ENGL 257 - Business in American Literature and Film

FDR: HL Literature Distribution
Credits: 3

Prerequisite: completion of FDR:FW requirement. In his 1776 book The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith tells a powerful story of the free market as a way to organize our political and economic lives, a story that has governed much of the world ever since. This course studies that story, considers alternate stories of human economic organization, such as those of American Indian tribes, and sees how these stories have been acted out in American business and society, including for some African-American writers. We study novels, films, short stories, non-fiction essays, poems, advertisements, websites, some big corporations, and some local businesses. Our goal is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of American business so we can make the best choices about how to live and work in a free market society.