ENGL 207A: Writing Music, Listening to Culture

This class introduces students to the analysis of literary and cultural politics via music and music writing. It will not specify a particular form of music, nor will it be focused on music appreciation or knowledge; it will instead pay close attention to how writers treat music as topic or influence and how culture itself responds to and deploys music for social and political ends. It is also interested in the idea that music is not only produced in history but that it also can generate distinct ideas about history and about human relations over time.