![\"bruce\"](\"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/bruce_web.jpg\")
\u201cI found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was this lyric from \u201cGrowing Up,\u201d a song from Bruce Springsteen\u2019s 1973 Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. <\/em>album, that helped Lincoln Konkle realize as a college student that Springsteen\u2019s lyrics were deeper than the average 1970s rock song.<\/p>\n \u201cNow this was rock and roll for English majors,\u201d Konkle said of his feelings of Springsteen\u2019s imagery- and metaphor-filled lyrics at the time.<\/p>\n Several Springsteen albums and concerts later, and now a professor of English at The College of New Jersey, Konkle is teaching a new generation of college students and music lovers the deeper meanings behind Springsteen\u2019s lyrics in his First Year Seminar course, Springsteen\u2019s Lyrics as Literature.<\/p>\n In the course, the students analyze lyrics to one Springsteen album per week, from early albums like Greetings<\/em> and Born to Run <\/em>up through his most recent albums Magic<\/em> and Working on a Dream<\/em>. According to the course description, Springsteen’s albums are treated “as analogous to books, each with a unifying principle of theme or type of music rather than a random collection of Springsteen\u2019s latest songs; thus, [students] will study the albums in chronological order so that it will be possible to gain insights into the shape of Springsteen\u2019s career and the development of the ideas and techniques in his oeuvre.”\u00a0The students also read scholarly articles and books about Springsteen, and are required to write research and interpretive papers.<\/p>\n Konkle hopes that his students will develop a deeper appreciation of Springsteen\u2019s literary writing, while also developing the reading, thinking, writing and researching skills that are built into all FSP courses.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Konkle teaches a great class,\u201d Gary Kehoe \u201913<\/strong>, a student in the Springsteen class, said. Kehoe grew up in Freehold listening to Springsteen’s music and said his appreciation of the singer-songwriter has only grown since enrolling in the course.<\/p>\n \u201cThe class goes in depth to show the way the chosen writing style reflects the message the artist wishes to convey,\u201d Kehoe said.<\/p>\n Kehoe added that, even if he wasn\u2019t a Springsteen fan, he\u2019d still look forward to the class every week because of the lively discussions and larger themes of the course.<\/p>\n \u201cAlong with working with Bruce\u2019s music, we discuss the time periods and situations he sings about, [such as the] political campaigns of Ronald Reagan or the equally disillusioned superhero Adam West in the \u201960s Batman<\/em> television series,\u201d Kehoe said.<\/p>\n Konkle had wanted to teach a course on Springsteen since the first scholarly book was published on Springsteen\u2019s music in the late 1990s. Thanks in part to the first \u201cGlory Days\u201d Springsteen symposium in 2005, many scholarly books and articles have since been published on Springsteen for students to reference in research papers.<\/p>\n Konkle presented two papers at the September 2009 \u201cGlory Days\u201d symposium, one that analyzed astronomical imagery in Springsteen\u2019s recent song lyrics and one on his \u201cSpringsteen\u2019s Lyrics as Literature\u201d course.<\/p>\n Konkle is grateful to the First Seminar Program for providing the opportunity for professors and students to connect on subjects for which they share a mutual passion.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a teacher and scholar of literature, and at his best, Bruce Springsteen really is a literary writer,\u201d Konkle said. \u201cThe growing body of scholarly articles and books, the conferences, and the college courses devoted to Springsteen are evidence that many share my opinion, and that his body of work is worthy of rigorous intellectual inquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students in Lincoln Konkle’s “Springsteen\u2019s Lyrics as Literature” course are examining the timeless, universal themes\u2014such as growing up, love, death, political power, religious faith, and doubt\u2014that are a part of the Boss’s songwriting. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":1924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,29,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-in-focus","category-october-2009","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}