General Introduction
– Keeping the seat warm
– Danny gets it right!
– Listener feedback
– Christian Humanist University

Personal Definitions
– Exemplifying American-ness
– The changing representation of Huckleberry Finn
– Shakespeare as American author
– Subverting the American spirit
– Great Novels from other countries

The Nationalist Epic
– Ex post facto epics
– Curated epics
– Actions in microcosm
– The novel and the market
– Don Quixote
– The Great American Movie and patronage

English Departments and the Great American Novel
– Our insecurity complex
– The origin of the term
– Imperial anxiety
– Nationalism and regionalism
– The English department as an institution
– The New Critics
– Literature and high society

The Canon Wars
– Opening the canon
– Syllabus battles
– Broadening the canon
– Multiple canons
– The Great American Anthology
– Does the war continue?
– On coverage
– Why we’re in bad faith

Our Candidates
– In the Beauty of the Lilies
– The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
– American Pastoral

Our music this week is Larry Norman’s “The Great American Novel,” from his album Only Visiting This Planet.