ENGL 244   Literature of American Popular Music* (3 Hours)

Prerequisites : ENGL 121.

Students read, analyze, evaluate and discuss the literature surrounding American popular music. No less than any other form of literature, all genres of American popular music are intertwined, engaged in dialogue and revealing of the American experience. By engaging with, comparing and evaluating the conversations between popular music and fiction, poetry and criticism, students will explore the social, historical, political and cultural contexts relevant to the literature. Through this process, students will discover, analyze, synthesize and evaluate the ongoing negotiations between a great diversity of cultural aesthetics, political interests and public opinions in the shaping of American identity.