91福利社 brought Broadway to the classroom with an innovative new English course that focused on award-winning writer and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda.
The class, 鈥淐reative Inquiry Through Literature,鈥� most notably featured Miranda鈥檚 works on 鈥淗amilton: An American Musical,鈥漚nd 鈥淚n the Heights.鈥� Dr. Drew Stowe, a professor of English who taught the 鈥淗amilton鈥� course, said that he is aware that some universities have studied 鈥淗amilton鈥� from a historical perspective, but a literature course not only on 鈥淗amilton鈥� but also on the works of Miranda is on the cutting edge.
鈥淚n literature, we talk about authors across different periods, but for this class it鈥檚 wonderful to check Twitter and see the latest from Lin-Manuel Miranda. It adds depth to a class to be engaged with a creator who is engaging with the world at present,鈥� Dr. Stowe said.
The 鈥淗amilton鈥� course let students explore literary history as it is being written. In addition to 鈥淗amilton鈥� and 鈥淚n The Heights,鈥� students studied other widely recognized works that Miranda has been involved with, including 鈥淢oana鈥� and 鈥淢ary Poppins Returns.鈥�
鈥淭he language and its rhythms, and the skill that the stories are told with in 鈥楬amilton,鈥檃re absolutely among the most clever and purposeful wordsmithing I have ever seen or heard in any context,鈥� Dr. Stowe said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not the first to say it, but I think Lin-Manuel Miranda is a modern Shakespeare, and I believe his works will be remembered in 300 years. It鈥檚 a testament to Miranda鈥檚 creative genius: working hard and surrounding himself with brilliance; that this musical has been able to capture the popular zeitgeist has made the class popular on campus.鈥�
The relevance of Miranda鈥檚 works also gave students a firm understanding of Miranda鈥檚 cultural context that allowed them to analyze his works in a distinct way.
鈥淥ne of the great struggles in teaching literature is to take a popular work of a time and explain the social circumstances that made the work so vibrant at the time,鈥� Dr. Stowe said. 鈥淚n class we are dealing with material that was recently created so I don鈥檛 have to explain why it is popular; the students already get that. This allows us to really look at the work in an incredibly detailed, nuanced way to discover all the different creative elements that are in the musical.鈥�
鈥�(The class) was very interesting in that we took a musical and viewed it through a literary lens鈥攕omething I had never done before,鈥� said AU student William Bell. 鈥淚t has piqued my interest because it made me realize that literature is all around us and isn鈥檛 necessarily limited to books with decaying spines and yellowed pages.鈥�
As the course title suggests, creativity was an important component of the 鈥淗amilton鈥� course as well. For their final project, students created their own spin on Miranda鈥檚 canon by generating a musical scene and explaining why they think their piece could add something to any of Miranda鈥檚 works that they studied throughout the semester.
鈥淒r. Stowe鈥檚 鈥� class asks students to approach literature as an active, creative and collaborative process,鈥� said Assistant Provost Dr. Nathan Cox. 鈥淭here are many excellent literature courses that engage students with outstanding classic texts that have withstood the test of time, but this course focuses on more recent and familiar pop culture examples. Students explore creative processes that lead to powerful and relevant story telling through a variety of different genres, including musical theatre, animation and others.鈥�
鈥淥ne of the main goals of this class is to help students move beyond thinking about creativity and to move toward being creative,鈥� Dr. Stowe said. 鈥淎s much as anything, it is designed to help people consider that it took six years and hundreds of hours from numerous people to make 鈥楬amilton鈥� come to fruition. Thus, if you have a thing you are passionate about, it鈥檚 going to take a lot of work. You are going to have to leverage the collective intelligence of the people around you.鈥�
The 鈥淗amilton鈥� course satisfies the creative inquiry degree requirement, a part of AU鈥檚 core curriculum.
鈥淚t is one of the many courses available in the creative inquiry category of the core curriculum,鈥� Dr. Cox said. 鈥淭hese classes all include a common learning outcome on aesthetic engagement, but many also include one or more of the other 17 common learning outcomes that are the foundation of the core curriculum.鈥�
The course was nearly full this semester, and Dr. Stowe said it will likely be offered again in the future.
鈥淭his is a class that helps people pick apart the different levels of nuance and meaning and creativity, and I hope students can go out of my class and appreciate the beauty of around them and that it will help them write the world in a way that is more beautiful as well and for them to be creative in doing the things they do,鈥� Dr. Stowe said.