ENGL 009H. First-Year Seminar: Portraits of the Artist

This first-year seminar is a Writing course. We’ll study works portraying artists in a variety of media,
including literature, film, song-writing, and digital animation. We’ll learn how to study artistic form, as well
as different approaches to understanding a work’s content and context.

Artists studied will include the following: Plato (the “Parable of the Cave”), Mozart, Tony Kushner’s
Angels in America; Carl Sagan’s novel Contact; 3 songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda; the making of songs for
Barbie by Dua Lipa, Mark Ronson, and Billie Eilish; ND Stephenson’s Nimona (Netflix 2023); and a song
from Meshell Ndegeocello’s 2024 album honoring James Baldwin and Audre Lorde.

We’ll also explore answers to broader cultural study questions, including:

What is cultural studies? How can we ask better questions about how a particular story-world creates meaning?
In what ways are artists part of their place and time, yet also able to imagine worlds that may resonate with audiences in very different eras?
How do literature and the other arts inspire critical thinking and imagining a different future?

Humanities.
Writing course.
1 credit.
Fall 2024. Schmidt.
Spring 2026. Schmidt.
Catalog chapter: English Literature
Department website: http://www.swarthmore.edu/english-literature

Access the class schedule to search for sections.