Politicians love to talk about “restoring the American Dream.” “The candidate who celebrates the American Dream wins the heart,” blared a headline in Summer 2015. In a speech delivered in 2007, Barack Obama declared, “we need to reclaim the American Dream.” In 2015, Donald Trump announced, “The American Dream is dead.” Of course, obituaries for the American Dream have been offered since its inception and may even be part of the DNA of the dream itself.
What exactly is the American Dream? How has it been constructed historically and articulated narratively? And how do our assumptions about American identity shape the challenges we face today on such broad issues as democracy, freedom, equality and social justice? These are some of the questions we will examine this semester.
Doing so will require that you read—books, essays, editorials. We will focus on reading, viewing and writing critically as we plunge deeply into the assigned texts. Selected texts include works by Jhumpa Lahiri, August Wilson, Richard Rodriguez and others. Requirements are two 5-7 page critical essays, a 10-15 page final paper, and active participation in discussion.