ENGL 2675 - [Cultures of the Cold War]

(crosslisted) AMST 2675, SHUM 2675
(ALC-AS, LA-AS)

Spring. Not offered: 2022-2023. Next offered: 2023-2024. 4 credits. Student option grading.

J. Braddock.

This class aims to approach the literature and culture of the Cold War as the birth of the present “Age of Information,” as well as the origin of modern notions of privacy that are now being superseded. We will begin with Hiroshima and the several forms of American anti-communism, and proceed from “containment culture” to the beginning of the counterculture, and from atomic weapons to the start of the environmental movement. Units of study will include intelligence (espionage), advertising (publicity), civil rights, and the public questioning of gender roles. We will also view a few films and discuss music and painting of the period. Authors include James Baldwin, Sylvia Plath, Marshall McLuhan, John Okada, Jack Kerouac, Frank O’Hara, Patricia Highsmith, and Rachel Carson.