Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

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AMST 0327

Imagining Rural America

Imagining Rural America
Although many Americans equate “rural” with whiteness, political conservatism, and poverty, the realities and representations of rural life have always been complicated those notions. Using methodologies from geography, cultural history, folklore, and literary criticism, and privileging lenses of race, class, and gender, we will explore these complexities by analyzing novels, paintings, photographs, moving images, and music against the histories of Appalachia, the Rust Belt, the Dust Bowl, and New England. Texts may include Richard Wright’s Twelve Million Black Voices, The Grapes of Wrath (novel and film), paintings of Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Hopper, Winter’s Bone, O Brother Where Art Thou?/, and the music of John Prine and Steve Earle.
Subject:
American Studies
Department:
Program in American Studies
Division:
Interdisciplinary
Requirements Fulfilled:
AMR ART LIT
Equivalent Courses:

Sections in Spring 2024, School Abroad Japan (Tokyo)

Spring 2024

AMST0327A-S24 Lecture (Nash)