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Springsteen's Lyrics as Literature
Course Description
Bruce Springsteen is arguably the most important American music artist, at least in the Rock genre, of the second half of the twentieth century. From his appearance the same week on the covers of Time and Newsweek in 1977, he has been hailed as more than just an entertainer. Like Bob Dylan before him, Springsteen has been recognized as a poet and short story writer working in popular music. THIS SECTION OF FIRST SEMINAR WILL ANALYZE THE LYRICS OF SPRINGSTEEN’S RECORDED SONGS AS EXAMPLES OF LITERARY WRITING. Themes in his songs we will examine include timeless universal issues such as growing up, love, death, political power, religious faith and doubt, etc. In addition, because of the upheaval of American society during Springsteen’s apprenticeship in the 1960s and his early career in the 1970s, we will examine Springsteen’s lyrics for how they manifest cultural issues of these decades (e.g., Vietnam, civil rights movements, recession’s effect on the working class, etc.) and of the ‘80s and ‘00s as well (e.g., his 2002 album The Rising as a self-conscious response to 9/11). The course will also treat albums as analogous to books, each with a unifying principle of theme or type of music rather than a random collection of Springsteen’s latest songs; thus, we will study the albums in chronological order so that it will be possible to gain insights into the shape of Springsteen’s career and the development of the ideas and techniques in his oeuvre. This section of First Seminar is meant to appeal to English majors, Communication majors, Music majors, and anyone who is interested in the writing of Bruce Springsteen.
| Course ID |
Course Title |
Professor |
Days |
Start |
End |
Liberal Learning Requirements |
| FSP 101 14 & 15 |
Springsteen's Lyrics as Literature |
Konkle, Lincoln |
T
W |
5:30
5:30 |
8:20
8:20 |
Human Inquiry: Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts |
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