Crash Course Literature - Season 4
Season 4
In 12 episodes, John Green is back to talk about books. That’s right, more Crash Course Literature! The analyses and books chosen in this course are based on introductory college-level curriculum and the AP Literature guidelines. By the end of this course, you will be able to:
*Use characters and setting to explore a range of values, beliefs, assumptions, biases, and cultural norms
*Discuss the role of the narrator and how their perspective affects how readers experience and interpret a text
*Recognize comparisons, representations, and associations that invite readers to interpret a text
*Explain the function of significant events in a plot, as well as the contributions of structure, sequence, contrast, and conflict
*Employ different lenses and focal points to read a text multiple ways and recognize the glorious ambiguity of literature
*Question the notion of genre and place, in particular dystopias, and their impact on free will and politics
Network
DatesNov 7, 2017 - Feb 13, 2018
Episodes
Season 4Episode 115 min
1984 by George Orwell Part 1
In which John Green returns for a dystopian new season of Crash Course Literature! We're starting with George Orwell's classic look at the totalitarian state that could be in post-war England. Winston Smith is under the eye of Big Brother, and making us think about surveillance, the role of government, and how language can play a huge part in repressive regimes.
Nov 7, 2017
Season 4Episode 215 min
George Orwell's 1984 Part 2
In which John Green continues discussing George Orwell's 1984. Today we're talking about what the novel 1984 has to say about what some have called today's surveillance society. We'll also look at the idea that language can be used as a means to control people's thoughts. Can something like Newspeak prevent a person from having certain thoughts? I wish I had the words to express how I feel about that. Luckily, John does have the words.
Nov 21, 2017
Season 4Episode 315 min
The Handmaids Tale Part 1
In which John Green teaches you about Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction novel, The Handmaid's Tale. John looks at some of the themes in this classic dystopian novel, many of which are kind of a downer. The world of Gilead that Atwood created looks at a lot of the issues that we deal with today, and the very human impulse to return to an imagined golden era, thereby solving all of our modern world's problems. Yeah, it doesn't work like that.
Nov 28, 2017
Season 4Episode 415 min
Handmaids Tale Part 2
This week, John Green continues to teach you about Margaret Atwood's speculative fiction, The Handmaid's Tale. In this installment, we're looking at Atwood's desire to tell a story from a female point of view, and what exactly it means to tell a story in that way, and if in fact there is an inherently male or female way to tell a story. We'll also look at why Atwood presents the story's final chapter from the perspective of a male scholar.
Dec 5, 2017
Season 4Episode 515 min
Candide
John Green teaches you about Voltaire's hugely important Enlightenment novel, Candide. Candide tells a pretty wild story, but for the most part, it's about the best of all possible worlds. Which, spoiler alert, doesn't seem to be the best of all possible worlds. Voltaire's novel is a pretty frank look at Enlightenment philosophy that finds a lot of the thinking of the time wanting. It's also got lots of sex, death, and travel!
Dec 13, 2017
Season 4Episode 615 min
The Parable of the Sower
This week, John is teaching you about the near-future dystopia in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. Parable of the Sower tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina, and her life growing up in a post-climate change, semi-lawless America. It's not great. The book reads as a dystopia, as a bildungsroman, and as a sacred text. Lauren grows up in a terrible future, and a lot of the book is concerned with the religion she has created, Earthseed. There's lots to think about in this one, and John will talk you through it.
Dec 20, 2017
Season 4Episode 715 min
The Yellow Wallpaper
Today on Crash Course Literature, John Green teaches you about The Yellow Wallpaper, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper tells the story of a woman who is a prisoner in her own home, in the name of caring for her mental health. The narrator stares all day the yellow wallpaper
Jan 10, 2018
Season 4Episode 815 min
To the Lighthouse
John Green teaches you about Virginia Woolf's modernist novel, To the Lighthouse. Let's face it. You're not reading To the Lighthouse for the plot. There's not a whole lot of plot, unless you count the tension about the beef stew. You're reading it because it's a pioneering literary work that explores point of view, narrative flow, and the nature of art, among other things. You're going to love it. I mean, part of the story is told from the perspective of a house.
Jan 16, 2018
Season 4Episode 915 min
Free Will, Witches, Murder, and Macbeth Part 1
The Sound! The Fury! Today, we're talking about Shakespeare's Scottish play, Macbeth. So, was Macbeth really predestined to do all the murdering and bad kinging and other terrible stuff? That's the big question in Macbeth, and it's one of the ideas we're going to talk about today, among many. Also, Yoda joins us for the open letter.
Jan 23, 2018
Season 4Episode 1015 min
Gender, Guilt, and Fate: Macbeth Part 2
This week on Crash Course Literature, John Green is continuing to talk about Shakespeare's dark, bloody, Scottish play, Macbeth. This time around, we're looking at the play's characters operate, how the play deals with gender, and the Macbeth as an early anti-hero. He's no Walter White, but you can definitely love to hate him. Or hate to love him. Or both!
Jan 30, 2018
Season 4Episode 1115 min
Pride and Prejudice Part 1
In which a series about literature, which is wanting of an episode on Jane Austen, gets the first of two episodes. It's Pride and Prejudice, everybody! John Green talks about Pride and Prejudice as a product of Regency England, gives you a short biographical look at author Jane Austen, and familiarizes you with the web of human connections this book spins.
Feb 6, 2018
Season 4Episode 1215 min
Liberals, Conservatives, and Pride and Prejudice Part 2
This is it! The final episode of CC Literature season 4 is a deeper look at Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Today we'll explore the novel's take on materialism, and we'll talk about whether the novel has a liberal or conservative message. Which matters because people have interpreted the book in various ways. Oh, and we'll explore the balance between making choices based on personal happiness or what's best for one's family. And oh yeah, we'll talk more about terrible Lydia and her disgusting bonnet.
Feb 13, 2018
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