Film.  		Literature.  	Soap.		
MWF 10:10-11:00
carries A & H credits

“Decadent American Dreams”

	In this course, students will be introduced to a variety of
rebellions against, deviant visions of, refusals of, and failures of
the American Dream.  This survey will run from the 1950s to the
present day:  we will see the American Dream recast and seen through
the lenses of crime, nonconformity, drugs, alienation, addiction,
sex, and violence.  Secondarily, this course will focus on changes
in masculinity over this time period; we will also look at commodity
culture and Hollywood business practices.  Students in this course
will be required to come to one evening screening per week, write
several short papers and a longer final paper.

Texts likely to be featured in this course include:

Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (Sloan Wilson—Nunnally Johnson)
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)—Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper)
Wiseguy (Nicholas Pileggi)—Goodfellas (Martin Scorcese)
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Hunter S. Thompson—Terry Gilliam)
Requiem for a Dream (Hubert Selby Jr.—Darren Aronofsky)
The Ice Storm (Rick Moody—Ang Lee)
Fight Club (Chuck Palahniuk—David Fincher)
Secretary (Mary Gaitskill—Steven Shainberg)