Curated OER
What Makes a Hero?
Viewers will love this engaging video, which is an adventure of its own! The narrator begins by relating the hero's journey to modern books, and then introduces Joseph Campbell and his thoughts about the process. As the narrator details...
PBS
Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises: “Talking” with Authors and Scholars
Film clips from the documentary Hemingway Ken Burns and Lynn Novick provide readers of The Sun Also Rises with the opportunity to hear what other writers and critics have to say about Hemingway's portrayal of the post-World War I Lost...
PBS
Comparing Hemingway to Young Adult Literature
Challenge groups to create a recommended reading list of contemporary young adult fiction that explores the same themes found in Ernest Hemingway's short stories and novels. After examining a list Hemingway created and a list put...
PBS
Hemingway’s Influences and Contemporaries
Three clips from the documentary Hemingway by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick explore the events and people who influenced Ernest Hemingway.
PBS
Chosen Family and Ghost
There's something powerful about a book that speaks your language and experiences or introduces you to the language and experiences of others. A National Book Award winner, Jason Reynolds' novel, Ghost, is such a book. Find out more...
PBS
Neil DeGrasse Tyson Explores Gulliver's Travels
Scientist Neil DeGrasse Tyson explains why Gulliver's Travels is his favorite novel. Tyson shares his joy in the sometimes otherworldly stories.
PBS
100 Years of Solitude, Part 2
Part 2 of the Crash Course Literature focused on One Hundred Years of Solitude looks at Gabriel Garcia Marquez's story as a reflection of Latin America's history of colonialism and exploitation by corporations.
PBS
100 Years of Solitude, Part 1
100 Years of Solitude is not for readers who prefer linear narratives. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's tale mixes the past, present, and future simultaneously. Marquez's masterpiece of Magical Realism models that individual perspectives...
PBS
Jane Eyre 2: Meeting Mr. Rochester
Adapting a much-beloved novel for the screen can be a tricky business. Each media has its own possibilities and limitations. The second PBS Jane Eyre resource in the Masterpiece series asks readers to evaluate how the filmmakers have...
PBS
Jane Eyre and First-Person Narrative
An episode from the PBS Great American Read series focuses on Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre and how the first-person narrative impacted two very modern women.
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One Hundred Years of Solitude | The Great American Read
One Hundred Years of Solitude introduces readers to magic realism. Told in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning novel is a candidate for The Great American Read program and aficionados...
PBS
Gulliver's Travels | The Great American Read
Neil deGrasse Tyson shares his rationale for why Gulliver's Travels was his favorite book as a child and still is as an adult. He urges viewers to vote to include Swift's satire in The Great American Read program.
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Frankenstein | The Great American Read
A top vote-getter for the Great American Read program is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Find out why the classic tale, adapted into over 50 films and numerous TV shows, has earned its spot on the favorites list.
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Allison Williams Explains Her Love for Frankenstein's Monster
Ah, but who is the real monster in Frankenstein? Actress Allison Williams shares her reasoning for why Mary Shelly's horror story should be included in The Great American Read series.
PBS
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Rather than windmills, Ignatius J. Reilly, the hero of John Kennedy Toole's Pulitzer Prize-winning A Confederacy of Dunces, battles against modernity. Find out why Professor Walter Isaacson thinks Toole's novel should get viewers' votes...
PBS
Bill T. Jones Discusses James Baldwin's Another Country
Bill T. Jones, Artistic Director of New York Line Arts describes why he picked James Baldwin's novel, Another Country as his favorite novel.
PBS
The Handmaid's Tale | The Great American Read
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale is the focus of a Great American Read video that urges viewers to read this dystopian novel about a villainous society that oppresses women and minority groups.
PBS
Margaret Atwood Explains the Dystopia of The Handmaid's Tale
Talk about a teaser! A short video from the PBS series, The Great American Read, offers just enough information about Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale to fascinate viewers and have them reaching for the book. The author asserts she...
PBS
Scarlett O'Hara's True Love in Gone with the Wind
Rather than waiting to think about it tomorrow, a video from the PBS Great American Read series asks viewers to think about Gone with the Wind today, to see the novel as the story of a strong woman, a woman with "gumption."
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A Black Writer in the South | American Masters: Alice Walker
Alice Walker discusses the influence the strong women in her family and her experiences growing up on a plantation in Eatonton, Georgia had on her writing. Part of the American Masters series, the short video includes images of her...
PBS
The Color Purple
A clip from the documentary Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth features Walker discussing her writing process and why she chose to write The Color Purple as an epistolary novel. The resource is part of PBS' American Masters...
PBS
Gabrielle Union Discusses The Color Purple
Gabrielle Union discusses the role Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Color Purple, plays in her life. She stresses the importance of readers being able to find reflections of themselves in literature.
PBS
George R.R. Martin Discusses Lord of the Rings
George R.R. Martin, famous in his own right for heroes, villains, dragons, and direwolves, offers his rationale for why viewers should vote for J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings with its elves, wizards, and hobbits as part of the Great...
PBS
Invisible Man: Battle Royal
A film reenactment of the "Battle Royal" scene in Chapter 1 of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man offers readers a chance to compare the film version of the scene to the novel's depiction. The discussion questions ask readers to consider the...