To truly understand the United States of America, you must explore its literary tradition. Works by Melville, Whitman, Faulkner, Hemingway, and others are more than just masterpieces of Western literature - they're powerful windows into America's spirit. The course has been crafted to explain why some works become classics while others do not, why some “immortal” works fade from our attention completely, and even why some contemporary works now being ignored or snubbed by critics may be considered immortal one day.
One memorable work at a time, you'll see how each of these masterpieces shares the uncompromising uniqueness that invariably marks the entire American literary canon.
From Sleepy Hollow to The Great Gatsby, Professor Weinstein, the Edna and Richard Salomon Distinguished Professor at Brown University, contends that the literary canon lives, grows, and changes. What links these writers to each other - and to us readers today - is the awareness that the past lives and changes as generations of writers and readers step forward to interpret it anew.
The course was born from Professor Weinstein's conviction that American literature is our “great estate,” and that claiming this rightful inheritance - the living past and the lessons we can take from it - should be nothing less than an unforgettable and joyous learning experience.
