IFS 2023 Fall 2018 Kilgore

Now that Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for "having created new poetic traditions within the great American song tradition," it seems an opportune moment to consider his art and legacy. Dylan has stood at the center of popular culture ever since he arrived in New York City from Hibbing, MN in 1961. This class will examine Dylan as a musical, literary, and cultural phenomenon and highlight his most innovative and iconic contributions to American popular music. We will focus on the epochal recordings he made in the 1960s but will place Dylan's words and music in cultural context by learning about American folk, blues, and country music traditions; the counterculture of the 1960s including the Beat literary movement and the rock revolution (the so-called British Invasion); and political struggles of the era such as the Civil Rights and anti-nuclear/anti-war protest movements. Our goal will be to arrive at a deeper understanding of both Dylan's "new poetic expressions" and the "great American song tradition" that he enriched.