The economy is in the toilet, and the American Dream is dying, or so say television commentators. What is the American Dream anyway-when and where did it begin, and how has it changed? Most people, including the aforementioned commentators, have only a vague notion of this dream's inception and transformation.

 

In American literature, we learn all about it. We study everything from the Pilgrims to Post-modernists, from Edward Taylor to Anne Tyler-and then some. As with British literature, the early survey courses focus on texts, usually shorter works or excerpts from longer ones, found in the Norton Anthology, tracing American literature chronologically.

 

In addition to the surveys, we have just added Contemporary American Literature in which we read works published after 1970, most of which have won at least a Pulitzer Prize, and are actually "fun" to read. We offer an African-American literature course in which we dive more deeply into some of the authors studied in the surveys, as well as authors not previously encountered. Also on the drawing board is a course strictly concerned with American women authors, starting with the early Puritans and ending with contemporary authors and themes. One of the best ways to discover what being an American really means is to read the American literature.

Dr. Carrie White is Regent's American literature professor. The author of Reading Roddy Doyle, (Syracuse UP, 2003) and Running Naked through the Streets (Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), as well as numerous magazine and newspaper articles, Dr. White's most memorable American literature teaching experience was when she was a Fulbright scholar teaching American literature at a university in central Slovakia. "One of the other professors advised me to have the students read sections of the texts aloud. It was an amazing experience to hear Jim's dialogue in Huck Finn read with a heavy Slovak accent. I'll never forget it!"

 

See you in class!