Discusses the film "American Beauty" in light of a reading of Karl Marx. Finds that the film shows the circularity which marks bourgeois society, even though the rhythm of industry and renovation of the society masks it. States that Marx praises the industry, invention, and innovation of the bourgeoisie. (BT)

Discusses and appraises the work of Nobel Prize winning black author Toni Morrison. Locates thematic and stylistic antecedents in the works of Fyodor Dostoevsky and Ernest Hemingway. Compares and contrasts Morrison's work with Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" and discusses the critical reception of black authors. (MJP)

Considers the correlation between the role of community in the life of Toni Morrison and her work. Morrison grew up in the close-knit, multiracial, steel mill town of Lorain, Ohio. Her work often evokes a strong sense of place coupled with a need for communal belonging. (MJP)

In 1969, American Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island dramatized Native demands for self-determination, tribal lands, and tribal identities. Meanwhile, a blossoming American Indian literary movement began awakening America to Indians' continued existence and providing texts of "lived experience" that created a new kind of Indian leadership and…

Presents a series of lessons that can be used to teach children about underlying literary patterns in folklore. The six lessons address the study of (1) nursery rhymes; (2) repetitive tales; (3) cumulative tales; (4) archetypes; and (5) the motif of the hero. Book titles that are representative of these categories are included. (six references)…

Describes an approach for team teaching a Native American literatures course that integrates diverse literary critical theories. Using the novel "Winter in the Blood" as an example, a sociocultural critical approach analyzes the "Indianness" of the text and an analysis using objective and formal criteria allows the novel to be…