Exploration Term Course - Bob Dylan: A Complete Unknown?

We shall consider the life, times, music, and poetry of Bob Dylan, focusing on the time between his arrival in Greenwich Village and his “motorcycle accident.” Texts will include the albums Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,  The Times They Are A-Changin’, Another Side of Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, Blonde on Blonde, John Wesley Harding and The Basement Tapes; the autobiography Chronicles: Volume One; the biography Dylan by Bob Spitz; case studies of Dylan’s songs of this era in Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Bob Dylan, The Early Years, by Andy Gill; commentary and literary interpretation in Dylan's Vision of Sin, by Christopher Ricks; the documentary movies Dont Look Back and ’65 Revisited, by D.A. Pennebaker, No Direction Home, by Martin Scorsese; The Other Side of the Mirror, by Murray Lerner, and Eat the Document by Dylan; and the fictional movie account of Dylan, I’m Not There, by Todd Haynes. Requirements: You are required to attend and participate in all classes; complete all listening, reading, and viewing assignments and daily quizzes; and either (1) write and read a ten page, documented research paper; or (2) make a documented 20 minute oral power point presentation on some aspect of Bob Dylan’s life, time, music, or poetry; or (3) present a 20 minute performance, including documented critical analysis, of Bob Dylan’s music. The class will meet Monday-Thursday from 9-12 A.M. Students are expected to spend 30 hours per week on work in and outside class.