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College of Arts and Sciences

Engl 566-01:
Jazz Age Literature & Culture



Reading Schedule

Week One

1/19

  • Introduction. Review syllabus.
  • Visit Computer Lab, Grubbs 101.

Week Two

1/22

  • Background: Roaring Twenties (online)--skim this page for an overview of the period.
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online) --listen to "I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate" and Bessie Smith's "Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town" (both in the "Hot Jazz" section) and Duke Ellington's "Jungle Nights in Harlem" (scroll down to the "Duke Ellington" section). Read the lyrics to "Jazzbo Brown from Memphis Town" in Blues Legacies, 302-3.
  • Essays: J.A. Rogers, Jazz at Home (online) and Anna Shaw Faulkner, Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation? (online). Bring copies to class.
  • Background: The Cotton Club (online)
  • In-class video selection: The Cotton Club

1/24

1/26

  • Discuss Fitzgerald's "Bernice"
  • Story: F. Scott Fitzgerald's "May-Day" (in Babylon Revisited and Other Stores, 25-49).
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online) --listen to Paul Whiteman's "Charleston" (scroll down to "Hot Jazz" section) and Bessie Smith's "Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer" (scroll down to "Queens of the Blues" section). Read lyrics to "Gimme a Pigfoot" in Blues Legacies 281-2.
  • In-class video selection: Cotton Club

Week Three

1/29

  • Story: F. Scott Fitzgerald, "May-Day" (in Babylon
    Revisited and Other Stores    , 49-74).
  • In-class CD: "The Charleston"

1/31

  • Story: Theodore Dreiser, "Typhoon" (in Heath Anthology of Am. Lit., Vol. II, pp. 1179-1204. See instructor for a copy).
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to "Hot Jazz" section and listen to King Oliver's "Dr. Jazz."
  • In-class CD: King Oliver's "Dr. Jazz"

2/02

  • Autobiography: Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans--read about 45 pp.
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to "Louis Armstrong" section and listen to the 3 songs linked there; bring copy of "Black and Blue" lyrics to class. Also go to "Hot Jazz" section and listen to Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher."
  • In-class video selection: Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club
  • In-class videos: Betty Boop Jazztoons--Minnie the Moocher (with Cab Calloway); The Old Man of the Mountain (with Cab Calloway); Snow White (with Cab Calloway); and I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You (with Louis Armstrong).
  • In-class CD: Louis Armstrong
  • PAPER #1 ASSIGNED: Armstrong's autobiography. See online directions. Due: 2/19.

Week Four

2/05

  • In-class video: The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson (89 min).
  • Continue reading Armstrong's Satchmo--about 45 pp.

2/07

  • In-class video: The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson.
  • Continue reading Armstrong's Satchmo--about 45 pp.

2/09

  • Story: Rudolph Fisher, "Miss Cynthia" (in Classic Fiction, 242-53).
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to "Gerschwin's Symphonic Jazz" section and listen to Gerschwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."
  • In-class CD: Gerschwin's "Rhapsody in Blue"
  • Continue reading Armstrong's Satchmo--about 45 pp.

Week Five

2/12

  • Guest speaker/performers: Meet in Music Department, Room to be announced.
  • Please review these jazz terms before attending this class: Jazz Listening Tips (online).
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--listen to Duke Ellington's "East St. Louis Toodle-oo" and "Mood Indigo" (scroll down to the "Duke Ellington" section). Note the lyrics there to "Mood Indigo."
  • Continue reading Armstrong's Satchmo--finish

2/14

2/16

Week Six

2/19

  • PAPER #1 DUE: Armstrong's Satchmo.
  • Poetry: T. S. Eliot, "The Wasteland," Parts I-II (in The Waste Land and Other Poems).
  • Study Guide: T.S. Eliot, 'The Wasteland' (online)--brief overview for new or inexperienced readers of Eliot.
  • TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED

2/21

  • Poetry: T. S. Eliot, "The Wasteland," Parts III-V (in The Waste Land and Other Poems).

2/23

  • Story: F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Return to Babylon" (in
    Babylon Revisited and Other Stories, 210-30).

Week Seven

2/26

  • TAKE-HOME EXAM Due: Turn it in to my office (Grubbs 450) or e-mail it to me (in .doc format). NO CLASS.

2/28

  • Article: Angela Davis, "I Used to be Your Sweet Mama" (in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, 3-41).
  • Lyrics: In Blues Legacies: "Down-hearted Blues" 273-4; "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 284; "I Used to be Your Sweet Mama" 299-300; "St. Louis Blues" 341.
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to the section on "Queens of the Blues." Listen to the blues links and make a copy of the lyrics to "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues."
  • In-class CD: "Good Man"; "Down-hearted Blues"; "Wild Women"

3/02

  • Article: Angela Davis, "Blame It on the Blues" (in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, 91-119).
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to the section on "Queens of the Blues." Listen to the blues links, including "Strange Fruit and the "commentary" on it.
  • Lyrics: In Blues Legacies: "Blame It on the Blues" 204-5; "Chain Gang Blues" 210-11 (see also 103); "Back Water Blues" 263-4; "Strange Fruit" 180.
  • In-class CD: "Backwater Blues"; "Chain Gang Blues"; "Strange Fruit"

Revised Schedule

Week Eight

3/05

  • Article: Angela Davis, "I Used to be Your Sweet Mama" (in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, 3-41).
  • Lyrics: In Blues Legacies: "Down-hearted Blues" 273-4; "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 284; "I Used to be Your Sweet Mama" 299-300; "St. Louis Blues" 341.
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to the section on "Queens of the Blues." Listen to the blues links and make a copy of the lyrics to "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues."
  • In-class CD: "Good Man"; "Down-hearted Blues"; "Wild Women"

3/07

  • Article: Angela Davis, "Blame It on the Blues" (in Blues Legacies and Black Feminism, 91-119).
  • Music: Jazz & Blues: 1920s-30s (online)--scroll down to the section on "Queens of the Blues." Listen to the blues links, including "Strange Fruit and the "commentary" on it.
  • Lyrics: In Blues Legacies: "Blame It on the Blues" 204-5; "Chain Gang Blues" 210-11 (see also 103); "Back Water Blues" 263-4; "Strange Fruit" 180.
  • In-class CD: "Backwater Blues"; "Chain Gang Blues"; "Strange Fruit"

3/09

  • Novel: James Weldon Johnson, excerpts from Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (online): Chapt. I (childhood), Chapt. VI (moves to New York), Chapt. VIII (New York continued), Chapt. X (journey back from Europe), and last 3 paragraphs of Chapt. XI (gives up music, passes as white, marries a white woman, has a generally successful life).
  • Computer Research Day: Meet in Computer Lab, Grubbs 101
  • PAPER #2 ASSIGNED: Jazz Age research and topics. See online directions. Due: 3/28 - 4/4 (day oral report is due).

Week Nine

3/12

  • Poetry: Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues (online)--11 poems. Bring copies to class.
  • Work on reports out-of-class

3/14

3/16

Week Ten

3/19 - 3/23--SPRING BREAK

Week Eleven

3/26

  • Fiction: Jean Toomer, from Cane: "Karintha"; "Blood-Burning Moon"; "Bona and Paul" (in Classic Fiction, 19-37)
  • Work on reports out-of-class

3/28

  • REPORTS: ___________; ____________; ____________; ____________.

3/30

  • REPORTS: ___________; ____________; ____________; ____________.

Week Twelve

4/02

  • REPORTS: ___________; ____________; ____________; ____________.
  • PAPER #2 DUE: Jazz Age Research/Topics

4/04

  • Novel: Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (in Classic Fiction, 105-237)--about 45 pp.
  • TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED

4/06

  • Novel: Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (in Classic Fiction, 105-237)--about 45 pp.

Week Thirteen

4/09

  • Novel: Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (in Classic Fiction, 105-237)--read about 45 pp.

4/11

  • TAKE-HOME EXAM DUE: Turn it in to my office (Grubbs 450) or e-mail it to me (in .doc format). NO CLASS.

4/13

  • Novel: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God--read 1/4.

Week Fourteen

4/16

  • Novel: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God--read 1/2.

4/18

  • Novel: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God--read 3/4.
  • PAPER 3 ASSIGNED: Welty or Ellison. See online directions. Due: 4/25.

4/20

  • Novel: Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God--finish.
  • Work on paper out-of-class

Week Fifteen

4/23

  • Story: James Baldwin, "Sonny's Blues" (handout)
  • Work on paper out-of-class

4/25

4/27

  • Drama: August Wilson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom--read 1/2.

Week Sixteen

4/30

  • Drama: August Wilson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom--finish.

5/02

  • Novel: Toni Morrison, Jazz--read 1/5.

5/04

  • Novel: Toni Morrison, Jazz--read 2/5.

Week Seventeen

5/07

  • Novel: Toni Morrison, Jazz--read 3/5.
  • TAKE-HOME EXAM ASSIGNED

5/09

  • Novel: Toni Morrison, Jazz--read 4/5.

5/11

  • Novel: Toni Morrison, Jazz--finish.

FINAL EXAM DUE:--Mon., 5/14 or Tues., 5/15.
Turn it in to my office (Grubbs 450) or e-mail it to me (in .doc format). NO CLASS.





Painting, top-left:
Aaron Douglas, "Song of the Towers"


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