Course Info: IA-0276

CourseIA-0276 Photos, Facts, and Fictions
Long TitlePhotos, Facts, and Fictions, 1890-1910
Term2017F
Note(s) Satisfies Distribution
Textbook information
Meeting InfoFranklin Patterson Hall 102 on M,W from 9:00-10:20
FacultyMichael Lesy
Capacity16
Available7
Waitlist0
Distribution(s) Culture, Humanities, and Languages
Cumulative Skill(s)Independent Work
Multiple Cultural Perspectives
Writing and Research
Additional InfoIn this course, students are expected to spend at least eight to ten hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This time includes reading, writing, research.
Description

This is a research course for intellectuals who are artists and artists who are intellectuals. The course has two goals: (First) To investigate life in the U.S., 1890-1910, an era whose inequities and injustices, prejudices and subversions, panics and disasters eerily resemble our own. Students sift through collections of archival photographs and an array of primary and secondary written documents to carry out their investigations. Photographs come from online, archival collections; newspapers and novels published during the era serve as primary written sources. (Second) To teach students how to discover and then use visual and written documents to build image/text sequences that, like scenes from documentary films, tell true stories about an era that gave birth to what now passes for modern life. To achieve both goals requires intensive primary and secondary source research as well as immersion in large collections of archival photographs. Students who have studied American history and literature do well in this course.