21w.731 - Section 2

21W.731 Fall 2000

Section 2 - Lecturer Lucy Marx

Coming of Age at the Millennium: The term "generation" is necessarily broad and descriptive - no absolute boundaries can define a generation - but the term has helped clarify the shared experiences of those who come of age in a particular era. In this course we will begin by investigating how some contemporary artists and intellectuals articulate the specific tenor of our times - the period in which your generation is coming of age. We will try to place this generation's collective experience in the context of preceding eras - the 50s; the 60s and 70s; the 80s and 90s. And we will consider how you and your peers are taking their places in the world you are inheriting by investigating specific aspects of contemporary experience, from dorm rooms to poetry slams, student organizations, concerts, political protests. We will look for what common threads appear - recurrent attitudes, convictions, aspirations, obsessions - and what range of responses helps shape your generation. Our readings will include mark dery's the pyrotechnic insanitarium: american culture on the brink; Arundhati Roy's The Cost of Living; and an anthology edited by Rebecca Walker, To Be Real, along with other short works by young writers. We will also discuss movies and music that aim to provide insight into this period. Everyone will be invited to share, through oral presentation, cultural artifacts of all kinds - web sites, tv shows, magazines, ads, comic books - that you think help illuminate the experiences of your generation. Each student will create over the semester a portfolio of writing, including responses to class material and writing based on independent investigation, reflection, and personal experience.