Race and Order in the New Republic

This course meets the public discourse requirement in the Department of Rhetoric. Through the examination of various media, from texts to film, and audio media, we will explore the connection of narrative to discourse in American culture. We will start with the question of what is American popular culture, and whether there is a discernable cultural identity in our society. If so, is there a connection to the issue of race in American history that is deeply imbedded in our cultural identity, and how it may be revealed through various kinds of narratives?

Jane Smiley in a Harper’s article in 1996 wrote the following regarding the role race plays in American society. She was commenting on what she perceived were the shortcomings of Samuel Clemen’s Huckleberry Finn:

“…Americans always think racism is a feeling, and they reject it or they embrace it. To most Americans, it seems more honorable and nicer to reject it, so they do, but they almost invariably fail to understand that how they feel means very little to black Americans, who understand racism as a way of structuring American culture…”

What does it mean to suggest that race could be viewed as a way to “structure” our culture, and is there evidence to support such a contention? In the attempt to make sense of this question, I will propose a connection between the concept of “cultural trauma” or collective trauma, and our popular cultural identity, its formation, and how that connection relates to contemporary popular culture in America. We will start with readings on culture and the theory of cultural trauma, to provide a context. Then we will move to historical and cultural narratives beginning with James Fennimore Cooper’s The Pioneers; America’s first popular and iconic fictional work. By using this historical romance novel as a guide to interpret issues underlying early American cultural identity, the class will view the development of American society and culture as a “formal problem.” That is, the novel poses a symbolic and thematic problem involving the three principal racial groups in early North America (i.e., the Native Americans, the European-Americans, and the African-Americans). They are symbolically structured into a theme of social and political order in the new nation that discloses unresolved issues in the nation’s founding and in Modernity. All subsequent readings in the class will be viewed in the
context of that formal problem and Cooper’s solution—the patriarchal American Western.

There will be an emphasis on what the symbolism of the American Western reveals about our society and culture. Ante-bellum readings will be matched with more contemporary cultural artifacts and symbolism in film clips and documentary media. This class is focused around the discussion of course materials so preparation for class and reading materials in advance is required. Readings include original texts in American literature and letters (e.g. My Bondage, My Freedom by Frederick Douglass, Moby Dick by Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn by Samuel Clemens, along with readings from D.H. Lawrence, William Carlos Willliams, the New York Review of Books, etc.). There will also be historical articles, theoretical material, and criticism collected in a course reader that will assist in analyzing both American history and the source materials we will be using. Film clips (ranging from the “Big Bang Theory” to Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”, James Cameron’s “Avatar” and “Terminator II”, to Sixty Minutes and the PBS “The American Experience”) will supplement formal reading material in each class.

There will be a take-home midterm essay, an essay/project making use of course materials and
themes, and a take-home essay final exam. Attendance, participation in discussions, and office
hour visits are part of course grading. Early in the semester, there will be a mandatory pot-luck
dinner and film night on a date to be determined, in a Room TBD. I will also provide you with
the date in the syllabus.

Classes begin with film clips and may involve student presentation of reading materials before
we break into a full discussion. We will be open to all perspectives, no matter how controversial
or widely shared. But we will be respectful of one another, and speak in language not aimed at
individuals or personalities, but at issues.

Required Texts:
James Fennimore Cooper, The Pioneers;
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick;
Frederick Douglas, My Bondage, My Freedom;
Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn;
Course Reader from Copy Central on Telegraph Ave. that includes excerpts from Joel Martin’s
Sacred Revolt, and other materials.

Within the Files Section in bcourse is a rubric for expectations of written expository essays, and the breakdown of assignment values and a grading scale. I use a traditional curve when assigning course grades based on highest to lowest grades. Each assignment will also have a grading rubric for you to follow.