AMST 403(F) American Studies in Practice

Each year this seminar has a designated topic for collective reading and discussion. The topic for the fall of 1998 will be Literacy and Print Culture. America has been called "a republic of letters"and "a nation of readers," phrases that affirm the nation's basis in written documents as well as its relatively high literacy rates, and yet also mask the complex struggles waged by individuals and groups over access to education. "Knowledge is Power" was a platitude in every nineteenth-century primer; today, L L Cool J and other media stars lend their images to literacy campaign advertisements in the New York Times and on television. What are the American ideologies of literacy and how well do they correspond to the actual practices and experiences of readers? Who has learned to read? In what language(s)? And to what end? Reading for the course will be drawn from the full span of American history, and will include social history (of print technologies, textual production and education); cultural history (of readers and reading); anthropological theory (of literacy and orality); and art and literature (representations of and expressions by American readers). Students will develop individual research projects consonant with the topic and their respective fields of specialization. Requirements: active classroom participation, frequent short writing assignments, one 15- to 20-page research paper. Open only to American Studies Senior Majors.

Hour: CLEGHORN