Penn Arts & Sciences Logo
 

Nina Simone: Myth, Meme, and the Icon of a Movement

ENGL 290.401
also offered as: AFRC 290, GSWS 290, MUSC 290
instructor(s):
TR 1:30-3:00 pm

Ten years after her death, Nina Simone is as, if not more, popular today than when she was alive. In 2013, Beyonce name-dropped Simone as her sole predecessor in her documentary, Life Is but A Dream.  This same year, a character based on Simone appeared in the Broadway musicals, A Night With Janis Joplin and Soul Doctor, while actress Zoe Saldana set off an Internet firestorm when she was cast in the title role in the upcoming biographical film, Nina. And no one has sampled her more than Kanye West who has invoked her on all but two of his albums, including Yeezus's most controversial track.   In this interdisciplinary class, we will trace how Nina Simone, through her constant self-fashioning, her redefining musical categories, and the subsequent reinventions of her in contemporary dance, film, literature, and popular music, has emerged as one of the most cherished and complicated icons of our time.

fulfills requirements
Elective Seminar of the Standard Major
Sector 1: Theory and Poetics of the Standard Major
Sector 2: Difference and Diaspora of the Standard Major
Sector 6: 20th Century Literature of the Standard Major