(Part 1 of A Nation of Mourners Series)
“Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Tragedy speaks twice from one mouth, bewailing our frailty in light of our splendor. American literature has memorized both refrains. Our earliest writers embarked on a project of taming the wilderness with law, regarding our Western heritage, both Classical and Christian, as a civilizing restraint on man’s wild nature. In Part One of this course, we will see how the practical sobriety of our first American masters informs their celebration of human society.
This is the first of three seminars in a series (548, 549, 550). They are ideally taken together, but each may be taken independently if so desired.
King Lear, Shakespeare
The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans, Cooper
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
Billy Budd, Melville
- Teacher: Kyle Janke