30165 - LETTERATURE ANGLO-AMERICANE 2 (LM)

Anno Accademico 2017/2018

  • Docente: Franco Minganti
  • Crediti formativi: 9
  • SSD: L-LIN/11
  • Lingua di insegnamento: Inglese

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

Lo studente possiede conoscenze approfondite sulla storia e sullo sviluppo delle letterature anglo-americane, con particolare attenzione al rapporto tra i testi letterari e il contesto storico, artistico e linguistico. Possiede elevate capacità di comprensione e di analisi critica delle specificità culturali delle aree geografiche studiate. Conosce e sa utilizzare le metodologie pratiche per l'analisi e l'interpretazione del testo letterario. E' in grado di elaborare analisi complesse e di formulare riflessioni autonome su tematiche di ricerca specifiche

Contenuti

From the Greenwich Village scene to the Nobel Prize in Literature. The long wave of the folk revival, from Woody Guthrie to Bob Dylan via Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.

The course is aimed at students of Laurea Magistrale (Letterature moderne, comparate e postcoloniali) and is open to international exchange students (Erasmus).

In the context of popular culture, the passage from oral musical traditions – mostly of European origin, and yet with important inserts of African retentions – to the hardcore bulk of recorded music collected by Harry Smith for his 1952 seminal Anthology of American Folk Music is a crucial moment in American history, storytelling, literature, and culture at large. In fact, a multicultural heritage formed the basic texts on which the folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s took shape. “American” voices emerged, with peculiar connections with ageless balladry and the autochthonous prophetic tradition. Symptomatic figures like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan will be under scrutiny, along with influential ones like Harry Smith, Alan Lomax and Pete Seeger. The Greenwich Village scene and the early editions of the Newport festival will be analyzed, finally taking to the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature awarded to Bob Dylan. Films and documentaries will be screened, and audio sources listened to during the course.

Testi/Bibliografia

Four books will be considered recommended reading in order for the student to figure out the scope and the scapes of the course, namely:

Benjamin Filene, Romancing the Folk: Public Memory and American Roots Music (2000)

Robert Cantwell, When We Were Good. The Folk Revival (1986)

Greil Marcus, Old, Weird America (2007)

Elijah Wald, Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties (2015)

N.B.: All four books can be found at the Department’s library, in a dedicated shelf.

What follows here is a list of general reference sources that will be examined or touched upon during the course. Such entries (for the most part available at the library) will turn particularly useful when students research their final paperwork.

Elizabeth F. Barkley, Crossroads: The Multicultural Roots of America's Popular Music (2007)

Ronald D. Cohen, Rainbow Quest: The Folk Music Revival and American Society, 1940-1970 (2002)

Ronald D. Cohen, Woody Guthrie: Writing American Songs (2012)

Ed Cray, Ramblin' Man. The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie (2006)

Bob Dylan, Tarantula (1971)

Bob Dylan, Chronicles. Volume One (2004)

Brian K. Garman, A Race of Singers: Whitman's Working-Class Hero from Guthrie to Springsteen (2000)

Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, Woody's Road (2012)

Nora Guthrie, My Name Is New York: Ramblin' around Woody Guthrie's Town (2012)

Woody Guthrie, Bound for Glory (1943)

Woody Guthrie, House of Earth (2013)

Woody Guthrie (Maurizio Bettelli, editor), Le canzoni di Woody Guthrie (2008)

Richard Hajdu, Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña, and Richard Fariña (2011)

Mark Allan Jackson, Prophet Singer: The Voice and Vision of Woody Guthrie (2007)

Joe Klein, Woody Guthrie: A Life (1999)

Greil Marcus, Like a Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads (2005)

Greil Marcus & Sean Wilentz (Eds), The Rose and the Briar (2006)

Greil Marcus, The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice (2006)

Greil Marcus, Bob Dylan (2012)

Gillian Mitchell, The North American Folk Music Revival: Nation and Identity in the United States and Canada, 1945-1980 (2007)

John S. Partington, The Life, Music, and Thought of Woody Guthrie: A Critical Appraisal (2011)

Stephan Petrus and Ronald D. Cohen, Folk City. New York and the American Folk Music Revival (2015)

Alessandro Portelli, Note americane: musica e culture negli Stati Uniti (2011)

Neil Rosenberg (Ed), Transforming Tradition: Folk Music Revivals Examined (1993)

Suze Rotolo, A Freewheelin' Time. A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (2008)

Robert Santelli, This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song (2012)

Robert Santelli and Emily Davidson (Eds), Hard Travelin': The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie (1999)

Robert Santelli et al. (Eds), American Roots Music (2001) (based on the PBS tv series)

Will Schmid, A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly (1991)

Dave Van Ronk (with Elijah Wald), The Mayor of MacDougal Street: A Memoir (2005)

Sean Wilentz, Bob Dylan in America (2011)

Izzy Young, The Conscience of the Folk Revival (2012)

The following filmography offers titles that will be shown (at least in part) and discussed in class, along with others that can turn into useful research sources for paperwork. In the scenario of an the everchanging worldwide web, it is possible that some of them, whether in full or in part, are available on channels like YouTube. Explore!

American Roots Music (PBS, Jim Brown 2001)

Woody Guthrie Legacy (John Paulson, 1999)

Woody Guthrie & Lead Belly Tribute: A Vision Shared (Jim Brown, 1988)

Pete Seeger. The Power of Song (PBS, Jim Brown 2007)

The Harry Smith Project / The Old, Weird America (Rani Singh, 2006)

That High Lonesome Sound (John Cohen, 1960, 1996)

Festival (Murray Lerner, 1967)

The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival(Murray Lerner, 2007)

No Direction Home (Martin Scorsese, 2005)

I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007)

Don't Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1966)

Lomax. The Songhunter (Rogier Kappers, 2006)

Bound for Glory (Hal Ashby, 1976)

The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford, 1940)

Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)

A Mighty Wind (Christopher Guest, 2004)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Ethan & Joel Coen, 2000)

Inside Llewyn Davis (Ethan & Joel Coen, 2013)

A course log will be published by the instructor on his institutional "webpage docente", constantly updating course developments and bibliographical sources, while providing useful tips about the students' study.

Metodi didattici

Lecture course with seminarial class discussions. Attendance is strongly recommended.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

The final exam consists of two parts, one written and one oral. Students will be required to write a 8-10 page long paper (complete with footnotes and bibliographical references) after discussing in advance its topic & outline with the instructor. Papers will be evaluated with reference to the critical and methodological competence developed. Specifically, they will be evaluated against the awareness and knowledge of the (mandatory) course syllabus and materials. The students' ability to reorganize course materials -- primary and secondary sources, seminar work in class included -- into an original critical discourse or angle will be particularly appreciated. Also appreciated will be a solid, organic reference to American literature, history and culture. The quality and propriety of written language used will constitute a significant element of the overall evaluation. All these elements, at their best, will indicate a level of excellence, and judged accordingly; while less original developments with less grounded critical reference will lead to middle evaluations (as long as the students show a sufficient general understanding of the course topics). "Minimalistic" papers with poorly developed argumentations, or else casual compilations of particularly unorganized developments (typically cut&paste-constructed), will be considered unacceptable and consequently turned down.

An oral conversation with the instructor will also take place. It will move from the instructor's comments and remarks on the paper to the exploration of the context of the course's topics and syllabus. Such a conversation will be particularly useful in order for the instructor to reach a full assessment of the student's work and preparation (her/his knowledge and understanding, ability of making autonomous judgements, communication and learning skills, as applied to the course's specific grounds), and for the student to better illustrate and explain possible misunderstandings with her/his paperwork.

In front of a negative evaluation of the student's paperwork, such a conversation exchange would offer a full picture of the situation. Students unable to reach the required minimal level of proficiency would need to re-take the exam on some other session.

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

For this course we will resort to audiovisual materials of various kinds, some of which are rare or not particularly easy to find. That is why attendance is strongly recommended.

Link ad altre eventuali informazioni

http://www.unibo.it/docenti/franco.minganti

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Franco Minganti