讲座题目：美国梦的起源

讲座人：Conrad Shumaker 教授

主持人：王卫强 教授

讲座时间：14:30--16:30

讲座日期：2018年6月4日（星期一）

地点：新校区立心楼403

主办单位：社科处、外国语学院

Title: The Origins of the American Dream

Lecturer: Prof. Conrad Shumaker

Host: Prof. Wang Weiqiang

Time: 14:30--16:30

Date: 2018-06-04

Venue: Room 403, Lixin Building, Gaoxin Campus

Hosted by: Dept.of Social Science and College of Foreign Languages

主讲人简介:

Conrad Shumaker教授于1982年在加州大学洛杉矶分校获得博士学位，专业为美国文学。曾任教于亚利桑拉大学和加州大学洛杉矶分校，目前为中阿肯色大学教授、英文系系主任，美国大学教授协会会员、美国印第安文学研究协会会员、西部文学协会会员。2008年在纽约Perter Lang出版社出版专著Southwestern American Indian Literature in the Classroom and Beyond。发表学术论文数十篇，创作诗歌10余首，并出版有个人诗集1本。

讲座摘要：

Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography and the Origins of the American Dream This talk will discuss the ways in which American Puritanism was transformed into the American Dream. We will look at the tension between the definition of America as a Christian “City on a hill” and the view of America as the “land of opportunity,” the place to acquire wealth. The genius of Benjamin Franklin was to develop a model of morality based on hard work and the accumulation of wealth to be used to serve others, thereby removing the tension between the two views. For Franklin, America was a model of morality precisely because it was the land of opportunity. We will also look at the emergence of a counter-culture that questions the validity of Franklin’s model and is embodied in such writers as Washington Irving and Henry David Thoreau.