Bob Dylan: A Renaissance scholar explores a Renaissance man
Mark Rasmussen leads students through a deep dive into the iconic singer-songwriter, poet, political activist and social critic.
During his immersive three-week 暗夜成人视频Term English course, Mark Rasmussen, Charles J. Luellen Professor of English, led students through the myriad layers of the man hailed as America's greatest singer-songwriter, winner of the Nobel prize for literature and, as Rasmussen described him in a description of the course, the 鈥渨ords-drunk spawn of Ginsberg and Rimbaud.鈥
鈥淚 am a scholar of medieval and Renaissance literature,鈥 said Ramussen, 鈥渂ut for many years I have longed to teach a course on Bob Dylan, and this 暗夜成人视频Term the time was right. I've been listening to Dylan since the 1960s, and I have been right there throughout his various phases and incarnations: the balladeer of the American folk tradition; the country crooner; the angry Christian prophet; the lonesome hobo drifter unlucky in love.鈥
Students listened intently to all these Dylans and talked about what his songs made them think and feel. They watched films based on his music, such as 鈥淒on't Look Back,鈥 鈥淣o Direction Home,鈥 鈥淢asked and Anonymous鈥 and 鈥淚'm Not There.鈥 Students also were required to create a final project for the course.
English major Jayden Blanton 鈥23 did a research paper on why Dylan should be considered a precursor to the rap genre for his final project.
鈥淏efore I took the class, I didn鈥檛 know exactly who Bob Dylan was, but I had heard of him,鈥 Blanton says. 鈥淎fter taking this 暗夜成人视频Term course with Dr. Rasmussen, I鈥檝e gotten to see his true musical talent from an in-depth lyrical perspective. [Rasmussen] has gotten us to break down the lyrics that form the plethora of Dylan albums spanning the genres of folk, electric and rock.鈥
Rasmussen believes that guiding students鈥 scrutiny of Dylan鈥檚 intricate storytelling, and listening to and analyzing complex songs from a variety of genres, builds critical-thinking skills.
鈥淒ylan's music is intensely involved with the conflicts of his day and ours,鈥 Rasmussen said, 鈥渁nd it is illuminating for students to experience those contexts through his work.鈥
The connection Blanton made during the course inspired his research topic and may have added yet another musical genre to the Dylan debate.
鈥淭he way he rhymes his lyrics and tackles racial and oppressive issues that are systematically brought on by the government suggests that his art could be accepted into the rap category,鈥 Blanton says. 鈥淥ur dissection of Bob Dylan鈥檚 鈥淪ubterranean Blues鈥 allowed me to make a connection that I thought I wouldn鈥檛 have been able to make prior to this class.
鈥淎nd the thing that I will take away from this course is being able to take lyrics and find out hidden messages and possible meanings that delve into different avenues away from its literal meaning,鈥 he said.
Rasmussen鈥檚 students also attended a workshop with NEH Professor of Music Nathan Link's Songwriting class to give them insight into how musicians shape their songs and the stories they tell.
鈥淢y students come from many academic disciplines and seek to follow many career paths,鈥 Rasmussen says. 鈥淏ut we all can learn from Dylan's heroic openness to change, recognizing that each of us is a work in progress, and that any belief that we have figured everything out will always be premature. Humility and a willingness to learn must be part of any well-lived life.
鈥淒ylan, often an exasperating person in real life, is also a model to us all as human beings,鈥 Rasmussen continues. 鈥淭he epigraph for the course is a line from one of Dylan's songs: 鈥楬e not busy being born is busy dying.鈥 Throughout his career, Dylan has been busy being born, reinventing and redirecting his art up through his most recent album, 鈥淩ough and Rowdy Ways,鈥 which came out in 2020, during the singer/songwriter's 80th year 鈥 four years after he had been awarded the Nobel prize for literature.鈥
Jack Mileham 鈥26 transcribed "Blowing in the Wind" for banjo and played it as a duet with a fellow student on guitar in his dorm room:
Jack Roth 鈥26 wrote a song based on one of Dylan's favorite song structures and made a video. It is the first song that Jack has ever composed:
Davis Pingleton 鈥26, who plays guitar in a Berea-based band, recorded a note-for-note performance of Jimi Hendrix's version of Dylan's song "All Along the Watchtower:鈥
Kameron Jones 鈥26 sang his own arrangement of the Dylan song 鈥淜nockin鈥 on Heaven鈥檚 Door:鈥
