Reading Historical Figures: Cultural Analysis and Afterlives

3 units

Walt Whitman famously wrote, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles. Although we will not be looking under any bootsoles in this course, we will be looking for -- and finding -- U.S. historical figures everywhere in contemporary culture, from television and film to fiction, advertising, and social media. During the semester, Whitman will serve as our case study, and students will be asked to read his poetry and prose. However, our ultimate aim is more wide-reaching. This course approaches a broad question -- What is American identity now? -- from a specific point of reference: the afterlives of figures from the past who are increasingly important to our modern national identity. During the semester, each student will undertake their own research project centered on a figure from the past whose presence in American life looms large today, such as Audre Lorde, Che Guevara, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James Baldwin, or Alexander Hamilton, among others.