MALA 61343 David Bowie: Persona, Music, and Meaning
Prerequisites: Enrollment in the MLA program. This course focuses on the music and cultural icon David Bowie. Bowie's career spanned more than fifty years in the 20th and 21st centuries and his impact on music and culture is indelible. We will consider the personas or alter egos and eras of David Bowie in the interpretation and analysis of his music through text, screen, stage, fashion, art, and other cultural dynamics. In the early part of Bowie's career, such personas as Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Major Tom, and The Thin White Duke are easily recognizable, yet in the latter part of his career it is much more difficult to ascertain a distinct persona or alter ego that he is inhabiting through his music and in the genres that he is working in. In this course, we will closely analyze Bowie's music in the interpretation of his personas and eras in considering the impact and meaning of his music on culture and the human condition.