15Andover | Winter 2012

Folkie, poet, bluesman, clown? Trickster, mystic, Heaven-bound? About the only moniker everyone seems to agree fits the master singer-songwriter is “enigma.” Which is one of the reasons why David Fox, instructor in English and art history, dreamed up this rich, multidisciplinary course offered for the first—and perhaps only—time last fall. Another was to mark the 50th an-niversary of Dylan’s first recording. And finally, says Fox, “Throughout the term, what I had expected became confirmed: like any subject worth study-ing, Dylan becomes more complex the more you look. And he invites myriad seemingly contradictory approaches to him.”

Fox drew on his colleagues’ wide and deep knowledge of the elusive minstrel, collaborating with nine other faculty members—all volunteers on their own time—to bring perspectives on many facets of his subject. They offered re-cordings, films, articles from journals, and Dylan’s own autobiography to the mix. After setting the stage in the classroom with his presentation on the early Dylan through the lenses of art theory, ethics, and metaphysics, Fox introduced fellow English instructor Vuyelwa Maqubela to explore Dylan’s reactions to and expressions of racial oppression in Amer-ica and South Africa through well-known songs such as “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changing,” and “With God on Our Side.” History instructor Chris Jones then took on the cataclysmic change that came with Dylan’s decision to “plug in” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, a move that became emblematic of the cultural tsunami of the 1960s. This was a different Dylan, scream-ing through “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Desolation Row,” and “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” What shudders did it send through the folk genre?

Dylan the Poet was explored in two sessions with English instructors Paul Tortorella, Kevin O’Conner, Lewis Robinson, and Nina Scott. Making use of Dylan’s greatest albums, especially Blood on the Tracks, the classes studied the poet’s lyrics, analyzing them in terms of thematic structure, allusion, imagery, visions of women, and home vs. away. They brought in disparate elements from the Bible to Postmoderism in Poetry, the French symbolists, and Guido Guinizelli. They broke down the twisted imagery of “Idiot Wind” and examined “Lay, Lady, Lay” for signs of misogyny.

Boston University Professor of Humanities Christopher Ricks, author of Dylan’s Visions of Sin, hosted an October session. Ricks focused on Dylan and race using “Black Cross” and “No More Auction Block,” and among his many topics was an exploration of the authenticity Dylan can and cannot bring to personas that are not his, i.e., the extent to which he can, given his life expe-riences, speak on behalf of someone with different life experiences. English instructor John Bird analyzed Dylan as propagandist and focused on his influ-ence on the LA punk band, The Minutemen, with such songs as “Oh Mercy” and The Minutemen song, “Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs.” Another guest instructor, Richard Thomas, the George Martin Lane Professor of Classics at Harvard, engaged the students in biographical material to explore Dylan’s use of multiple personas (masks) throughout his career, ending with the extraordinary music video, “Must Be Santa.”

English instructor Tom Kane sought to decode Dylan in his session, which centered on the concept of Dylan as changeling, insisting on an instability of identity that allows the greatest creativity and the least defined route to his meaning. Using Andy Warhol as a foil, Kane talked about congruence of celebrity and pop, of truth and art. The last session, led by biology instructor Jerry Hagler, explored the biology of Dylan to understand his power and appeal from a scientific viewpoint. Students rose to discussions of music’s role in sexual selection, its relationship with the human brain, its power over human emotions. Hagler also noted that the height of Dylan’s productivity and creativity correlated with the statistical peak of male sexual and artistic function—the 20s and 30s.

In the end, Fox says the faculty participants were pleased and enthusiastic about the seminar and its concept. This fall, Chris Jones will lead a similarly structured seminar exploring the tension between law and justice across human history.

Dylan students presented thoughtful, probing papers on a wide variety of topics in the final sessions. Their essays reflected the enthusiasm and dynamic intellectual engagement they exhibited throughout the course.

eadR student essays at www.andover.edu/magazine.

ON COURSE

IP Seminar: Dylan/Fall 2011

Unmasking the Song and Dance Manby Sally Holm

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