The Humanities Super Seminar
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Hamilton and the American Story The final Humanities Super Seminar, Spring 2018 Directed by Jillmarie Murphy and Pattie Wareh, Department of English |
EZRA AMES, American, (1768-1836)
Portrait of Alexander Hamilton c. 1810 oil on canvas Gift of General Alexander Hamilton, grandson of the subject Union College Permanent Collection 1875.1 UCPC |
Course Description
Our close study of Hamilton: An American Musical will take a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on faculty expertise in fields from literature to economics to music to politics to theater to history, as we explore together how this Pulitzer and Tony award winning play comments on the intersections among historical and contemporary issues such as immigration, violence, social justice, gender, and narrative. Thus, this course will offer a variety of interdisciplinary paths to understanding the relationship between Hamilton and the American story, past and present.
Some of the questions will investigate together include:
Alexander Hamilton’s story has important local and Union connections, as well. For instance, our class will tour the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, NY, where Hamilton married Eliza Schuyler, and we will also reflect on the significance of Union President Eliphalet Nott’s 1804 sermon on the death of Hamilton, in which he argued against dueling in response to the final confrontation between Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
As the course develops, students will be responsible for developing their own questions and responding with research-based creative projects, the most appropriate form and format for which they will decide in collaboration with the instructors.
Our close study of Hamilton: An American Musical will take a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, drawing on faculty expertise in fields from literature to economics to music to politics to theater to history, as we explore together how this Pulitzer and Tony award winning play comments on the intersections among historical and contemporary issues such as immigration, violence, social justice, gender, and narrative. Thus, this course will offer a variety of interdisciplinary paths to understanding the relationship between Hamilton and the American story, past and present.
Some of the questions will investigate together include:
- How does Hamilton fit into a long textual and literary history of questioning what it means to be an American and who has a rightful claim to tell the American story?
- How did Alexander Hamilton’s views of federal economic policy shape a developing American nation?
- What does the previous neglect of Hamilton in public history and the success of the Miranda play tell us about American national identity, not just in terms of immigration and ethnicity, but also in terms of the tension between individualism and a concern for the common good?
- How do the staging choices of the musical relate to its engagement with a wide range of social and political issues?
- What does the phenomenal success of Hamilton teach us about our own social and political moment?
- How are we to make sense of the play’s many multimedia “paratexts,” including Twitter feeds, YouTube fan videos, Facebook discussions, etc. etc. ?
Alexander Hamilton’s story has important local and Union connections, as well. For instance, our class will tour the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, NY, where Hamilton married Eliza Schuyler, and we will also reflect on the significance of Union President Eliphalet Nott’s 1804 sermon on the death of Hamilton, in which he argued against dueling in response to the final confrontation between Hamilton and Aaron Burr.
As the course develops, students will be responsible for developing their own questions and responding with research-based creative projects, the most appropriate form and format for which they will decide in collaboration with the instructors.
