LAPI 933 (PITC*312) Hard Times: Arts of the Great Depression

Division of Liberal Arts

3 credits 45.0 hours
900 level undergraduate course

In 1935, Congress voted a New Deal for artists. This experiment in public arts funding was short-lived (Congress soon had second thoughts), but the writers, actors and photographers of “The Project” left a remarkable testimony to what we were, what we still are - and to what we long become as a nation. Tax dollars for federal theatre wasn’t a vote-getter in Texas, but during The Great Depression everyone went to the movies. Gangster movies, screwball comedies, and musicals gave a everybody a good time during hard times. Furthermore, even the funniest period films take a serious look at our American ambivalence toward success, wealth and power. New cultural forces changed public life; it was in 30s radio that we first see media transforming American politics. Although we will look at traditional mediums - murals, prints, posters, and public sculpture - and read poetry and novels from the period, our emphasis will be on media culture.

Prerequisites LACR*210 or one HUMS course

This course is not repeatable for credit.