AmLit Readers: American Literature, Culture, and History Podcast

Texts and authors mentioned in passing: Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Yellowstone (tv show), Smoke Signals, The Last Duel (film), Unbearable Lightness of Being, Sophocles, Socrates, Homer, western genre, tragedy

Discussion of using popular culture to understand the dynamics of democracy, civic engagement, and neoliberalism in contemporary culture. Texts mentioned include the television episode "Day Break" from Yellowstone, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Kevin Costner movies.

Overview of the influence of the Book of Job on American literary culture. Texts and authors mentioned in passing include King James Bible, Robert Alter's translation of Job, Harold Bloom, Carl Jung, Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Edward P. Jones's The Known World, poet Emily Dickinson, Pulp Fiction, Hamlet, Casablanca

Discussion of Robert Frost, his poems, and place within literary modernism Check out YouTube video here: LINK   Get in touch @profomalley

Discussion of Moby-Dick Chapters 90-end. Check out YouTube video here: LINK   Get in touch @profomalley

Overview of Moby-Dick Chapters 90-end. Comparing Ishmael and Ahab with a look at Chapter 47, The Mat-Maker, the figure of Pip as inspired by King Lear’s Fool and Ahab as a tragic figure   Check out YouTube video here: LINK   Get in touch @profomalley

Overview of Chapters 46-90 with an emphasis on Chapter 54, The Town-Ho Story, that often stalls readers progression through Melville's Moby-Dick with a quick preview of the shortest Chapter 122, Midnight Aloft -- Thunder and Lightning --- Check out youtube video here: LINK Get in touch @profomalley

Get started reading Moby-Dick chapters Chapter 1-45 with an emphasis on Chapter 36 The Quarter-Deck. Check out the youtube video of the lecture: LINK Get in touch @profomalley  

Get started reading Moby-Dick chapters 1-45. Check out the youtube video of the lecture: LINK Get in touch @profomalley

Introduction to the first pages and chapters of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick. Check out the youtube video of the lecture: LINK Get in touch @profomalley

For Monday, June 1

For Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Reading The Scarlet Letter, Chapters 1-5

Listen to a message from Phi Eta Sigma faculty adviser to graduating college seniors with tips on how to mark this special occasion during a time of social distancing.  Congratulations Class of 2020!  Mentioned in passing: Malcolm Goldsmith's "What Got You Here Won't Get You There"; Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena" (speech); Olaudah Equiano's Autobiography; Henry David Thoreau's "Walden"; "Wicked" (musical). You can also watch the episode on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPv1stC4sSA&feature=youtu.be 

Introduce yourself to Gore Vidal’s Burr (1973) with a book-club discussion of its first line. An “it” book from 1973 Texts/authors mentioned in passing: Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon, Hamilton (musical), Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton (biography), Leonora Sansay’s The Secret History: The Horrors of Santo Domingo, Michael Drexler and Ed White’s The Traumatic Colonel: The Founding Fathers, Slavery, and the Phantasmatic Aaron Burr, Best Enemies (documentary), Cross Fire (tv show), Nixon (film), Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Washington Irving, The Onion (satire), Saturday Night Live, Shakespeare in Love (film), Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Charles Brockden Brown’s Arthur Merwyn, Gore Vidal’s Lincoln Tina Jordan article in NYTimes here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/05/books/beach-reads-summer.html You can also watch this episode on  https://youtu.be/PMND6DtPoeQ Get in touch @profomalley To join the First-Line Book Club click here: https://bookclubz.com/clubs/6404/join/71bf3c/

Introduce yourself to Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House (2019) with a book-club discussion of its first line. Texts/authors mentioned in passing: Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto and Truth and Beauty, Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face, Elizabeth McCracken (author), Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things, Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, Bethany Frankel, A Place of Yes, James Joyce’s Dubliners, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Olive Ann Burns’s Cold Sassy Tree, Noah Saterstorm (artist), Parnassus Books (bookstore) You can also watch this episode on  https://youtu.be/am2Szuy1_Tc Get in touch @profomalley To join the First-Line Book Club click here: https://bookclubz.com/clubs/6404/join/71bf3c/

Introduce yourself to Tara Westover’s Education (2018) with a book-club discussion of its first line. Texts/authors mentioned in passing: Virginia Woolf, John Dewey, Toni Morrison’s Sula, Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle (vol. 3), Milan Kundera’s Art of the Novel, Unbearable Lightness of Being, Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face, Elizabeth Gilbert’s City of Girls You can also watch this episode on  https://youtu.be/HYqB-lt_gA0 Get in touch @profomalley

Introduce yourself to Madeline Miller’s Circe (2018) with a book-club discussion of its first line. Texts/authors mentioned in passing: Miller’s Song of Achilles, Illiad, Odyssey, Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad, Rick Riordan, David Vann’s Bright Air Black, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Margaret Atwood’s “Circe/Mud Poems” in You Are Happy (poetry), Margaret Atwood’s poem “Spelling” (poetry), Anne Carson, “Autobiography of Red” (poetry), Gregory Maguire's Wicked, Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield, James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s Epistemology of the Closet (literary history), Nicholas Paige’s Before Fiction (literary history) You can also watch this episode on  https://youtu.be/KXBe_313aTk Get in touch @profomalley

Introduce yourself to “It” books of 1970 with a book-club discussion of first pages of Michael Crichton’s Andromeda Strain, Erich Segal's Love Story, and Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude Texts/Authors also mentioned in passing: Jurassic Park (book and movie), Congo (book and movie), ER (television series), Love Story (movie), Over Her Dead Body (literary theory), Clarissa, Lolita, The Scarlet Letter, As I Lay Dying, Edgar Allen Poe’s “Philosophy of Composition” (essay), Hillary Clinton’s What Happened (memoir), Stephanie Coontz, from NYTimes, “For Women, Redefining Marriage,” Maya Angelou, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Thomas Hardy’s fiction Wessex County, William Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Li-Young Lee poems, Slowness, Lady Oracle, Abraham and Isaac story in Genesis, Tina Jordan article in NYTimes: LINK You can also watch this episode on YouTube Get in touch @profomalley

   Introduce yourself to Elizabeth Gilbert's novel "City of Girls" (2016) with a book-club discussion of its first line and opening pages. Texts also mentioned in passing -- Eat Pray Love, Educated (non-fiction), Committed (non-fiction), Signature of All Things, The Nightingale, All the Light You Cannot See, Stage Door (movie), Marked Woman (movie), Guys & Dolls (musical, movie), The Ring and the Book (poem), Aurora Leigh (poem), Bridges of Madison County, Madame Bovary, Don Quixote, and Jude the Obscure, "Any Fool Can Get into an Ocean" (poem). You can also watch this episode on YouTube Get in touch @profomalley

  14.2 Appendix to Career Episodes (or watch YouTube video here) College Bucket List (things to do before you graduate) ____ Buy a stapler ____ Find your trusted news site ____ Identify role models (from history, business world, or family) ____ Get a passport ____ Bike or walk the Kearney trail from Cottonmill to Ft. Kearny ____ Attend a free play put on by the Theatre dept (bonus points for trying out for a play) ____ Go to MONA at least once every semester ____ Identify your craft (writing, photography, music, arts and craft, drawing, etc.) ____ Attend a reading by an author or poet ____ Find your favorite outdoor spot on campus ____ Identify your coffee habit (if not at all) ____ Find your perfect writing instrument ____ See a music performance at the Fine Arts Building ____ Recreate on the quad in spring ____ Go to a campus speaker sponsored by a different college from your major (bonus points for raising your hand during the Q&A) ____ See a foreign language film at the World Theater ____ Identify the country you most want to visit (bonus points for checking out study abroad possibilities even if you think don’t have the time or money) ____Volunteer in the community or in a campus imitative ____ Figure out your health regime (what to eat/ how and when to exercise) ____ Take on a leadership role in campus organization ____ Study or write a paper in a café (like Baritas or Calico Coffee) ____ Check out a library book you want to read for fun ____ Write a dream resume that you’d like to have by the end of your senior year ____ Make a list of 12 people you would call if you were desperate for a job; then see if you can increase the number to 40 (it’s easier to make this list when you’re not so desperate) ____ Follow up with professors/staff who put themselves forward as a mentor ____ Write and send a “letter to the editor” to the campus newspaper ____ Find a group of friends to go see the Sandhill Cranes in the spring ____ Learn to cook one infallible dish (for various potlucks that come up) ____ Identify your study spots (where will you go when you really need to study) ____ Take a Myers-Brigg personality test ____ Buy a writing handbook and an business etiquette book ____ Buy interview clothes (don’t forget shoes!) ____ Study a foreign language even if it’s not required ____ Try a new sport ____ Start a business ____Aim to visit each of your professor’s office hours at least once every semester ____Befriend an international student (bonus points if you make plans to visit them one day) or befriend an American student ____Take a poetry writing, creative writing, or screenwriting class ____Vote in an election ____Learn about investing and 401k plans for after college ____Witness a celestial event

14.1 Appendix to Career Episodes My picks for best career advice books (or that were recommended to me) Further Reading “Are You My Mentor” chapter from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi Brag: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn by Peggy Klaus “You Attitude,” https://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical/resume/cover-tips.htm (Links to an external site.) * The Corner Office by Adam Bryant * You’ve Only Got Three Seconds by Camillle Lavington Corporate Confidential by Cynthia Shapiro [for the those w/o a mentor] Graduate Study for the 21st Century by Gregory Semenza The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau Rich Dad, Poor Day by Robert T. Kiyosaki Family Freedom by Paul and Becky Kortman [for those who want to travel the world] Going back to school for a Teaching Certificate: http://www.unk.edu/academics/ted/transitional_certification/index.php

Episode 2 of 2 on Careers for Humanities Majors Part II offers my take on the cultural imperative to find one's passion or to find one's life calling through work.  Watch the Youtube episode here: https://yhttps://youtu.be/R56DVKokb3U Further reading: The book cited in the episode is Scott Kelly’s memoir, Endurance: A Year in Space; a New York Times article on an experimental college can be found here https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/08/opinion/sunday/college-anti-college-mainstream-universities.html. Also mentioned in Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility.  My bucket list for college students can be found in Module 3Bc (and in an upcoming episode). 

  Episode 1 of 2 on Careers for Humanities Majors Part II offers advice on starting a job and adapting to a work culture Watch the Youtube episode: https://youtu.be/zrxF6mBQZbM  Further reading: For more information starting a job or career see Camile Lavington’s book You've Only Got 3 Seconds and Cynthia Shapiro's Corporate Confidential for the inside scoop from individuals who work in corporate HR and training

Episode 5 of 5 on Careers for Humanities Majors offers advice on interviewing and when the job search stalls.   Youtube episode: here Further reading: For more information interviewing see Adam Bryant’s book The Corner Office based on his New York Times column

Episode 4 of 5 on Careers for Humanities Majors offers advice on writing cover letters when applying for a job.   Youtube episode: here Further reading: For more information on the concept of "you attitude," see here 

Episode 3 of 5 on Careers for Humanities Majors talks about composing one's resume for his/her first entry into the job market after college. Youtube video: here Further reading: "Writing a Resume" a poem by the late Wisława Szymborska (a Nobel-Prizing winning poet translated from Polish)  

Episode 1 of 5 on Careers for Humanities Majors offers advice on how to read job ads. Youtube video of episode: Here Further Reading: “Are You My Mentor” from Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain Never Eat Alone by Ken Ferrazzi

Episode 1 of 5 on Careers for English offers an overview of job search resources I will be making available to students this fall.  Learn the how the definition of the word "careering" might keep you steady as you navigate your entry to the job market after college. Youtube video of episode: here Blog post referenced in episode: here

Ep. 5 of 5 on Henry James's novel "The Portrait of a Lady." What is your take on the ending of Portrait?  How does Isabel redefine our sense of the word "action"?  The essay by James mentioned is the Art of Fiction (not the art of the novel). You can find it here.  For more on Emily Dickinson, see episode 6. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 4 of 5 on Henry James's novel "The Portrait of a Lady." Think about how thought operates as action in James's novel.  The poem referenced in the episode by Emily Dickinson can be found here.  The name Dimmesdale refers to Hawthorne's _The Scarlet Letter_ (see episode 3) and the name Vere to Melville's _Billy Budd, Sailor_ (see episode 5).  For more information on James on cognition and action, see Jonathan Levin's Poetics of Transition, here. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 3 of 5 on Henry James's novel "The Portrait of a Lady." Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 2 of 5 on Henry James's novel "The Portrait of a Lady." Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 1 of 5 on Henry James's novel "The Portrait of a Lady." Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Episode 3 of 3 on Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Episode 2 of 3 on Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Episode 1 of 3 on Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address

Ep. 5 of 5 on The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Ep 4 of 5 on The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Ep. 3 of 5 on The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Ep 2 of 5 on The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Ep. 1 of 5 on Edward P. Jones’s The Known World

Ep. 5 of 5 on Walt Whitman’s poetry. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 4 of 5 on Walt Whitman’s poetry. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 3 of 5 on Walt Whitman’s poetry. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 2 of 5 on Walt Whitman’s poetry. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley

Ep. 1 of 5 on Walt Whitman’s poetry. Join us on Goodreads goo.gl/T7Waw1. Contact @profomalley