Bob Dylan the Classic

CLS-STDY 166 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course examines Bob Dylan the creative genius and enduring and continuing musical, literary, and general cultural phenomenon, in the context of popular and higher literary culture of the last 60 years, and of performed literature; also in the context of those long-lived literary and musical cultures with which he works: the Beats and Moderns of the 20th and Romantics of the 19th century; Poe, Melville, Whitman and Americana of the same 19th century; Shakespeare and the old ballad traditions; John Donne and the Metaphysical poets; Dante, Petrarch and the Troubadours; and in more recent songs going back to Homer, Virgil, Ovid, and the western literary canon. Traces the evolution of his songs and lyrics from their early folk, blues, rock, gospel, and protest roots, through the transition from acoustic to electric, in studio and performative contexts, also through the many persona evolutions and reinventions that have characterized and continue to characterize his career in songwriting, performance, literature, film and painting. Lectures, listening to, viewing, and discussing a broad representation of Dylan’s output.