Glamour

Undergraduate

Glamour: you know it when you see it, but what is it? In this class, we try to figure that out by reading and watching various works that theorize and/or obsess over what glamour is and does. More questions we’ll consider include: what’s the relationship between glamour and performance, especially theatrical performance? What kind(s) of desire does glamour produce? Does glamour have an ethics, a politics? And/or is it the refusal of those things? What’s the role of the individual spectator, reader, writer, or performer in making glamour happen? Actually, how does glamour happen? What would it take to make this class glamorous? Should we try? Readings will include work by Thorsten Veblen, Roland Barthes, Henrik Ibsen, Judith Brown, Edward Said, Lloyd Suh, Nella Larsen, and Zelda Fitzgerald, among others. We also spend several weeks studying the work of contemporary American playwright Adrienne Kennedy. Assignments include analytical exercises, in-class presentations, a “glamour memoir,” and a final project which may be either “creative” or analytical in its emphasis. HU Th 1pm-4pm