Join Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters on a psychedelic bus ride across the country as he kick-starts the hippie movement of the 1960s ... get introduced to the notorious biker gang, the Hell's Angels ... experience fear and loathing when you learn about the obscene journey of Gonzo Journalist Hunter S. Thompson as he travels to Las Vegas into "the Savage Heart of the American Dream" ... take a journey back in time to watch the most historic performances of rock gods Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin at the Monterey Pop Festival ... journey into the frontiers of the mind with Timothy Leary ... find Eastern enlightenment with Ram Dass ... rage against the system with armed and hostile Black Panthers ... jam with musicians Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and other folk legends. Counterculture 2 begins with a brief background of the 1950s Beat Generation and then transitions into a study of the folk music and lyrics of Bob Dylan and his contemporaries, as they struggle to fight social injustice and protest the war. Next, the course will examine the Hippie movement in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a New Journalistic account of the west coast counterculture of the Sixties. We will learn about the rise of Acid Rock and the events that led to the Summer of Love in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury. We will also study the essentials of New Journalism and Gonzo Journalism, two new forms of writing pioneered in the 1960s and 1970s. We will move on to uncover the true motivations of the revolutionary Black Panthers, including Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver, as they struggle for civil rights and an end to social inequality and persecution, initiating programs to serve the underprivileged in their communities. Why did they carry guns, what was their link to Malcolm X, what was their revolutionary philosophy that got them into so much trouble and what is their legacy?

.....Hitchhike across the continent with Jack Kerouac..."Howl" with Allen Ginsberg...smash the control machine with William Burroughs...roar like a lion with Michael McClure...master the Zen simplicity of Gary Snyder...revel at the art of Wallace Berman and Bruce Conner! Literature of the Counterculture is a journey into the minds of some revolutionary thinkers and a study of the Beat Generation. We will critique our society as well as discover ways to be just and compassionate stewards of our own world. In addition to the aforementioned authors, the works of Amiri Baraka, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Lew Welch, Gregory Corso, and others will be read, performed, and discussed in order to gain a better understanding of these subcultures. Further, we will examine the musical form of Bebop jazz pioneered by artists like Charlie "Bird" Parker, Dizzie Gillespe, and Miles Davis. In regard to creative endeavors, we will experiment with spontaneous prose composition, created by Jack Kerouac, and we will study the California Assemblage movement and create our own bizarre but socially relevant sculptures. Lastly, we will view and discuss some groundbreaking experimental films by Beat magicians of the genre. In this class, prepare to be transformed!

The elective program in English offers a wide variety of courses for student selection. These offerings range from thematically organized courses, to special seminars on specific authors, with each course covering relevant short and long works that fit the course’s focus. The typical composition students write at this level continues to build on student’s mastery of the five-paragraph essay. Students are expected to write three such essays each semester. They also study topics such as outlining, introductions and conclusions, transitions, and parallel structure designed to develop specific skills necessary for the writing of effective essays.

This senior English elective will combine the traditional reading and analysis of classic works (such as King Lear, and The Heart of Darkness) and modern works (such as Bambi, V for Vendetta, No Country for Old Men, Zodiac, or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) with an introduction to film studies and how the medium of cinema interprets literature. A brief history of film and background instruction on film language and elements will be covered. Films that could be studied: Apocalypse Now, No Country for Old Men, Blade Runner, V is for Vendetta, Ran, Citizen Kane, Bambi: A life in the Woods, 2001: A Space Odyssey (plus more). Students will write 2 traditional expository essays (3-4 pages) as well as a creative project. Students will also be involved in 2 major group project. Students will read 5 literary works, plus one film studies text, as well as numerous essays on critiquing film. This course involves considerable reading, literary analysis, and film analysis.