COR 300 RACE, MEMORY AND THE “LOST CAUSE”
If the South lost the Civil War, why are there hundreds of Confederate monuments still standing over city squares, college campuses, and public parks? What can controversies over Confederate symbols tell us about how memory shapes American culture? This course seeks to understand the recent violence in Charlottesville as part of an ongoing conflict over the meaning of the Civil War. By examining a wide range of cultural artifacts, from literature and film to textbooks, political speeches, and architecture, we will trace how the Confederacy’s loss was transformed into a romanticized myth of the “Lost Cause.” Cultural myths are formed just as much by what is forgotten as what is remembered, and this course will explore how the Lost Cause’s attempt to downplay slavery has not only influenced historical understandings of the Civil War, but has directly underpinned white supremacist ideology. This course is writing intensive. Open to students in the third or fourth year of study.