Beginning September 2012, English department graduate students and faculty have been holding a reading group focusing on new readings in American cultural studies. Meeting roughly once a month, the group reads book length studies on post ’45 American culture and history as well as a small selection of fiction. The fall reading list included: Michael Szalay’s Hip Figures, a history of race and the democratic party; Robert Perkinson’s Texas Tough, a study of American prison culture; and Denis Johnson’s systems based war novel, Tree of Smoke.
Following last semester’s model, the group will continue to focus on full books of scholarship for the coming term. In March we will read a selection of articles by Priscilla Wald to coincide with her guest lecture at Carleton. Wald’s articles will be chosen to reflect the content of her lecture.
While the entirety of each book of scholarship is open for consideration in our discussions, specific chapters will be suggested to help focus conversation. The introduction and conclusion are recommended reading for all texts.
The schedule is as follows:
February 8: Andreas Killen, 1973 Nervous Breakdown: Watergate, Warhol, and the Birth of Post-Sixties America (recommended chapters 3, 5, 7, 8)
March 22: Priscilla Wald, TBD
April 19: Matt Hedstrom, The Rise of Liberal Religion
May 17: Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise
All texts are available for purchase through Amazon; the Killen and Ross are also available at most bookstores. The selected Wald articles will be made available in March.
After a brief detour to Prof. Franny Nudelman’s home for the January meeting, the group is returning to the Gordon Wood lounge in Dunton Tower (DT 1811) for our discussion of Killen’s 1973. Meetings are typically held from 4:30 to 6:30 PM.
Please do not hesitate to contact Rob Mousseau (r.j.mousseau@gmail.com) or Prof. Franny Nudelman with questions about our selected titles.
Join us for what are sure to be stimulating discussions!
–Rob Mousseau