The Mighty Casey, Katie Casey, and Charlie Brown: American Identity in Baseball Literature

Baseball has long been considered America’s “National Pastime,” and for generations, artists and writers have used baseball as a lens through which to focus on questions of American identity. In this seminar, we will read a varied selection of classic poems, songs, essays, short fiction, and comic strips to explore the manifold ways that the game, from sandlots to the Majors, both simplifies and complicates our understanding of American sports, entertainment, and politics.