SEMINAR PROFILE

H15 -
American Protest Literature, From Tom Paine To Tupac

�I like a little rebellion now and then, wrote Thomas Jefferson, who launched with the Declaration of Independence a tradition that throughout American literary history has seen writers rage and reason, prophesy and provoke. This seminar will examine that tradition of American Protest Literature across four major protest movements. Using a broad definition of literature, we will examine a wide variety of genres and focus on the production and consumption of dissent as a site of social critique. We will seek to define and understand the genre of "protest literature" and to underline the long history of American dissent. From the literature of abolitionism and labor activism to the literature of anti-lynching and the Civil Rights Movement, we will explore voices of resistance holding the nation to its highest ideals-castigating it when it fell short, and pointing the way to a better collective future.

Scholar:

John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd

Location:

Harvard Hillel

Dates:

3/5/2009, 3/13/2009

H15 -	American Protest Literature, From Tom Paine To Tupac

	�I like a little rebellion now and then, wrote Thomas Jefferson, who launched with the Declaration of Independence a tradition that throughout American literary history has seen writers rage and reason, prophesy and provoke. This seminar will examine that tradition of American Protest Literature across four major protest movements. Using a broad definition of literature, we will examine a wide variety of genres and focus on the production and consumption of dissent as a site of social critique. We will seek to define and understand the genre of "protest literature" and to underline the long history of American dissent. From the literature of abolitionism and labor activism to the literature of anti-lynching and the Civil Rights Movement, we will explore voices of resistance holding the nation to its highest ideals-castigating it when it fell short, and pointing the way to a better collective future.

		Scholar:	John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd
		Location:	Harvard Hillel
		Dates:	3/5/2009, 3/13/2009