school of social science - Hampshire College

HA232
lATINO/A BORDER NARRATIVES
Norman Holland
The course introduces students to cultural artifacts that
are transforming Spanish·speaking immigrants from the
Caribbean into an entity called "Latinos/as." Through close
readings of plays. novels. and critical writings, we will explore
the implications of living between cultures. both geographically
as well as metaphorically.
NOTE: While the course is open to all students, it is
designed [0 support CSSP students working or interested in
working in the local Latino communities. Hence. additional
readings in economics, history, psychology, and bilingualism
complemem the literary assignments.
Class will meet twice each week for ooc hour and twenty
minutes. Enrollment is limited to 25.
HA/CCS 234
TRAVEUNG IDENTITIES. EMIGRANTS,
IMMIGRANTS, EXILES, AND SOJOURNERS IN FILM,
LITERATURE, AND CULTURE
Eva Rueschmann
This seminar focuses on the experiences of emigrants.
immigrants, exiles and sojourners, which have inspired a
number of recent and contemporary novels, feature films.
documentaries, autobiographies. and theoretical debates ahout
cultural idemicy and place. Using cultural studies of travel and
displacement, ethnic studies, and psychoanalytic theories of
identity as critical frameworks for discussion, we will examine
some of the following issues arising out of cinematic, fictional,
autobiographical and theoretical texts on migration and
displacement: the complexities of adaptation or resistance to
new cultures; culture transfer. hybridity and biculturality; the
journey as metaphor, escape. physical ordeal. and psychological
odyssey; the meanings of nostalgia and home;
intergenerational conflicts between tradition and modernity;
protagonists' and artists' representation and negotiations of
national and ethnic identity; the cultural and psychological
consequences of border crossings; and the interconnections
between language. culture, and sense of self.
Class will meet twice a week for one hour and twenty
minutes. Enrollment is 25.
HA238
FICTION AS HISTORY
Lynne Hanley
This course will focus not on historical recreation (i.e.,
the historical novel) but on fictional meditations on the
relation of the past to the present. We will address such
quesdons as: Why choose fiction as a means of intervention in
the reconS(fuctions of the past? What political agendas
structure representations of the past? What role does personal
and cultural memory play in the formation of the present? By
closely examining narrative structure, we will gain insight into
the author's geology of memory, into the pardcular way in
which she or he imbeds the past in the present. Beginning
with theoretical inquires into the relation of fact to fiction by
Terry Eagleton, Hayden White, and Paul Ricoeur, we will
read novels that address such contested historical legacies as
slavery. industrialization, colonialism, World War II, and wars
of national liberation in Central America. Readings may
include Sherley Anne Williams' Dessa Rose. Caryl Phillips'
81
iSPRINGi
Crossing the River, Assia Djebar's Fantasia: An Algerian
Cavalcade, Graham Swif,'s Wauriand. Joy Kogawa's Obason,
Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient, Serge Ramirez's To
Bury Our Fath",. Julian Alvareis In the Time o[the Butterflies.
Joan Didion's A Book of Common Prayer, and Doris
Lessing's Shikasta.
Class will meet twice a week for an hour and twenty
minutes. Writing assignments will combine critical analysis
with creative experimentation, and students will be asked to
undertake additional research on at least one novel.
HA239
JAZZ PERFORMANCE SEMINAR
Yusef Lateef
Professor Lateef will conduct a performance seminar in
jazz improvisation in a small group setting. This course will
deal with tonal, atonal, and free-form methods of improvisation.
Subjects to be discussed will include the 7th scale and its
components, modal improvisation. nuances, the soul as it
relates to musical expression, form emotion (thinking and
feeling), and the individual's unique sense of rhythm.
Students will be expected to complete weekly assignments.
Class will meet once weekly for three hours. Prerequisite:
HA 175 and HA 265 or equivalent Five College music
courses. Admission is by instructor permission. Enrollment is
limited to 25.
HA240
GENDERED AMERICA. CONSTRUCTIONS OF
MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY IN MODERN
AMERICA
Eric Schocket/Susan Tracy
Gender is neither fixed nor stable. Rather, what we think
of as "masculine" and "feminine" evolves over time and
changes from era to era. When we consider the broad sweep of
U.S. history. we can easily perceive that in every major era
peoples' ideas about masculinity and femininity shift. and
people in different racial and ethnic groups and in different
classes have vastly different ideas about the proper behavior
for men and women. Are these shifts due to developments and
changes in our socioeconomic system-the advent of large
and impersonal cities and workplaces teeming with new
immigrant workers: Do our ideas about gender change in
response to war? Are they a result of the new social sciencefor
instance, as the result of the work of the sexologists writing
at the end of the nineteenth century who divide humans into
"normal" heterosexual and "deviant" homosexual groups?
What kinds of cultural representations are created to convey
changing concepts of gender? Using novels, memoir. biography.
film. and historical·and cultural studies, we will examine
competing conceptualizations of gender and sexuality in U.S.
society and culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.
Class will meet twice a week for one hour and twenty
minutes. Enrollment is limited to 30.
HA243
THE NATURE AND PRACTICE OF IMPROVISATION
Margo Simmons Edwards
This is a course designed to explore the nature, practice.
and function of improvisation in Western art music as well as
in various contemporary cultures. Questions will be asked and