Lesson 2: Can Art Conquer Oppression?

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1 PAGE 1 Teaching Guide Lesson 2: Can Art Conquer Oppression? Study Guide: Lesson 2 2 Compelling Questions 3 Lesson Concepts & Vocabulary 3 Lesson 2 Background Essay: Government and the Arts 4 Discussion/Writing Prompt Questions 9 Activity 1: In-Class Discussion: What Is the Purpose of Art? 10 Activity 2: Mini-Research Project: Exploring Art and Oppression 11 Appendix 1: Standards Alignment 12 The attached lesson plans are designed for use in English and Social Studies classrooms. Through discussion points and activities they help students explore the remarkable complexity of 2081, a short film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut s Harrison Bergeron. For more information visit Teaching2081.org

2 PAGE 2 Study Guide: Lesson 2 Students will: Research the history of artistic responses to oppression; Use summarizing techniques to enhance comprehension of visual art pieces; Synthesize information to form and present arguments on the nature of art and culture. Lesson Component Description Instructional Time 2081 (Film) Supplementary Video 2: Can Art Conquer Oppression? Activity 1: In-Class Discussion: What is the purpose of art? Lesson 2 Activity 2: Mini-Research Project A short film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron A short supplementary video exploring the question, Can Art Conquer Oppression? Read and discuss excerpts from two authors who contradict each other Research and present an art piece or period where an artistic work or movement influenced culture 25 min 5 min min min

3 PAGE 3 Compelling Questions 1. What is art? 2. Can we have freedom without art? 3. Can we have art without freedom? Lesson Concepts & Vocabulary Didactic Disruptive Guerrilla Tactics Graffiti Irreverence Oppression Propaganda Resistance Restraint Tyranny

4 PAGE 4 Lesson 2 Background Essay: Government and the Arts by Dr. Sarah Skwire 1 In 1961, Kurt Vonnegut published his original short story, Harrison Bergeron, in which a rebel genius declares himself emperor and performs a gravity-defying ballet before he is shot and killed. In 2009, that story was transformed into the short film 2081, where the ballet becomes one of the most compelling visuals of the film. In both the story and the film, the images of the chained and masked ballerinas are poignant and stark examples of the way that forced equality holds back beauty and talent. The sweet music and the delicate costumes are reminders of the kind of fragility and grace that seem to be nowhere else in the world of And the freedom that comes when Harrison and the dancer are able to move unfettered makes the bodies and minds of readers and viewers feel as if their own chains have been lifted. Writing of the moment when Harrison and the ballerina dance without chains or masks, Vonnegut tells us that they defied the laws of physics: Not only were the laws of the land abandoned, but the law of gravity and the laws of motion as well. They reeled, whirled, swiveled, flounced, capered, gamboled, and spun. 1 Dr. Sarah Skwire is a Senior Fellow at Liberty Fund, Inc., a non-profit educational foundation, and the co-author of the college writing textbook, Writing with a Thesis, which is in its 12th edition. Dr. Skwire has published a range of academic articles on subjects from Shakespeare to zombies and the broken window fallacy, and her work has appeared in journals as varied as Literature and Medicine, The George Herbert Journal, and The Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Her poetry has appeared, among other places, in Standpoint, The New Criterion, and The Vocabula Review. She graduated with honors in English from Wesleyan University, and earned a MA and PhD in English from the University of Chicago.

5 PAGE 5 They leaped like deer on the moon. The studio ceiling was thirty feet high, but each leap brought the dancers nearer to it. It became their obvious intention to kiss the ceiling. They kissed it. And then, neutraling gravity with love and pure will, they remained suspended in air inches below the ceiling, and they kissed each other for a long, long time. In both the story and the film, the ballet becomes an important symbol of resistance and of freedom. This means that one of the really interesting things about 2081 is that it is a work of art about resisting tyranny that was inspired by a work of art about resisting tyranny that uses as part of its story images of art resisting tyranny. What I find so appealing about this little stack of nesting boxes is that 2081 and Harrison Bergeron, taken together, are a perfect proof of the fact that art has long been used as a way of resisting oppression. I want to be clear here that when I speak about the power of art to resist oppression, I do not only mean didactic art those forms of expression that explicitly promote freedom or question power. Certainly that kind of art can be enormously affective and effective. The contemporary street art produced by artists such as Banksy and the music of folk and protest singers are fine examples of the enormous impact that kind of art, done well, can have. But even art that is not created with the intention of resisting oppression is art that resists oppression. The arrest and trial of the Czech rock band The Plastic People of the Universe spurred the Velvet Revolution against the Communist government of Czechoslovakia. Their role as inspirers of revolution came about

6 PAGE 6 not because their music was overtly political, but because, as Václav Havel, first president of the newly freed Czechoslovakia, wrote, The freedom to play rock music was understood as a human freedom and thus as essentially the same as the freedom to engage in philosophical and political reflection, the freedom to write, the freedom to express and defend the various social and political interests of society. Music was an important feature of the Estonian Singing Revolution as well, when mass gatherings of people singing Estonian folk songs helped spur resistance to Soviet rule and a push for an independent nation. These musicians knew that a nation that forbids artistic expression and the use of artistic talents is a nation that cannot be free. By sharing their art with others even when it was against the law they showed that resistance was possible and that oppression and tyranny could be fought. The comedian Eric Idle helps to explain why the freedom to make art is so important, noting that At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive. While it is possible to find political meaning in some of Idle s work, his argument suggests that the mere creation of comedy is a political act, an act that by its very nature works for liberty. Mark Twain put it another way: Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its one sure defense. One reason art works so well as a way of resisting oppression is that it has a disruptive quality. It changes the way we think about things. In whatever form it takes, it forces the observer to readjust old ideas, reconsider old perceptions, and reformat old programming. The American poet Emily Dickinson said, If I feel physically as if the whole top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. The American poet e.e. cummings described the same feeling when he

7 PAGE 7 wrote that his idea of poetic technique could be expressed in fifteen words, by quoting The Eternal Question And Immortal Answer of burlesk, viz., Would you hit a woman with a child? No, I d hit her with a brick. e.e.cummings is talking about the same kind of experience and readjustment that occurs when we see a Pointillist painting up close, as nothing but a series of colored dots. As we move farther from it, the dots resolve themselves into complex visions of people on a crowded street or in a park. What we thought we saw, what we thought we understood, has changed. The experience of art, as creator or as audience, trains us in flexible thinking. That is, in itself, a kind of freedom. Art has disruptive qualities. It changes minds in unpredictable ways. This means, of course, that it is not always possible to tell what sort of response a work of art will inspire in the viewer. There is a famous story from the days of the USSR that demonstrates this perfectly. The Soviet government wanted to show an American movie that would prove to the Soviet people that Americans were poor and oppressed because of their political and economic system. They picked a movie that they were sure would do it The Grapes of Wrath, which focused on the poverty caused by the Oklahoma drought during the Great Depression. But art, and our response to it, is unpredictable. The Soviet audience wasn t persuaded by the poverty and suffering of the characters in The Grapes of Wrath as they drove their ramshackle car to California to find work. Instead they were just amazed to discover that even the poorest Americans had cars! So art is enormously powerful and influential, but you can t predict precisely what it will influence people to do. It s entirely possible that someone could watch 2081 and think that the message of the movie is that blowing up dance performances is a good thing. This unpredictability combined with this power

8 PAGE 8 means that people who like control and power are very suspicious of art. Tyranny, in other words, often turns on artists first. During the Great Purge of the 1920s and 30s, the Soviet leader Josef Stalin imprisoned two thousand writers, artists, and intellectuals. Approximately fifteen hundred of them died in prison. Adolf Hitler s National Socialist government turned control of the arts over to the Propaganda Ministry in 1933, and the Theresienstadt concentration camp was created specifically to imprison and kill artists and intellectuals. And we still don t know how many Chinese artists died, disappeared, or had their lives and works destroyed during the lost decade ( ) of Mao s Cultural Revolution. Shockingly, some have suggested that such threats help produce the best art. In Camus, Resistance, Rebellion, and Death, filmmaker Federico Fellini argues that [l]eft on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there s one thing that s dangerous for an artist, it s precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it. But the French philosopher Albert Camus insists that any restraint must be selfgenerated. He writes, Without freedom, no art; art lives only on the restraints it imposes on itself, and dies of all others. Certainly, we can read in Vonnegut s short story and see in 2081 the power of art made by artists who are unfettered and unchained and free to use their talents. That s why, in many ways, a healthy creative community is a sign of a healthy society, with room within it for debate and disagreement, and wealth within it for the luxury that is art.

9 PAGE 9 Name Section Date Discussion/Writing Prompt Questions 1. Why does Vonnegut choose ballet as the art form that disrupts the tyranny of 2081? Why not painting? Theater? Literature? 2. In the world of 2081 the arts still survive, in some form, despite the handicaps and radical equality of the population. What do you think would happen to art in our world if everyone were equal? 3. What is the piece of art that has most changed the way you see the world? Why?

PAGE 10 Name Section Date Activity 1: In-Class Discussion: What Is the Purpose of Art? In Charles Dickens, George Orwell says Every novelist HAS a message...all art is propaganda.

Every writer, especially every novelist, HAS a 'message', whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda.

fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms.

10 PAGE 10 Name Section Date Activity 1: In-Class Discussion: What Is the Purpose of Art? In Charles Dickens, George Orwell says Every novelist HAS a message...all art is propaganda. In his letter to students, Kurt Vonnegut asks them to create, then destroy, a piece of art. Draw from the following two excerpts to address the question, What is the purpose of art? Every writer, especially every novelist, HAS a 'message', whether he admits it or not, and the minutest details of his work are influenced by it. All art is propaganda. -George Orwell, Charles Dickens Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don't do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK? Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow. -Kurt Vonnegut, Excerpt from Letter to Xavier High School Students

11 PAGE 11 Name Section Date Activity 2: Mini-Research Project: Exploring Art and Oppression Throughout history art has been used to try to influence cultures. In this activity you will have the opportunity to explore an artwork or period where this occurred. You may work individually or in groups. Step 1: Choose one of the following topics to research 1. Choose from an example of an art piece that influenced a group or period. You can choose one from the supplementary video, or one of your own. (a) Guernica, Picasso (b) The Holocaust Memorial, George Segal (c) Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, Ai Weiwei (d) A Ride for Liberty -- The Fugitive Slaves, Eastman Johnson (e) The Third of May, 1808; Goya (f) Liberty Leading the People, Delacroix 2. Choose a period in which art has been used to oppress or resist oppression. You can choose from an example in the supplementary video, or one of your own (a) Communism (b) World War II Step 2: Research this piece or period. Include: (c) Images (d) Quotes (e) People (f) Events Step 3: Showcase your research. 1. Create a tri-fold or poster that visually communicates the story of your era or dangerous piece of art (a) Use images, quotes, and, if necessary, short descriptions (max 2 sentences) (b) Feature key pieces of art, people, events, and the philosophy or goals of the artists or their patrons 2. Do not explain your work to the other students. 3. Display your finished works in a gallery format. 4. Silently walk through the gallery. 5. Debrief the experience and ask, (a) What did you notice when observing the displays? (b) What did you feel? (c) Were there any common themes?

12 PAGE 12 Appendix 1: Standards Alignment English/Language Arts 1. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL Analyze how an author draws on and transforms source material in a specific work (e.g., how Shakespeare treats a theme or topic from Ovid or the Bible or how a later author draws on a play by Shakespeare). 2. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the History text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.) 1. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Theme: CULTURE 1. Cultures are dynamic and change over time. 2. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Theme: INDIVIDUAL DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTITY 1. Personal identity is shaped by an individual s culture, by groups, by institutional influences, and by lived experiences shared with people inside and outside the individual s own culture throughout her or his development. 3. National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies: Theme: INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND INSTITUTIONS 1. It is important that students know how institutions are formed, what controls and influences them, how they control and influence individuals and culture, and how institutions can be maintained or changed.

Literary Reading Work Sample Assessment High School For Classroom Use

Literary Reading Work Sample Assessment High School For Classroom Use Instructions Read the following story carefully and make notes in the margin as you read. Your notes may include: Comments that show