Category Archives: American lit

Ten influential books

The “10 influential books” meme is going around Facebook right now, so here are mine.  They’re not all on the list for the same reason(s), and after Lord of the Rings, in no particular order.  It is definitely the single most … Continue reading

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Not a history teacher…

During a discussion with a colleague yesterday, I was asked what my goal was for a new elective that she and I will be proposing this fall for next year.  I said, “to get students to see that race is … Continue reading

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Notes from a talk on social justice

Rawls: Justice as Fairness Human justice is inherently a social construct. Individual justice is basically just vengeance Concepts of social justice Plato: the Republic and philosopher-kings Hobbes: benevolent monarchy Locke: social contract Kant and the categorical imperative—eliminate need for social … Continue reading

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“… a tall blond man”

The third paragraph of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man starts with the following lines: One night, I accidentally bumped into a man, and perhaps because of the near darkness he saw me and called me an insulting name.  I sprang at … Continue reading

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Assume a cow is a sphere…

In my previous post on Emerson, I noted that  I am reading Cornel West’s The American Evasion of Philosophy and while he self-admittedly has a political position to make with his book, his opening section shows a much more complete portrait … Continue reading

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Emerson

I am reading Cornel West’s The American Evasion of Philosophy and while he self-admittedly has a political position to make with his book, his opening section shows a much more complete portrait of Emerson’s thought than either the Self-Reliance or American Scholar essay … Continue reading

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Einstein and Education — Interlude

While preparing for teaching US Lit next year, I came across an essay by Einstein (actually a talk, I think) from 1936.  It was superb–I think this, of course, because it expresses many thoughts I have independently come to embrace … Continue reading

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What is an American (part 2)

There are two continents and a land bridge between them that are generally considered “the Americas,” so it understandably annoys a significant portion of the Western Hemisphere when the people of the USA consider and refer to themselves as “Americans.” … Continue reading

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What is an American?

The bottom-line reason for studying American literature in 11th grade at St. John’s is that there is currently no other choice.  So, perhaps the better question to ask then is why there should be no choice.  But that is, as … Continue reading

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American Literature: 4 Questions

I am probably going to be teaching a section of American Literature next year, which has caused me to ponder what I should teach and why. For years, various people have urged that an American Studies course, wherein American history … Continue reading

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