The following cultural studies course may be taught as early as the 2004-2005 school year, or as an honors course in the 2005-2006 school year, or perhaps both, perhaps never. At any rate, this course description is excerpted from the initial proposal that has been submitted to the Westfield State College Honors Committee, but will not be considered until next academic year, when they will decide on honors courses for 2005-06.

This course takes a cultural studies approach to punk, specifically on the origins, influences and significance of the original punk movement that flourished from the late 1970s through the mid-80s. As the somewhat lewd course title suggests, punk begins with brazen offensiveness: crudeness in fashion, music, lyrics and a total embodiment of social decay. Yet, beneath these sometimes ridiculous trappings of punk lie deep theoretical and political influences that may make for a compelling and provocative honors course. I suspect students would be drawn to such a course for the titillation of rebellion and passionate commitment of the artists involved. However, the punk aesthetic of raw and brazen rebellion has, in the last dozen years or so, been co-opted and declawed in the machinery of cultural appropriation -- its original meanings have largely been sublimated by a newer generation of toothless punk fashion used for selling products, but not for the same social purpose as the original movement. I'd like to help students understand the significance and influences of punk as it was originally conceived--with all its passionate social and political intensity still intact.

Honors students would read and examine literature, music, film, art, philosophy, history and interdisciplinary theory. Here, then, is a sampling of the sorts of materials and subtopics I would draw on:

Theory:
Julia Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection
Aristotle and Northrup Frye (tragic structure)

Literature:
Proto-punk: William S. Burroughs, Charles Bukowski
Punk fiction: Harold Jaffe, Kathy Acker, Joe Wenderoth
Existentialism: (i.e. Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre)
Symbolist poetry: (i.e. Baudelaire, Rimbaud)
Punk poetry: Patti Smith, Jim Carroll

Music:
Agent Orange, Bad Religion, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, Fear, Germs, Iggy Pop, Ramones, Reagan Youth, Lou Reed, Sex Pistols, Stooges, Suicidal Tendencies, X and others

Art & Fashion:
Dadaism & punk album art; Andy Warhol; Hans Haacke; outsider art and Art Brut; Kryzistof Wodikzscko; fashion (Malcolm McLaren & Sex Store, DIY movement)

History:
Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century
Howard Zinn (A People's History,1980s)

Politics, Philosophy & Economics:
Anarchism (Bakunin); Situationist movement (Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle); Marxism; Reaganomics; censorship and distribution

Film:
The Filth and The Fury, Decline of Western Civilization, Sid & Nancy, SLC Punk

Punk Culture & Regionalism:
Stephen Colegrave and Chris Sullivan, Punk: The Definitive Record of a Revolution
Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen, We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk
George Gimarc, Punk Diary 1970-1979

The broad topical scope of punk would also be reflected in the course assignments. Along with a capstone research project and scholarly responses to readings, each student would have the opportunity to experiment with the creation of punk artifacts and performances in multiple forms such as song, poetry, fiction, poster, manifesto, review and political or cultural critique.

A few final thoughts on punk as a topic for an honors course: my interest stems from a fascination with the repulsiveness of punk expression combined with a deep admiration for the artistic integrity of the political rebellion it embodies. Whether a person likes or agrees or not with the punk impulse is less important than understanding the way that narrative forms have been adapted to serve a complex and committed purpose despite forces that would otherwise prevent any expression of rebellion whatsoever. As a thriving movement, punk is, arguably, long dead but its impulse has influenced many aspects of contemporary culture which some may take for granted. This class would illuminate the most recent history of contained social unrest and its derivative signifiers of rebellion.

- MF

last modified: 4.23.04