LIT 149K Literature and Social Movements: Writing on Rioting

When does a protest become a riot, and who decides? This course examines social movements and storytelling in the U.S., exploring how mass upheaval is documented and reimagined. We cover more than a century of rioting/writing, from early 20th-century labor riots and lynch mobs, through the Civil Rights era and the movement's neoliberal cooption, to the 2020 George Floyd uprisings and the January 6 Capitol riot. Using a multi-genre archive—from news and legal documents to poetry, film, and memes—we dissect the discursive boundary between “protest” and “riot,” the politics of race and identification, and how disorder fuels new political forms. Distribution requirement: Research.