John Updike's Separating is available from The New Yorker's online collection. Please use your RISD log-in information to access this short story.
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American Idealism in Politics & Art
Tom Roberts
troberts@risd.edu
Yes We Can
Many traditions over the past five centuries have helped shape an enigmatic, evolving concept of what it means to be American. European settlers and their early descendants struggled to put into words and then put into practice a society based on what they considered the noblest principles of their time. Gradually, traditions of non-European settlers were woven into the American fabric. This tapestry of principles remains a touchstone of American ideals. Some ideals have remained unattainable, some have become distorted, some have survived as recognized goals of modern American society.
This course will examine a number of these ideals – democracy, justice, equality, et al. – as embodied in the words of the politicians who shaped and applied them and in the works of the artists who drew on them to create works of enduring cultural value.
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