Cultural Foundations 3
Liberal Studies
New York University
Spring 2016
Professor Jessamyn Hatcher
jessamyn.hatcher@nyu.edu
Office: 726 Broadway, Room 631
Office hours by appointment
course website:
Course description: “Enlightenment thinkers… had the extravagant expectation that the
arts and sciences would promote not only the control of natural forces but also
understanding of the world and of the self, moral progress, the justice of institutions, and
even the happiness of human beings,” writes the philosopher Jurgen Habermas. “The 20th
century shattered this optimism,” he continues. “But the problem won’t go away.”
In this course, we will study novels, poems, art, and films from the early 19th century to the
present. In the process we will examine the “extravagant expectations” Habermas speaks of
and how--and who--they came shatter. We will also explore the “problem that won’t go
away”--that is the undiminished need to increase and equalize human beings’ life chances,
make institutions more just, deepen moral progress, and understand the world and ourselves.
We will pursue the possibility that art can offer a non-trivial tool for this work.
In particular, we will explore two themes. In the first half of the semester, we will look at
modern attempts to “control natural forces,” beginning with a study of Romanticism (Mary
Shelley, William Wordsworth) and then an exploration of artist’s responses to the aftermath
of the Second World War (Hiroshima Mon Amour, Waiting for Godot, Never Let Me Go). In the
second half of the semester, we explore one of the most marked features of the modern and
postmodern eras—human migration.
Course Objectives:
 To closely and imaginatively read the literature, art, film, and popular culture on our
syllabus
 To learn to contextualize these cultural forms historically
 To assemble a diverse and portable set of interpretive tools
 To use these tools to interpret texts in multiple and sometimes contradictory ways
 To write analytically and expressively in multiple forms, including for digital
platforms, in a voice that is recognizably your own
 To emphasize questions
 To connect the cultural productions we are studying to your everyday lives
 To take intellectual risks, even if they sometimes fail
 To work at least as well collaboratively as you do individually


To cultivate the capacity for what the poet Keats called “Negative Capability”—“that
is when a [person] is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any
irritable reaching after fact & reason.”
To take active ownership of your own education
Note: This course is reading and writing intensive. If that seems daunting, you might want
to consider registering for a different section.
Books: Available at the NYU bookstore.
Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (PLEASE GET THE PENGUIN EDITION)
Marguerite Duras, Hiroshima Mon Amour (screenplay)
Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (Vintage)
Nella Larsen, Passing (Penguin)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (Oxford)
Anzia Yezierska, The Breadgivers (Persea)
We’ll also be using many other texts—primary materials and scholarly articles—that you’ll
find posted on our course website. You MUST bring a copy of the articles with you to
class.
Course Requirements:
Attendance Policy.
Class attendance is MANDATORY. You are expected to attend every class. More
than four absences (consecutive or not) will lower your grade one mark (B to C); more than
six absences will result in a failing grade (F) for the course. Generally, there are no
"excused" absences except religious holidays. Please alert me by email at the beginning
of the term if you anticipate being absent due to religious reasons. You don't need to show
me doctors' notes: sick days are not "excused."
Class participation: The best way to learn about literature and art is through conversation.
So this course will be conducted as a seminar—in other words, as an on-going exchange
between the members of our group. As such, your contributions are extremely important.
Seminars rely on the thoughtful and informed participation of every student and will depend
on your conscientious preparation for each class and your active role in class discussions. Be
on time, please don’t eat your breakfast, lunch or dinner during class, and switch off cell
phones, and no text messaging, etc.! As a matter of personal preference, I also ask you
not to use laptops in class. (Class participation and attendance are worth 10% of your
grade.)
Blog Posts. At least 24 hours before every class, there will be a new prompt in the Forum
section of the Course website. The prompt, related in some way to the upcoming
assignment, will be posted either by me, or by the day’s student group. (More on the groups
below.) Sometimes there will be more than one prompt. Before class starts, your job is to
post a response to the prompt.
Your posts need to have no set length, but they must show deep engagement with the
material and with your colleagues. (A quick couple of sentences will not suffice.) Your
response should make reference to someone else’s post either from earlier in the
same discussion or from some previous one or both. You should feel free to privilege
questions in your posts—about things you find interesting or disagree with or find
confusing. The posts need not be miniature, formal essays. In fact, this is a place to use and
develop your own idiosyncratic voice. However, posts must be proofread and spellchecked.
(Forum posts are worth 25% of your grade)
Midterm Forum Post Revisions. Midway through the semester, you will revise 2 of your
forum responses into more polished essays. Each post should be at least 3 pages long,
double-spaced, proofread, spell-checked, and equipped with perfect citations and an ideal
bibliography. Midterm revised forum posts are due in class on March 9. (Forum Post
revisions are 20% of your grade).
Final Forum Post Revisions. At the end of the semester, you will revise 2 of your forum
responses into more polished essays. Each post should be at least 3 pages long, doublespaced, proofread, spell-checked, and equipped with perfect citations and an ideal
bibliography. (Final Forum Post revisions are 25% of your grade & are due the last day of
class).
Cultural Foundations Group Project Treasure Hunt. The class will divide up into groups
[of 4-5] and be charged with going on a treasure hunt. A draft of the proposed hunt is below.
This is an example of how the grading will work:
There is a possibility of a group of [5] winning of [300] number of points—the number of
points depends on class size—so this is just an estimate.
The top group WINS A PRIZE.
An EXAMPLE of the grading will be as follows:
250-300=A [50 point spread]
249-239=A- [10 point spread]
238-228=B+
227-217=B
216-206=Band so on….
1. Group picture of team members Steve McQueen’s installation “Open Plan” at the Whitney
Museum—exhibition opens April 29. (10 points for each team member in picture + 2 extra points
for each member pictured in group photo strolling together along the Highline.)
2. A (fresh) loaf of rye bread OR a chocolate babka from Russ & Daughters brought to Treasure
Hunt presentation day. (10 points)
3. Slide show of the group’s three favorite works in the “Painting & Sculpture I” permanent
exhibition at MOMA + group selfie [groupie?] of team members at the museum. (5 points TOTAL
for slides of favorites + 10 points for each team member in group selfie)
4. A drawing of team members reading the New York Times in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria or
Algonquian Hotels. (15 points. If drawing is on the hotel’s stationery + 10 points.
5. Flower(s) placed on Nella Larsen’s grave in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. (50 points. If
you bring back a rubbing of the grave +10.)
6. Photograph of a first edition of any text by any author on our syllabus taken at any rare book
store or library in the city. MUST GO TO SEE THE BOOKS IN PERSON!!!! (5 points each, limit
of one per author, for a possible total of 35)
7. Selfie of group visit to see Carl Van Vechten: Photographing the Harlem Renaissance and Beyond at
the Museum of the City of New York. (10 points for each group member in the selfie +5 for
photographic portraits of family or family members, limit of 2 per student.)
8. Selfie of group visit to see “Glided Age: New York” at the Museum of the
City of New York (10 points for each group member in the selfie + 2 for
passages from Sister Carrie that the exhibit brought to mind—limit of four
passages per group.)
Tally and presentation of documentation by groups on May 2 (10% of grade)
Final. The final exam will be cumulative. The final will be the last day of class. (10% of
grade.)
Museum Trip: You must take the “Sweatshop Workers” tour at the Tenement Museum
BEFORE class on 4/11. FOR STUDENTS FOR WHOM THE TICKET WILL
PRESENT A FINANCIAL HARDSHIP, PLEASE SPEAK WITH ME IN ADVANCE. I
would recommend making a reservation online ASAP. See:
http://www.tenement.org/tourcal.php
Statement on Academic Integrity: College is in large part about developing your own
voice, in class and in your writing. Plagiarism is a sign that you don’t feel like you have a
voice. I would much rather help you find one than give you a zero for an assignment that
you have not completed fairly and fail you in the course. This, along with jeopardizing your
continued registration at NYU, are the likely consequences of academic dishonesty.
Unattributed quotations or paraphrase of any source, submission of another’s work as your
own, and unacknowledged use of someone else’s ideas all constitute plagiarism.
Moses Center: Students with disabilities who need accommodations in this class are
encouraged to contact the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities at (212) 998-4980 as
soon as possible to better ensure that such accommodations are implemented in a timely
fashion. For more information, see the CSD website: http://www.nyu.edu/osl/csd.
Preliminary class schedule:
1/25: Introduction
Part 1: On Creaturely Life
1/27: •Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) through Chapter VIII (This includes Mary
Shelley’s introduction to the 1831 edition; the 1818 preface [written by Percy Bysshe Shelley,
according to most people]; the four letters; and the first 8 chapters.
2/1:
•Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) (Through XVI)
2/3:
•Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818) (Finish the novel)
2/8: •Bruno Latour, “Love Your Monsters” (http://www.brunolatour.fr/sites/default/files/107-NORDHAUS&SHELLENBERGER-GB.pdf)
+ Nathaniel Rich, “Can a Jellyfish Unlock Immortality?”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-ofimmortality.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&)
2/10: •Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005) (through page 111) + excerpts from Eric
Santner, On Creaturely Life [pdf]
2/15: Presidents’ Day: No class
2/17: •Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005) (through page 202)
2/22: NO CLASS (JH at a conference) BUT •Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005)
(finish novel)
2/24: •Watch: Alain Resnais (director) and Marguerite Duras (screenwriter), Hiroshima, Mon
Amour (1959) [on reserve at Avery Fisher at Bobst]
•Read: Screenplay of the film
•Recommended viewing: Mori Masaki (director) based on anime by Kenji Nakazawa,
Barefoot Gen (1983) http://kissanime.com/Anime/Hadashi-noGen/Movie?id=63813
2/29: •Hiroshima Mon Amour, continued
3/2:
• Hiroshima, Mon Amour
•Read: Sigmund Freud, “Remembering, Repeating, and Working-Through” (1914)
(http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/201/articles/1914FreudRememberi
ng.pdf)
3/7:
•Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot (1949) See: http://samuelbeckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part1.html and http://samuelbeckett.net/Waiting_for_Godot_Part2.html
•Majorie Perloff, “’In Love With Hiding’: Samuel Beckett’s War,” Iowa Review, 35,
no. 2 (2005): 76-103. See:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/perloff/articles/beckett_war.pdf
•Watch: http://ubu.com/film/chan_godot.html
3/9: • Waiting for Godot, continued
MIDTERM REVISED FORUM POSTS DUE
3/14 & 3/16: Spring Break
Part 2: Migrations
3/21: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900) (through Chapter 9/IX)
3/23: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900) (through Chapter 20)
Richard Ohmann, “Where Did Mass Culture Come from?” [PDF]
Watch: Charlie Chaplin, “The Floorwalker” [1916]
http://www.archive.org/details/CC_1916_05_15_TheFloorwalker
3/28: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900) [through Chapter 33]
Rita Felski, “Imagined Pleasures,” from Gender and Modernity [PDF]
3/30: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900) (finish the novel)
Zygmunt Bauman, “From Pilgrim to Tourist—A Short History of Identity”
4/4: Susan Buck-Morss, “Benjamin’s Passagen-Werk: Redeeming Mass Culture for the
Revolution” [PDF]
4/6:
Gertrude Stein, The Making of the Americans [pdf] + Picasso
4/11: •Anzia Yezierska, The Breadgivers (1925)
Visit the Tenement Museum and take the “Sweatshop Workers” tour by today
4/13: •Anzia Yezierska, The Breadgivers (1925)
4/18: •Anzia Yezierska, The Breadgivers (1925)
4/20: •Nella Larsen, Passing (1929) + visual culture [in class]
4/25: •Nella Larsen, Passing (1929) + visual culture [in class]
4/27: •Nella Larsen, Passing (1929) + visual culture [in class]
5/2: Treasure Hunt
5/4: wrap-up
5/9: in-class FINAL EXAM + Final papers due