English: Jazz & Cultural Imagination

Interdisciplinary topics in African American literature and culture. Representative topics include: The Harlem Renaissance and Negritude; Publishing Blackness. May repeat for credit with different content. Topics vary by offering; periodic offering at intervals that may exceed four years. Prerequisite: Three hours in English numbered 1010 to 1990; minimum Sophomore standing.

Prerequisite: Three hours in English numbered 1010 to 1990; minimum Sophomore standing. PACE students with permission and override

This course explores jazz through its relationship with allied art forms (dance, theater, film, photography, mass media, criticism); through its elaboration of creative modes and cultural personae; and through musicians’ efforts to represent the jazz world and their role in it both within and against the music’s cultural appropriations. Even as we pursue a deeper understanding of jazz itself as an aesthetic practice and cultural space, we’ll also consider how jazz sharpens our thinking about art, imagination, culture, politics, and social relations writ large. Above all, we’ll continually ask ourselves this fundamental question: Why and how does jazz matter? Does jazz matter because its qualities of improvisation, rhythmic finesse, groove, flow-and-rupture, call-and-response interactivity, cool affect, sexual charisma, soulfulness, and emotional authenticity are transferable to other activities like acting, sports, fashion, writing, dancing, cooking, painting, and interior design? Does jazz matter because it reveals things about race, gender, and other identity categories that we need to think about more deeply and carefully? Does jazz matter because it illuminates things about history that need to be better understood? Does jazz matter because a blues sensibility and dynamic creative tension between the individual and the collective are needed to help solve our social problems? Does jazz matter because its hallowed qualities of authenticity and truth-telling are the perfect antidote to Trumpism, fascism, climate change, and other scourges of our time? Does jazz matter because it provides a smart model for engineering and business management? Throughout the semester you should find yourself posing your own rhetorical questions along these lines.

Near-perfect attendance, active class participation, close reading and deep thinking, an open mind and heart.

in-class informal writing, closed-book exams, formal essays