FRIDAY, SEPT. 27, 2019, 9 A.M.-NOON

The Problem of the American “Self” in U.S. literature, culture, and history

In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will explore contradictory evolutions of the self in American culture and history and how the evolution of a dominant conception of the self in possessive individualist terms and as a commodity has disarmed social transformation.  We’ll take a journey through history, beginning with the foundation of the American Republic where we see two competing concepts of the self: one growing out of Enlightenment/Lockean theories of possessive individualism , and one growing out of the new post-revolutionary governing principle of “virtue,” which enjoined that citizens put the public good before private interests and rested on the assertion that “every man in a republic is public property.” We’ll think about how these dual and opposing conceptions inform works like Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and how they evolved through the 19th century, looking at how Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, valorizing earlier conceptions of virtue, and Henry David Thoreau’s thinking, exemplary of romantic individualist thought continue to play out this debate until we enter the era of realism and naturalism. We will look at how these conceptions of the self are at work in the Black Lives Matter Movement, in slave narratives, and in contemporary Supreme Court arguments around the Affordable Care Act and in the court’s recent Janus decision.

Tim Libretti, English Department

For more information, please contact Acting Chair Tim Scherman at [email protected] or our Office Administrator Hilary Jirka at [email protected].

Tim Scherman
English Department Chair

INDIVIDUAL TUITION

$110 per seminar

GROUP TUITION

For departments, schools, or districts: If you would like to register for a total of five or more seats for various seminars, you will still receive the discounted price. $500 for five seats; $900 for 10 seats; $1,500 for 20 seats.

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The seminar takes place on Friday mornings on Northeastern Illinois University’s Main Campus on the 3rd floor of the Ronald Williams Library unless otherwise noted. Northeastern Illinois University is located on Chicago’s Northwest Side.