tamami, *“A Wish Not to Betray”; *Hamilton, “Moments of Clarity”; Blog compilation
May 8 (9 a.m.): Final Exam
Regions
China
Israel / Palestine
South Asia
Countries of the Arab Spring
Brazil and Argentina
France and Germany
Japan and Korea
North America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Russia and Eastern Europe
Turkey, Syria (Kurdistan)
Australia and Pacific Islands
Topics
Refugees
Terror and Security
Human Rights
International Finance
Environment, Disaster, Sustainability
Poverty, Health
Uprisings, social disturbances
Media
Human Traffic (immigrants, tourists, refugees)
Inequality
Gender
Generation
Ethnicity and Race
Religion
Governance (states, agencies, NGOs)
Requirements
Reading Quizzes
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Participation
Biweekly global blog on your chosen topic-region
Final compilation of blogs
Final grades will reflect the following percentages: Midterm exam, 25%; Final exam 30%; Blogs and essay 30%; Reading Quizzes and participation 15%
Attendance is required at assigned weekly discussion sections, and only one absence from section is permitted. Any additional absence will result in a reduction of one third of a letter grade in the final assessment.
On blogging: For your five blog entries, you should select a Region and Topic that you will research and write about, during the full length of the semester. Give yourself time to make a choice, and of course we’re happy to discuss your decision with you. Once you have settled on a Topic+Region, then you should stay with it for all of your blogging. At least twice in the semester, you should engage with a blog written by someone else in the course, preferably providing a link to the material that you’re referencing. Each blog entry should be roughly 250 words. Over the course of the semester, there should be a rough balance between evidence (examples or data) and analysis (carefully proposed interpretations and conclusions based on evidence). Please properly acknowledge and link to any sources you draw from for your evidence or ideas. You are welcome to refer to the course readings, but this is not required. Also, if you enjoy and profit from blog exchange with others, we welcome, though do not at all require, your use of the comments function to engage in further conversations about posts that interest you, so long as the discussion remains courteous and on topic. The final blog compilation involves writing a one-page introduction and one-page conclusion to the earlier blog entries, which should be adjusted to work together.