Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
American Dreams
Instructor(s): Barbara Black, English
America is a country long mythified as a place where dreams come true, a land that
boasts a signature fantasy called the American Dream. What, however, are the dreams
of 21st-century America? What do these fantasies reveal about our values, and what
role do these dreams play in the construction of our personal and collective identities?
This seminar will begin with mythic America to reconstruct the historic promise of
social mobility in America. But we will move swiftly to our current cultural moment
to investigate the nature of happiness and desire today. Why is the allure of cool
so hot? Why are we susceptible to nostalgia? Given our culture’s obsession with dream
houses and dream bodies, is the “makeover” story America’s favorite fairy tale? Other
topics up for discussion might include consumption, American-style—from food to dollars
to coal and energy; the Google guys and the Silicon Valley version of the American
dream that they embody; community-building on craigslist.org; and the promise of speed
and convenience in a digitized culture. This course will draw from art, film, music,
advertising, the web, fiction, and particularly the very best and provocative of contemporary
American journalism.
Course Offered