Filter By Subjects
American literature History 19th century American literature History 20th century American literature History 21st century British literature History 19th century British literature History and criticism English literature Middle English, 1100-1500 Irish literature History 19th century Irish literature History and criticism Literature History and criticism Literature, MedievalFilter By Series
6 poets, searching for rhyme and reason Alice Walker Ancient civilizations (New York, N.Y.) Canterbury Tales (New York, N.Y.) Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library English collection Heart of darkness (New York, N.Y.) Langston Hughes Ultimate media librarian collectionFilter By Subjects
American literature History 19th century American literature History 20th century American literature History 21st century British literature History 19th century British literature History and criticism English literature Middle English, 1100-1500 Irish literature History 19th century Irish literature History and criticism Literature History and criticism Literature, MedievalFilter By Series
6 poets, searching for rhyme and reason Alice Walker Ancient civilizations (New York, N.Y.) Canterbury Tales (New York, N.Y.) Core curriculum video libraries (Cambridge educational (Firm)) Core curriculum video library English collection Heart of darkness (New York, N.Y.) Langston Hughes Ultimate media librarian collectionSummary: Sophocles often won the leading prize at the Dionysia, the principal dramatic festival of Athens; but Oedipus the King was a runner-up, winner of the second prize. Posterity, however, considers the play second to none. The play tells the beginning of the Oedipus saga, setting the stage and creating the characters who will continue the story to its conclusion in Antigone. With Michael...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: From the creation legend of Panku to the demise of the Han Dynasty, this program traces Chinese history and explores the roots of Chinese culture today. Visit the Great Wall of China as scholars discuss why it remains even today a symbol of oppression, exemplified in the legend of the weeping woman; the Imperial Palace and how it exemplifies Chinese beliefs in harmony; and the Beijing Opera,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Like Malory's Le Morte Darthur, the anonymously authored Sir Gawain and the Green Knight represents a watershed in the development of the Arthurian tradition. Drawing on insights from Nicholas Perkins, a specialist on medieval English literature and manuscripts at the University of Cambridge; Arthurian expert Kevin J. Harty, of La Salle University; and Helen Cooper, authority on medieval...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In this program, the major themes of Shakespeare's most popular tragedy are investigated by noted experts. Analyzing key scenes from an award-winning film production, Professor Robert Smallwood of the Shakespeare Centre and Professor Stanley Wells of the Shakespeare Institute examine how the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changes during the course of the play; how Banquo's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Written in the 14th century, The Canterbury Tales has stood the test of time as a landmark in the development of English literature. This innovative "frame story" owes its classic standing and impact to the diversity both of the narrators and of the styles of tales they tell. In this program, expert commentators Dr. Christiania Whitehead and Dr. Peter Mack, both of the University of Warwick,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, a portrait of friendship and loneliness, is a tribute to the half million who headed to California in search of work and the American dream. In this program, Dr. Susan Shillinglaw of the Center for Steinbeck Studies discusses labor exploitation in the Salinas valley during the Depression era to reinforce an appreciation of the precarious lifestyle faced by...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: In Monroeville, Alabama, Harper Lee's model for Maycomb, To Kill a Mockingbird is celebrated as a tribute to Southern life. This hard-edged program juxtaposes white and black experiences in the racially segregated South of the 1930s-1960s to deepen the understanding of the novel's portrayal of racial tension and tolerated judicial bias. Interviews, archival footage, and photographs combine to...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Maggie sees the old family quilt-an heirloom already promised to her-as something with practical utility as well as tradition. Her educated, social activist sister wants to hang it on the wall as folk art. With whom will their mother side? A study in class differences and the reclamation of Black history, Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" is beautifully realized in this dramatization.
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: On a "bright, frozen day" in Mississippi, 95-year-old Phoenix Jackson makes her mythic journey into town for the medicine her grandson needs. Touching upon themes of family, love, aging, and poverty, this dramatization of Eudora Welty's classic story "A Worn Path" provides both a heroic image of the human spirit enduring against tremendous odds and a poignant commentary on the African-American...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: This program is a comprehensive portrait of John Steinbeck and the America he depicted, providing students with an appreciation of one of the 20th century's definitive literary voices. Incorporating historic events ranging in magnitude from the devastating Dust Bowl to poignant local histories, Steinbeck portrayed a nation ravaged by poverty and injustice, in which his characters, often drawn...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Joseph Conrad's compelling novella, marked by an ominous tone and a sense of unspeakable menace, is a literary introduction to the savage 20th century. In this program, noted Conrad scholars Bruce Harkness, Frederick Karl, Jerome Meckier, and Dwight Purdy examine the author's life within the context of his times: the pervasive influence of his Polish background, the impact of the sense of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: I was saved from sin when I was going on 13. But not really saved. It happened like this. So begins this powerful dramatization of "Salvation," Langston Hughes' eloquent autobiographical story that illustrates how his aunt's well-meaning efforts to bring him into the spiritual fold resulted in a moral crisis. Calmly waiting for Jesus to appear to him in the hot, crowded church, young Langston's...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Imagery and narrative style are examined in this critical analysis of Emily Bronte's classic novel of passion and death on the Yorkshire moors. Imagery in the novel springs directly from the wild landscape of Haworth-Bronte's birthplace. "The eternal rocks beneath" are compared to Catherine's love for Heathcliff; moths on the heather and flowering harebells reflect Catherine's peaceful resting...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: I have the strength to walk my own path, no matter how hard, in my search for reality, and not cling to the splendid wagon of desperate illusions. A writer of novels, short stories, folktales, plays, and essays, Zora Neale Hurston combined a hunger for research and a desire to penetrate the deepest of popular beliefs with a truly exquisite narrative talent. This illuminating biography of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: While many of her literary peers achieved notoriety, "the woman in white" remained virtually unknown-by choice. The self-imposed obscurity of Emily Dickinson is just one of many aspects of her life that this program explores. Blending daguerreotypes, paintings, manuscripts, excerpts from Dickinson's letters, and readings from nearly a dozen of her poems, this program presents the biography of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Touted as one of the first major feminist writers, Charlotte Perkins Gilman spent her life fighting to liberate women from the yoke of domesticity. This is a stunning BBC dramatization of Gilman's autobiographical account of a woman driven to madness by the repressive mores of Victorian culture. Stephen Dillon as the husband, John, and Julia Watson as the despondent heroine give stellar...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: Was there evil lurking in the gloomy New England woods the night that young Goodman Brown went on his secret errand? Or did he bring the evil with him, locked within his own heart? This program features an outstanding adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic tale-shot on location in historic Salem-that deftly captures the story's mystery and menace. In addition, a discussion of the life of...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: A self-styled sketch runs, "Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos." He could have added journalist, carpenter, nurse, and one of the greatest poets in English. This program presents a unique literary biography, tracing Whitman's childhood, various careers, and the evolution of the masterpiece that proved his lifelong work, Leaves of Grass. A collage of photos, paintings, and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005