AMERICAN STUDIES 209 KUTULAS
Office: Holland 513C
Phone: 3236
e-mail: kutulas@stolaf.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 8-10,
Wednesdays 10:30-11:30, and by appointment
Course alias: am-studies-209
(e-mails to whole class, including me)
There should be an on-line
version of this syllabus linked to my home page, at:
http://www.stolaf.edu/people/kutulas/
The topic of this course,
adolescence, is something about which we are all experts, which makes this
class both easier and more complicated.
We have all experienced adolescence, but none of our experiences can be
fully generalized as the American adolescence experience. To further complicate matters, the person
teaching this class experienced adolescence at a rather different time and
place than most of you did (California in the late 1960s/early 1970s, in case I
forget to tell you).
Adolescence is a life stage,
defined by physical and mental changes and socially defined expectations. “Teenage,” as we’ll come to learn in more
detail, is about marketing, about the since-World War II phenomenon of the life
stage as an important market segment.
In general, we’ll be looking mostly as adolescence and teenage as
cultural and social phenomena rather than psychological and developmental ones,
but you are welcome to pursue these latter matters in more depth in your final
project.
I have tried to choose books
that offer a variety of different perspectives on adolescence. They are:
The Rise and Fall of the American Teenager by Thomas Hine – a history book that provides an
historical overview.
From Front Porch to Back Seat: Courtship in
Twentieth-Century America by Beth Bailey
– a thematic history of dating as a sociological phenomenon.
Jean and Johnny by
Beverly Cleary – A novel aimed at pre-teen girls, originally written in 1959.
Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authority in the
Postwar Era – a look into the world of
Fifties teens.
Rocket Boys by
Homer Hickam, Jr. – a memoir of growing up poor in the West Virginia coal
mining region (the basis of the feature film, October Sky).
Another Planet: A Year in the Life of a Suburban High
School by Elinor Burkett – a journalist
sits through a year of school in Minneapolis suburb, Prior Lake.
When last I checked, there were
copies of all in the bookstore. Don’t
let the hardback copies worry you; they are used and cheaper than new paperback
copies, although everything is available in paperback should you want it new.
I’ll confess upfront, I haven’t
actually read all these books. I chose
them in consultation with a number of people, largely to insure that we came at
adolescence from a lot of different perspectives.
This is turning out to be a
larger class than I anticipated, but I’m still hoping that we can manage to
have some good discussions. The reading
load is, I hope, not too heavy, but substantial enough to give us something to
say every day. This is the first time
I’ve taught this course, so it’s quite possible that I’ll need to make
adjustments in the reading schedule and I have built in two work days at the
end of the semester precisely for this purpose.
It will make a big difference
for the classroom dynamic if you’ve done the day’s reading and are prepared to
comment intelligently upon it. Please
don’t count on the fact that the experience of being a teenager will carry you
through.
I have hopes of showing some
teen films in the evenings, perhaps including one at my home. If you can think of any that might be
relevant, let me know. Some
possibilities I can think of include American Graffiti, Where the
Boys Are, and any of the Beach Blanket movies I can find on video. I have asked the library to order October
Sky, so I hope to have that to show as well.
At the end of the semester, each
person will have the opportunity to explore some aspect of adolescence in more
depth. We’ll discuss these projects
later in the semester, however those of you taking this class to count for
other majors or concentrations (like ARMS or Women’s Studies) must be
particularly careful that your project reflects that major or concentration’s
subject.
The formal course requirements
for the class are:
2
shorter papers
1 group
project
1 final
project
Final
exam
Regular
attendance and regular intelligent participation
I am not going to precisely
calculate and weight these elements. In
general, the final project will count the most, followed by the final exam,
and, of roughly equal weight, the two shorter papers and the group
projects. I will adjust grades as
necessary to reflect attendance and participation.
Please note: I am notoriously
incompetent at scheduling a class. I’m
fairly organized otherwise, but I have a long track record of scheduling
classes on non-class days or leaving out whole weeks. With this schedule below, I have done a lot of editing as well,
which practically guarantees that somewhere there is a fatal error. If you spot it before I do, please draw my
attention to it.
2/6 –
Introduction
2/11 –
Hine, intro and chapters 1-3.
2/13 – Hine, chapters 4-6.
2/18 – Hine, chapters 7-9.
2/20 – Hine, chapters 10-12.
2/25 –
Hines, chapters 13-15.
2/27 –
Video on the teenage brain, begin Another Planet.
3/4 - Another
Planet, to page 102
3/6 – Another
Planet, to page 224.
3/11 –
Finish Another Planet.
3/13 –
Video: Branding. (Note: Remind me to discuss: do we want to reschedule so all
group projects occur before spring break?) FIRST PAPER DUE.
3/18 –
Group projects: Dance Hall cultures of 1900 & flaming youth of 1920
320 -
Group projects: Zoot suiters (1940s) & Hippies (1960s)
4/1 –
Group projects: Disco (1970s) & Punks (1970s/80s).
4/3 – From
Front Porch to Back Seat, through page 57.
4/8 – From
Front Porch, to end.
4/10 – Jean
& Johnny (We may also watch Leave It to Beaver here).
4/15 – Coming
of Age, 1-51.
4/17 – Coming
of Age, 52-85.
4/22 – Coming
of Age, 86-end.
4/24 –
Begin Rocket Boys, view video on school desegregation. SECOND PAPER
DUE.
4/29 – Rocket
Boys, through 157.
5/1 – Rocket
Boys, to end.
5/6 and
5/8 – individual work days, unless we need to expand into them.
5/13 –
Reconvene, FINAL PAPERS DUE.
Final exam: Tuesday, May 20th,
9-11 a.m.