230266 Counterculture (S) (SoSe 2019)

With a focus on the late 1950s, the 1960s, and 1970s the course covers major topics, texts, and events that shaped the emergence and development of countercultural expressions in the U.S during that time period which is considered one of the most turbulent epochs of U.S. American history in the twentieth century. The course will use a diverse teaching methodology including in-class readings, presentations, in-class writing, discussion, and group work. The objective of the course is to introduce students to major themes and movements of American counterculture, to study American counterculture as textual, performative and political expression. We will work toward a definition of counterculture in relation to culture. Among others we will study theoretical texts on counterculture, read poems, essays, and plays by the Beat Generation and the Black Arts Movement and analyze Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a canonical text of and for the Hippie generation. We will also explore literary, performative, environmentalist countercultural expressions.