TheSyllabus
In the absence of debt-inducing higher education and degree-seeking, this syllabus is comprised of the works I studied, and through which the basis for my own work was formed.
The goal was to discover the root of inequality in society, address the present state of racial, economic, educational inequalities in society, and how to effectively dismantle the power structures that in exist in every facet and institution of society in order to achieve a more-perfect future. Too is the goal then to understand the selfishness of humankind (selfish acts), the continued subservience to authority in this context, and the endless need for humankind’s dominance over nature (especially in the context of Climate Change) on both an individual and societal level.
I acknowledge that this is in no way a “complete” list, exhaustive, or entirely comprehensive – it is only what I have been able to read, watch, and internalize thus far, and what has left an impact on me and my work. I acknowledge that, for certain subjects especially, I have only just scratched the surface. It is a start. Please reach out with any additional materials and things I have missed, or with any qualms you have with any of the selections or their categorization.
Humanity and Nature
Fiction
Powers, Richard – The Overstory
Nonfiction
Stafford, Fiona – A Long, Long Life of Trees
Films
Walkabout – Roeg, Nicholas (director)
1. How our relationship with nature informs our worldview
Companion piece: Stormboy (film, 1976) (Safran, Henri, director)
Aguirre: The Wrath of God – Herzog, Werner (director)
1. The ego as unique to humans (separate from nature)
2. The human need to “conquer” Nature
Deliverance – Borman, John (director)
Princess Mononoke – Miyazaki, Hayao (director)
1. Human violence as the antithesis to the natural harmony found in nature
2. Violence (against nature and other humans) as the result of greed
On Authority
Fiction
Kafka, Franz – The Trial
Companion piece – The Trial (film, 1962) (Welles, Orson, director)
Mueller, Herta – The Land of Green Plums
Mueller, Herta – The Appointment
Nonfiction
Fromm, Erich
Chomsky, Noam – Manufacturing Consent
Film
On Revolution
Fiction
Nonfiction
Luxembourg, Rosa – Reform or Revolution
Lenin, V.I. – State and Revolution
Film
Reds – Beatty, Warren (director)
Race Relations in the United States and Beyond
Fiction
Gaines, Earnest, J. – A Gathering of Old Men
Baldwin, William – If Beale Street Could Talk
Companion piece: If Beale Street Could Talk (film, 2018) (Jenkins, Barry, director)
Nunez, Elizabeth – Beyond the Limbo Silence
1. Understanding the identity of place
Nonfiction
Cleaver, Eldridge – “Post-Prison Writings and Speeches”
1. Race relations in the 1970’s specifically, i.e. race relations directly post-MLK and Malcolm X, and the continuing fight for equality in a new era
Kendi, Ibram X – How To Be Antiracist
Baldwin, William – The Fire Next Time
Kylte, Ethan J. & Roberts, Blain – Denmark Vesey’s Garden
Cruse, Harold – “Rebellion or Revolution”
Poetry
Smith, Danez – “Homie”
Giovanni, Nikki – “Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgment”
Walcott, Derek –
Theater
Wilson, August – Jitney
Wilson, August – Fences
Nottage, Lynn – Intimate Apparel
Companion Piece: Fabulation (Nottage, Lynn)
Tempest
Film
Music
Gil Scott Heron
Economic Inequality
Fiction
A side-by-side comparison of:
Dreiser, Theodore – An American Tragedy
Tolstoy, Leo – Crime and Punishment
1. How economic inequality and class differences drive desperation, and subsequent violence
2. An exploration of the phrase “at any cost”
Nonfiction (General)
Orwell, George – The Road to Wigan Pier
1. The working class, how it has changed
2. The fight against the “old men” in charge
Orwell, George – Down and Out in Paris and London
Marx, Karl – Das Kapital
Marx, Karl & Engers, Karl – The Communist Manifesto
German Studies
The Holocaust – what we’ve learned, and what we haven’t from the rise and fall of the Third Reich:
Fiction
Isherwood, Christopher – The Berlin Stories
Nonfiction
Wiesel, Elie – Night
The Death of Democracy
Larson, Eric – In the Garden of Beasts
Frankl, Viktor – Man’s Search for Meaning
Philosophy (Moral)
Fiction
Nonfiction
Smith, Adam – A Theory of Moral Sentiments
Weisel, Elie – Dawn
Film
Apocalypse Now – Coppola, Francis Ford (director)
Theater
Goethe, Johann – Faust
1. Discussion of the soul as the basis for morality
Poetry
Gibran, Khalil – “The Prophet”
Philosophy (Political)
Fiction
Nonfiction
Paine, Thomas – “Common Sense”
Parenti, Michael – Black Shirts and Reds
Philosophy (Existential)
Fiction
Camus, Albert – The Plague
Nonfiction
Camus, Albert – “The Myth of Sisyphus”
Film
Postmodernism
Fiction
Miller, Henry – Tropic of Cancer
Irvine, John – The 158 Pound Marriage
1. The unreliable narrator
Nonfiction
Jameson, Fredric – Postmodernism, or,
Film
Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take 2 – Greaves, William (director)
Companion piece: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, Take One – Greaves, William (director)
8 1/2 – Fellini, Federico (director)
Taxi Driver – Scorsese, Martin (director)
1. The city as a character
Music – Part One (early)
Glass, Phillip
Cage, John
Music – Part Two (recent)
Food and Culture
Fiction
Nonfiction
Bourdain, Anthony – Kitchen Confidential
Companion piece – Parts Unknown, No Reservations (Television series’)
Fischer, M.F.K. –
Notes of a Young Black Chef
Film
Like Water for Chocolate
Spirited Away – Miyazaki, Hayao (director)
A Cook, A Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover – Greenaway, Peter (director)
1. Food at the center of life
2. The relationship between food and sex
3. The notion of “manners” – i.e. social etiquette – and dining in public, the performance, vs. the clandestine, happens behind closed doors –
- What we choose to show in full display and in secret; how does the film break these barriers through nudity,
- What if the roles were reversed – both man and woman, and food and sex
Moonstruck – Jewison, Norman (director)
Indigenous History & Culture
Fiction
Orange, Tommy – There, There
Nonfiction
Film
Smoke Signals