Contends that Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches myths can help modern students shape their beliefs and actions. Shows how students, by first understanding the simple mythic structures of the Alger stories, can become better able to examine more sophisticated and contradictory visions of life. (DMM)

Considers the meaning of "American" and the eventual "dissolution of a specifically 'American' identity". This retrospect, which searches back into the seventeenth century, pauses particularly on Henry Adams and Walt Whitman, both of whom confronted the problems of unity and multiplicity suggested even in our nation's name.…

Discusses Robert Stone's "Dog Soldiers," a novel written out of the author's experiences in Vietnam in 1973, and its refusal to present an ultimate apocalyptic vision of history. Contrasts it with other modern works pervaded by apocalyptic anxiety. (DMM)

Sees the lack of a shared literary experience as a recurrent problem in college teaching. Considers Whitman's "Song of Myself" as a classic example of American national literature that can help students understand the merits of the nation's heritage, the importance of international cooperation, and basic principles of literary analysis.…

Argues that the three beliefs that govern the formation of characters in American fiction generally identify the greatest dangers to moral and spiritual health and how they can be avoided. Discusses the belief in the danger of a dissolution of relations with nature, the problem of conflicting values, and the failure of experiences to be…

Academic study generally highlights the work of consciousness, which operates in terms of a few variables, simple causal relations, and coherent stories. A course on "Big Books of American Literature" brought to the foreground the activities of the more generally neglected unconscious: an extraordinarily rich repertoire of behavior that operates…

Examines the indebtedness of the early American theater to French and German plays, discusses the social context to show why the German plays were more successful, and considers the relationships between the plays and the interests of their American audiences. (Editor)