120065 PS Literature: Introductory Seminar (304) (2009W)

The elusive concept of the American Dream was coined as late as 1931 by the American historian James Truslow Adams and has, from the country’s (European) beginnings onwards, served to create an image of America as a land of dreams. Yet the concept remains elusive and difficult to describe. However, several elements such as progress, success, liberty, equality, multiculturalism etc. can be seen as its constituents and these do much to generate images of America on e.g. a mythic, religious, or political level.
In this class we will investigate the development of the literature and texts of the American Dream, a notion of great promise, and examine the tensions between idealistic and materialistic aspirations amongst the writers and its protagonists, and who have created different variants of the catchphrase.
We will discuss texts in political rhetoric as well as texts by authors such as Benjamin Franklin, H. de Crèvecoeur, Thomas Jefferson, R.W. Emerson, W.Whitman, Mary Antin, Anzia Yezierska, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes etc.