The Politics of Oz

Journey beyond the yellow brick road to explore how different adaptations of L. Frank Baum's Oz have reflected and shaped American political consciousness across generations. This four-week course examines how four different Oz adaptations reimagine the same fantastical world to address political questions of their times. 

We’ll cover topics ranging from economic power and governmental authority to Black liberation and identity, totalitarianism and institutional control, as well as more contemporary questions about resistance and whose perspective defines good and evil.

Films:

11/4: THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939, 102 min)

11/11: THE WIZ (1978, 132 min)

11/18: RETURN TO OZ (1985, 109 min)

11/25: WICKED (2024, 160 min)

This class will be taught by MMU Education Instructor Kristina Mucker. Her previous classes include The Blackening (2022), She’s Gotta Have It (1986), Prozac Nation (2001), Sugar Hill (1974), Ganja & Hess (1973), and the mult-week courses Black Southern Gothic and Absent Narratives: Black Queer Romance.

Class size will be limited to 18.

Email us at education@moviemadness.org if you have any questions.