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”; 1^st 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; 2^nd  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”;  3^rd 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”; 4^th 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); 5^th 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.