exploration in the liberal studies LBS498

(

NOTES from this

week

)

Writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans’ classic work

Let Us Now Praise

Famous Men

began as an assignment for

Fortune

magazine to research tenant farmers in

the deep South during the Depression. The result was a book that has often defied

categorization. Some see it as a sociological treatise, others an historical document, others

as a work of art that combines both creat

ive nonfiction and documentary photographs. Yet

Agee tells us, “For God’s sake don’t call it art.” In the early pages of the book he calls it “an

effort in human actuality.”

Part of your exploration of the text and its ideas will be to confront questions

that the writer

himself poses about the work and its intentions. The range of subjects Agee writes about is

varied: poverty, work, shelter, family life, faith, education, farming, and death. His

references and use of works from different disciplines guide

and integrate the text’s ideas.

You will see everything from the Bible to Beethoven’s

Seventh Symphony

, all as part of the

writer’s effort to do justice to the tenant farmers’ lives and a particular period in history.

Because of the book’s nature, it beco

mes an excellent text to end your work in the liberal

studies.

(

Snapshot

notes)

Documentary writing and photography were thriving and fairly new forms in the 1930s. We

see the documentary form as a more commonplace but still powerful form. Yet the term

“documentary” is co

mplex and variously defined. According to William Stott (1986) in his

book

Documentary Expression and Thirties America

, much of what we read

—

and what was

read in the thirties

—

is actually social documentary. He offers a number of observations.

Click

here

to read more.

Stott, William.

Documentary Expression and Thirties America

. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1986. Print.

As you read through “All Over Alabama,” “On the Porch,” and “Late Sunday Morning,”

where can you distinguish objective, factual writing?

Where does Agee slip into a m

ore subjective, personal response to what he sees?

How would you define the dominant form used in each of these three sections?

What is the effect of this blending of the subjective and objective on you as a reader?

In this module you are required to

read the following from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men:

·

Preface

·

Verses

·

Preamble

·

“All Over Alabama”

·

“On the Porch 1”

·

“Late Sunday Morning”

(NOTES from this week)

Writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans’ classic work Let Us Now Praise

Famous Men began as an assignment for Fortune magazine to research tenant farmers in

the deep South during the Depression. The result was a book that has often defied

categorization. Some see it as a sociological treatise, others an historical document, others

as a work of art that combines both creative nonfiction and documentary photographs. Yet

Agee tells us, “For God’s sake don’t call it art.” In the early pages of the book he calls it “an

effort in human actuality.”

Part of your exploration of the text and its ideas will be to confront questions that the writer

himself poses about the work and its intentions. The range of subjects Agee writes about is

varied: poverty, work, shelter, family life, faith, education, farming, and death. His

references and use of works from different disciplines guide and integrate the text’s ideas.

You will see everything from the Bible to Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, all as part of the

writer’s effort to do justice to the tenant farmers’ lives and a particular period in history.

Because of the book’s nature, it becomes an excellent text to end your work in the liberal

studies.

(Snapshot notes)

Documentary writing and photography were thriving and fairly new forms in the 1930s. We

see the documentary form as a more commonplace but still powerful form. Yet the term

“documentary” is complex and variously defined. According to William Stott (1986) in his

book Documentary Expression and Thirties America, much of what we read—and what was

read in the thirties—is actually social documentary. He offers a number of observations.

Click here to read more.

Stott, William. Documentary Expression and Thirties America. Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1986. Print.

As you read through “All Over Alabama,” “On the Porch,” and “Late Sunday Morning,”

where can you distinguish objective, factual writing?

Where does Agee slip into a more subjective, personal response to what he sees?

How would you define the dominant form used in each of these three sections?

What is the effect of this blending of the subjective and objective on you as a reader?

In this module you are required to read the following from Let Us Now Praise Famous Men:

 Preface

 Verses

 Preamble

 “All Over Alabama”

 “On the Porch 1”

 “Late Sunday Morning”