MUS 257 - This Land is Whose Land?: Woody Guthrie and the Ambivalent Politics of US Folk Music

This course examines the life, work, and legacy of the multidisciplinary American folk artist and musician Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), taking the contested reception of his music, writing, and other art as a frame for exploring larger issues regarding the politics of culture and belonging in the 21^st century United States. On the one hand, Guthrie is now canonized as an artistic champion of working-class and other communities that have been excluded from capitalist economic development in the US. On the other hand, his work conjures and celebrates a vision of the American landscape and people that is largely congruent with the broader project of settler colonialism. Drawing upon a wide variety of listening and reading examples from Guthrie and those working in the wake of his influence, past and present, this course provides a critical point of entry regarding the sound and politics of US folk music today.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a non-English language, or works of the visual or performing arts).