This course will examine leading movements and issues of the 1960s in American literature, culture, and society— not only "sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll" but confessional poetry, paranoia, Vietnam, Black Power, and the Hippie movement. The emphasis in the course is not on retrospection ("I remember the 60s! What a blast!" or "If only they hadn't taken all those drugs, those darn Republicans wouldn't have been elected!") nor on sociology, politics, and culture critique as such. Instead, the focus is on art works—poetry, fiction, plays, nonfiction, films and popular music—that were produced and consumed during the decade.

We will read, view, listen to, and discuss Bob Dylan, Easy Rider, Sylvia Plath, Thomas Pynchon, Dr. Strangelove, Allen Ginsberg, Luis Valdez, Joni Mitchell, Malcom X, Ken Kesey, Tom Wolfe, Edward Albee, Michael Herr, and Amiri Bakara (Le Roi Jones).

In a most un-Sixties fashion, the course will require quizzes on the reading, midterm and final examinations, and a major paper.