Non-musical recording (nsr); CD audio (cda) Originally released on audio cassettes in 1997. Lectures presented by Professor Arnold L. Weinstein, Brown University.
Contents:
Great courses -- Classics of American Literature [sound recording] -- (Part 1 of 7) -- Twelve lectures on six discs per container ; 7 containers -- Literature and English Language -- Part one of seven parts. Contains the lectures 1-12 of 84 lectures on major authors representing the classics of American literature. part 1: Lecture 1: Introduction -- Lecture 2: Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: the first American story -- Lecture 3: Washington Irving: the first American storyteller -- Lecture 4: Ralph Waldo Emerson's yesterday: America's coming of age -- Lecture 5: Emerson today: architect of American values -- Lecture 6: Emerson tomorrow: deconstructing culture and self -- Lecture 7: Henry David Thoreau: countercultural hero -- Lecture 8: Thoreau: stylist and humorist extraordinaire -- Lecture 9: Walden: yesterday, today, tomorrow -- Lecture 10: Edgar Allan Poe: Poete Maudit -- Lecture 11: Edgar Allan Poe: ghost writer -- Lecture 12: Poe's legacy: the self as "Haunted Palace." (Part 1 of 7) part 2: Lecture 13: Nathaniel Hawthorne and the American past -- Lecture 14: The Scarlet letter: Puritan romance -- Lecture 15: Hawthorne's "A": interpretation and semiosis -- Lecture 16: The Scarlet letter: political tract or psychological study? -- Lecture 17: Hawthorne our contemporary -- Lecture 18: Herman Melville and the making of Moby-Dick -- Lecture 19: The biggest fish story of them all -- Lecture 20: Ahab and the white whale -- Lecture 21: Moby-Dick: tragedy of perspective -- Lecture 22: Melville's "Benito Cereno": American (mis)adventure at sea -- Lecture 23: "Benito Cereno": theater of power, or power of theater? -- Lecture 24: Walt Whitman: the American bard appears. (Part 2 of 7) part 3: Lecture 25: Whitman: poet of the body -- Lecture 26: Whitman: poet of the city -- Lecture 27: Whitman: poet of death -- Lecture 28: The Whitman legacy -- Lecture 29: Uncle Tom's cabin: the unread classic -- Lecture 30: Stowe's representation of slavery -- Lecture 31: Freedom and art in Uncle Tom's cabin -- Lecture 32: Emily Dickinson: in and out of nature -- Lecture 33: Dickinson's poetry: language and consciousness -- Lecture 34: Dickinson: devotee of death -- Lecture 35: Dickinson: "Amherst's Madame de Sade" -- Lecture 36: Dickinson's legacy. (Part 3 of 7) part 4: Lecture 37: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: American paradise regained -- Lecture 38: Huckleberry Finn: the banned classic -- Lecture 39: Huckleberry Finn: a child's voice, a child's vision -- Lecture 40: Huckleberry Finn, American orphan -- Lecture 41: Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson: black and white charade -- Lecture 42: Henry James and the novel of perception -- Lecture 43: The Turn of the screw: do you believe in ghosts? -- Lecture 44: Turning the screw of interpretation -- Lecture 45: Stephen Crane and the literature of war -- Lecture 46: The Red badge of courage: brave new world -- Lecture 47: Stephen Crane: scientist of human behavior -- Lecture 48: Charlotte Perkins Gilman: war against patriarchy. (Part 4 of 7) part 5: Lecture 49: "The Yellow Wallpaper": descent into hell or free at last? -- Lecture 50: Robert Frost and the spirit of New England -- Lecture 51: Robert Frost: "At home in the metaphor" -- Lecture 52: Robert Frost and the fruits of the earth -- Lecture 53: T.S. Eliot: unloved modern classic -- Lecture 54: T.S. Eliot: "The Waste Land" and beyond -- Lecture 55: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: American romance -- Lecture 56: The Great Gatsby: a story of lost illusions? -- Lecture 57: Fitzgerald's triumph: writing the American dream -- Lecture 58: Ernest Hemingway's The Sun also rises: novel of the lost generation -- Lecture 59: The Sun also rises: spiritual quest -- Lecture 60: Ernest Hemingway: wordsmith. (Part 5 of 7) part 6: Lecture 61: Hemingway's The Garden of Eden: female desire unleashed -- Lecture 62: The Garden of Eden: combat zone -- Lecture 63: William Faulkner's The Sound and the fury: the idiot's tale -- Lecture 64: The Sound and the fury: failed rites of passage -- Lecture 65: The Sound and the fury: signifying nothing? -- Lecture 66: Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!: Civil War epic -- Lecture 67: Absalom, Absalom!: the languages of love -- Lecture 68: Absalom, Absalom!: the overpass to love -- Lecture 69: The Grapes of wrath: American saga -- Lecture 70: John Steinbeck: poet of the little man -- Lecture 71: The Grapes of wrath: reconceiving self and family -- Lecture 72: Invisible man: black bildungsroman. (Part 6 of 7) part 7: Lecture 73: Invisible man: reconceiving history and race -- Lecture 74: Invisible man: "What did I do to be so black and blue?" -- Lecture 75: Eugene O'Neill: great god of American theater -- Lecture 76: Long day's journey into night: there's no place like home -- Lecture 77: Tennesse Williams: managing libido -- Lecture 78: A Street named Desire: the death of romance -- Lecture 79: Death of salesman: death of an ethos? -- Lecture 80: Death of salesman: tragedy of the American dream -- Lecture 81: Toni Morrison's Beloved: dismembering and remembering -- Lecture 82: Beloved: a story of "thick love" -- Lecture 83: Beloved: Morrison's writing of the body -- Lecture 84: Conclusion. (Part 7 of 7)
Summary:
Professor Weinstein presents eighty-four lectures on the great classics of American literature, showing how such authors as Irving, Poe, Thoreau, Hemingway, and Faulkner bring the past to life, changing as each generation steps forward to interpret it anew. Twelve lectures trace the classics of American literature between the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. The course links great American writers and the qualities that mark their works as masterpieces of American literature. Discover how their awareness of the past is kept alive through their works but also changes as each generation discovers and interprets these works anew. The course links great American writers and the qualities that mark their works as masterpieces of American literature. Discover how their awareness of the past is kept alive through their works but also changes as each generation discovers and interprets these works anew.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.