Course Details

This course looks at why Americans are the most mobile people on the face of the earth and what this may say about our national character. From Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn (much of which takes place on a raft on the Mississippi) to Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, while looking at such movies as Stagecoach and Easy Rider, and while listening to the music of such artists as Bruce Springsteen (for example “Born to Run” and “Thunder Road”) we see that in our literature, movies, and music (and the other arts as well) Americans are peculiarly obsessed with movement. In this course we will hit the road together.