LARTS 318 — The Art of Protest in the Long 1960s

3 credits
Spring
Anthony Lioi

Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, American protest movements spawned protest art—or was it protest art that sparked the movements? What would become known as the counterculture wielded art in an attempt to disrupt traditional ways of thinking, feeling, and living. This course will explore the cultural front, including literature, film, and music, of a multitude of resistance movements: movements against war, racism, sexism, heterosexism, colonialism, capitalism, and ecocide. What role did art play in politics, and how did artists try to change culture? What artistic legacy did the 1960s leave behind for contemporary struggles? We will seek answers to these questions with reference to the Beats, Students for a Democratic Society, the Black Arts Movement, women’s and gay liberation, the American Indian Movement, postmodernism, and other movements that intentionally blended art and politics.