Culture in the Jazz Age

The course focused primarily on texts (expository nonfiction, prose fiction, poetry, and film) concerned with the topic of popular culture, especially popular music. During the first half of the Spring 1996 semester we examined and wrote about texts from the 1920s that address jazz. In the second half of the semester, students built upon what they learned in the first half and designed projects on topics of their own choosing.

Course Materials

• student projects
• syllabus
• policy statement
• daily class assignments and homework
• message forums and InterChanges

Course Texts for Student Analysis

• "Jazz, That Peculiar Word!" by Henry O. Osgood
• "Does Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation" by Anne Shaw Faulkner
• "The Camel's Back" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• "Jazzonia" by Langston Hughes
• The Jazz Singer (starring Al Jolson)

Other sites of interest

• On jazz
  • Red Hot and Cool Jazz, an extensive compilation of websites
  • Archives of African American Music and Culture at Indiana University, which lists sites on a wide range of musical forms
  • the Trumpet site at Dana College, which features sites on jazz and classical trumpet playing