HMS-406P Not Working! Lit & Performance of Labor

3 Credits

Labor, and how we value work - be it creative or intellectual, waged or unwaged, caregiving or reproductive, physical or digital, salaried or hourly - has become a central question in American life over the past decade. In this course, we will consider works of literature and performance that represent, enact, critique, or reconfigure how we define, understand, and value labor. We will read/view literature and performance from the past century or so in order to understand how representations and understandings have changed over time, and to find out what new ideas erupted at particular moments of artistic and political foment. Throughout, we will put women's labor - specifically the work of social reproduction, as it is doubly divided by both gender and race - at the center of our consideration. Students will have the opportunity to both critically and creatively respond to the literature and performance that most moves them, and to pursue light research into historical works so as to make connections with the present moment.