The Institute for the Radical Imagination presents:
Co-sponsored by:
Institute for the Radical Imagination
Marxist Education Project
LA Progressive
Facilitator: Dennis Broe
Schedule: Six-week class, 7-8:30 (Eastern daylight time) , beginning May 2, 9, 16, 23, June 6, 13
Location: On zoom with location being sent out to all who register
Cost: $100 for all six sessions
A Five-Session Reading Group with Novelist and Scholar Dennis Broe
Co-sponsored by:
Institute for the Radical Imagination
Marxist Education Project
LA Progressive
Facilitator: Dennis Broe
Schedule: Six-week class, 7-8:30 (Eastern daylight time) , beginning May 2, 9, 16, 23, June 6, 13
Location: On zoom with location being sent out to all who register
Cost: $100 for all six sessions
Orson Welles once called Los Angeles “a bright, guilty place,” and that is as true today as it was in the 1940s when Welles coined this description. Dennis Broe leads a group reading of his five Los Angeles novels set in the film-noir period of the late 1940s and early 1950s. The contradictions we will unearth in that postwar period, the period of crime films that visually documented this seedy reality, have never been resolved, only continually papered over, and so they resound today. We will look at five industries and moments in this period with a view toward explaining how the postwar period set the tone for what was to follow, leading to the present era of a vast income disparity and frequent “natural,” though totally avoidable, disasters.
The novels – Left of Eden, A Hello to Arms, The Precinct with the Golden Arm, The House That Buff Built, and The Dark Ages – are detailed in this syllabus. They are available from various online booksellers.
Dennis Broe is a professor, journalist, and novelist whose books include: Film Noir, American Workers and Postwar Hollywood, Class, Crime and International Film Noir: Globalizing America’s Dark Art, and Cold War Expressionism: Perverting the Politics of Perception. He has taught at The Sorbonne and is the Parisian correspondent for Arts Express on The Pacifica Network. Dennis also writes for LA Progressive, People’s World, Crime Time, Culture Matters, the British daily Morning Star, and Monthly Review Online. His series of five novels is continuing with his latest, Pornocopia, about the corporate takeover of Las Vegas and the porn industry. Dennis has also just launched a new podcast, Culture and Barbarism, with Toby Miller.
Week 1 – Friday, May 2:
Left of Eden
This session will focus on the beginning of the Cold War and its intrusion into Hollywood at the moment of the breakup of the studio system, which had been so prosperous over the previous two decades. We’ll explore the echoes of the Cold War ethos in today’s foreign policy.
Week 2 – Friday, May 9:
A Hello To Arms
This week will examine the renewal of the arms industry after the war, during what was nominally a time of peace, and how that impacted the African-American community as wartime opportunities vanished. We will discuss the current state of relations in the African-American community and the US “defense” industry, a behemoth that today is utterly out of control.
Week 3 – Friday, May 16:
The Precinct With The Golden Arm
We will look at the LAPD and its changing modes of surveillance, particularly of the Mexican-American community in this period, with Boyle Heights starting to dominate. This novel also addresses Big Pharma and its relation to drugs in these communities. The session will examine the origin of street drugs, surveillance by what Mike Davis calls “the space police,” and the continued struggle and resistance within the city’s Latinx population.
Week 4 – Friday, May 23:
The House That Buff Built
This week’s discussion will focus on the LA real estate industry, the design and spatial allocation of the city and its sprawling suburbs, and the history of racial discrimination in housing. We will especially look at the exploitation of the Chinese population in both LA and San Francisco and the role of the LA Times and its owners, The Chandlers, in shaping the city.
Week 5 – Friday, June 2:
The Dark Ages
This session will address the second and more destructive devastation caused by McCarthyism, particularly HUAC’s impact on Hollywood. We’ll explore the history of unions in the entertainment industry and the city as a whole, positing that union activity in the industry brought HUAC to Hollywood. We will then examine the broader history of unions in Los Angeles, both in the past and today.
Bonus Week 6 – Friday, June 9:
Pornocopia
In this bonus session, we will delve into corporate America’s penetration into the mob industries of porn in LA and gambling in Las Vegas.
To register for the seminar, please follow this link:
