First-Year Writing Seminar: Rebel Voices: From Medieval Peasants to Contemporary Protesters

Semester and Year	FA 2012
Course Number	FIRST-UG386
Section	001
Instructor	Kathleen Smith
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Notes/Restrictions

Open to Gallatin first-year students only.

Description

The Rising of 1381 marked one of the largest mass movements in medieval European history, with 100,000 peasants, artisans, and middle-class workers marching on London to protest oppressive legislation and an antiquated system of feudalism. Accounts of the Rising have been used in subsequent periods to forward political agendas, raising questions of how such rebellion should be narrated and understood. This course will examine how such historical events can be harnessed to contemporary agendas, and how remembering the past can often be an important part of determining the future. Students will be asked to engage in larger questions about the nature of revolution and rebellion, such as: How do protestors represent themselves or create a narrative of collective dissent? How do rebellions or protests use, affect, and transform collective narratives of nationhood? How do the stories of individuals figure into the story of a nation, a group, or an era? How do protests effectively use the historical past to make assertions about the present? And how do writings about protests affect both the protest and how we remember it? We will focus on the Rising (and the rebel leader Wat Tyler), the French Revolution, and the recent Arab Spring; readings may include Chaucer, Gower, Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Robert Southey, Barbara Salert, Jack Goldstone, Alaa Al-Aswany, Nazih Ayubi, Ahdaf Soueif, as well as videos and other social media sources relating to the Arab Spring.

Syllabus

FIRST-UG386

Course Type

First-Year Program: Writing Seminars (FIRST-UG)