Fulfills COAS A & H distribution requirement

“In the midst of a massacre, in the face of torture, in the eye of a
hurricane, …
do you, the observer, stay behind the lens of the camera, switching
on the tape recorder, keep pen in hand? Are there limits—of respect,
piety, pathos—that should not be crossed, even to leave a record?
But if you can’t stop the horror, shouldn’t you at least document
it?”
-Ruth Behar, 1996, The Vulnerable Observer, p. 2

Rachel Carson once emphasized that we as people have “the obligation
to endure.”  As Behar’s questions stress, however, the choices
presented by the politics of enduring are rarely simple.  This
undergraduate course on social movements will focus on the
rhetorical dilemmas posed by utilizing and constructing cultural
memory as a political trope for bodies in pain and deceased bodies.
Our readings and discussions will engage practices and theories of
movements addressing illnesses, hate crimes, and wars, such as
breast cancer, AIDS, Civil Rights, migrant farmworkers, Vietnam
Veterans, and the Holocaust.  We will grapple with questions such
as: what are the rhetorical constraints that influence our ability
to vulnerably observe and document bodies, death, and/or pain?
Which ethical positions do actions of trauma, hate, and illness
provoke us to consider?  In response, when has the communication of
cultural memory served conservative or progressive ends well?
Alternatively, which choices have been accused of “sensationalism”—
and why?  How does our ability to reduce pain through social
movements continue to become exacerbated or relieved by performances
of cultural memories?

Course Readings from IU Classpak Coursepack:  The selections will be
chosen from texts such as the following:

* Scarry, Elaine.  (1985).  The Body in Pain: The Making and the
Unmaking of the World.
Oxford UP.
* Sontag, Susan. (2003).  On the Pain of Others.  Farrar, Giroux,
and Strauss.
* Sturken, Marita.  (1997).  Tangled Memories: The Vietnam War, the
AIDS Quilt, and
the Politics of Remembering.  U of CA Press.
* Linenthal, Edward.  (1995).  Preserving Memory: The Struggle to
Create America’s
Holocaust Museum.  Penguin.
* Taylor, Diana.  (2003).  The Archive and the Repertoire:
Performing Cultural Memory
in the Americas.  Duke UP.
* Brady, Judith (Ed.).  (1991).  1 in 3 Women with Cancer confront
an Epidemic.  Cleis Press.
* Lorde, Audre.  (1980/1997).  The Cancer Journals.  Aunt Lute Press.
* Williams, Juan. (1987).  Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights
Years, 1954-1965. Penguin.
* Ferris, Susan & Ricardo Sandoval. (1997).  The Fight in the
Fields: Cesar Chavez &
the Farmworkers Movement.  Diana Hembree (Ed.).  Harcourt Brace.

Course Requirements:

Active and Informed Participation: 10%
Group Presentation: 15%
3 Critical Research Papers: 15% (4-5 pages); 20% (4-5 pages); 40% (9-
10 pages)