Advanced American Literature
American Protest Literature: from Tom Paine to Tupac
John Saurette, Instructor of English, B.M.C. Durfee High School
Course Description:
This interdisciplinary course design is based on the similarly titled course created by John
Stauffer, Professor of English and Chair of History of American Civilization at Harvard
University. It examines the rich tradition of progressive protest literature in the United States
from the American Revolution to the rise of globalization, Hip Hop, and modern day slavery.
Using a broad definition of “protest literature,” we focus on the production and consumption of
dissent as a site of social critique, using a wide variety of print, visual and oral forms. We
examine the historical links between forms of protest, social change, and meanings of literature;
and we explore how various expressions of dissent function as political, ideological, rhetorical,
aesthetic, and performative texts within specific cultural contexts. “Readings” range from novels
and political pamphlets to photographs, music, sociology, and history.
Required Texts:
Zoe Trodd, ed, American Protest Literature (Harvard) *Course Pack
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th ed. various readings
Requirements:
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Weekly readings (averaging 100 pages per week)
Attendance/Participation (10%)
4-6 page take home midterm exam (20%)
Section quizzes approx. every two weeks (20%)
Reading Journal (25%)
Final Paper/Project (25%)
Course Schedule:
Unit One:
What is Protest Literature?
Zoe Trodd, ed., American Protest Literature, Forward and Introduction
Unit Two:
Revolutionary Protest
The Literature:
o Phillip Freneau, A Political Litany (1775)
o Thomas Paine, from Common Sense (1776)
o The Declaration of Independence (1776)
o J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, from Letters from an American Farmer (1872)
Unit Three: Revolutionary Protest
The Legacy
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George Evans, The Working Men’s Party Declaration of Independence (1829)
Henry David Thoreau, from Resistance to Civil Government (1849)
John Brown, from Provisional Constitution (1858)
Daniel de Leon, from Declaration of Interdependence by the Socialist Labor Party
(1895)
Unit Four: Other Declarations of Independence
The Literature
o Tecumseh, Speech to Governor William Harrison (1810)
o Lydia Sigourney, Indian Names (1834)
o Black Elk, from Black Elk Speaks (1932)
The Legacy
o Dee Brown, from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970)
o Mary Crow Dog, from Lokota Woman (1990)
o Sherman Alexie, “The Exaggeration of Despair” (1996)
Unit Five: Abolition and Anti-Slavery
The Literature
o David Walker, from Appeal to the Colored Citizens (1829)
o Harriet Beecher Stowe, from Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
o Fredrick Douglass, from The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro (1852)
o Harriet Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)
The Legacy
o The Emancipation Proclamation (1863)
o Ralph Chapman, Solidarity Forever (1915)
o James Baldwin, from Everybody’s Protest Novel (1949)
o Kevin Bales, from Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy
(1999)
Unit Six: Women’s Rights
The Literature
o National Women’s Suffrage Association, from Declaration and Protest of the
Women of the United States (1876)
o Elizabeth Cady Stanton, from Solitude of Self (1892)
o Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892)
The Legacy
o Charlotte Perkins Gilman, from Herland (1915)
o Nineteenth Amendment (1920)
o Crystal Eastman, “Now We Can Begin” (1920)
Unit Seven: Capitalism and Discontent
The Literature
o Rebecca Harding Davis, from Life in the Iron Mills (1861)
o Jacob Riis, from How the Other Half Lives (1890)
o Upton Sinclair, from The Jungle
o Lewis Hine, “Sadie Pfeifer” and “Making Human Junk” (1908, 1915)
The Legacy
o Ignatius Donnelly, from The People’s Party Platform (1892)
o From Food and Drugs Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906)
o Eugene V. Debs, Statement to the Court (1918)
o William (Big Bill) Haywood, Farewell Capitalist America! (1929)
o Barbara Ehrenreich, from Nickel and Dimed (2001)
Unit Eight: Strange Fruit—Jim Crow and Lynchings
The Literature
o W.E.B Du Bois, Jesus Christ in Texas (1920)
o Claude McKay, “The Lynching” (1920)
o Richard Wright, from Big Boy Leaves Home (1936)
o Abel Meeropol and Billie Holiday, “Strange Fruit” (1937, 1939)
The Legacy
o League of Struggle for Negro Right, “Bill for Negro Rights and the Suppression
of Lynching (1934)
o The John Brown Anti-Klan Committee, “Take a Stand Against the Klan” (1980)
o Michael Slate, from AmeriKKA 1998: The Lynching of James Byrd (1998)
o The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, 1930 (2000)
Unit Nine: Dust Tracks on the Road—The Great Depression
The Literature
o Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (1936)
o Arthur Rothstein, Farmer and Sons (1936)
o John Steinbeck, from The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
o Walker Evans, “Hale County, Alabama (1936)
The Legacy
o Woody Guthrie, “Tom Joad” (1940)
o Richard Wright and Edwin Rosskam, from 12 Million Black Voices (1941)
o Roy Decarava and Langston Hughes, from The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955)
o Michael Harrington, from The Other America (1962)
o Malik, “Poverty is a Crime” (1972)
Unit Ten: Shaking the Dungeon—Civil Rights and Black Liberation
The Literature
o James Baldwin, “My Dungeon Shook”
o Martin Luther King Jr., from “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963)
o Malcolm X, from “The Ballot or the Bullet” (1964)
The Legacy
o John F. Kennedy, “On Civil Rights” (1963)
o Lyndon B. Johnson, from “The American Promise” (1965)
o Amiri Baraka, “Black Art” (1966)
o Tupac Shakur, “Panther Power” (1989)
o New Black Panther Party, “Ten Point Program” (2001)
Unit Eleven: The Problem with No Name—Second Wave Feminism
The Literature
o Tillie Olsen, “I Stand Here Ironing” (1956)
o Betty Friedan, from The Feminine Mystique (1963)
o National Organization of Women, “Statement of Purpose” (1966)
The Legacy
o Gerda Lerner, “Letter to Betty Friedan” (1963)
o Audre Lorde, “Poetry is not a Luxury” (1977)
o June Jordan, “The Female and the Silence of a Man” (1989)
o Kate Roiphe, from The Morning After (1993)
Unit Twelve: The Word is Out—Gay Liberation
The Literature
o Allen Ginsburg, from “Howl” (1956)
o Stonewall Documents, (1969-1970)
o Carl Wittman, from Refugees from Amerika (1969)
o Doric Wilson, from Street Theater (1982)
The Legacy
o ACT UP, “Read my Lips” (1988); Bill T. Jones, “Still Here” (1994)
o Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (2003)
o Kathleen Burge, The Boston Globe, “SJC: Gay Marriage Legal in Mass. (2003)
Unit Thirteen: What is it Good For? War—From Saigon to Baghdad
The Literature
o Country Joe and the Fish, “I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixin’-To-Die-Rag” (1965)
o Denise Levertov, “Advent 1966” (1966)
o Norman Mailer, “from Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967)
o Eddie Adams, Nick (Huynh Cong) Ut, “Saigon” “Naplam” (1968, 1972)
o Michael Herr, from Dispatches (1967-1969, 1977)
The Legacy
o John Balaban, “April 30, 1975” (1975)
o Tim O’Brien, from How to Tell a True War Story (1987)
o Poets against the War
o Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Speak Out” (2003)
o Jim Harrison, “Poem of War” (2003)
o Robert Pinsky, “Poem of Disconnected Parts” (2005)
o Clinton Fein, “Who Would Jesus Torture?” (2004)
o Ron Kovic, from Born on the Fourth of July (1976, 2005)
Final Thoughts
The Afterword
o Howard Zinn