Jazz filled the air and wailed against the night. Caught in the sway, American prose writers sought out the forbidden — the slang, the dialects, and the rhythms of the folk and of everyday life. Writers such as Hemingway, Stein, and Fitzgerald forged a new style: one which silhouetted the geometry of language, crisp in its own cleanness. About the series: A video course on American literature for college-level instruction and teacher professional development; 16 half-hour video programs, instructor's guide, study guide, and Web site. American Passages: A Literary Survey is a 16-part American literature course. The video programs, print guides, and Web site place literary movements and authors within the context of history and culture. The course takes an expanded view of American literary movements, bringing in a diversity of voices and tracing the continuity among them. The materials, which are coordinated with the Norton Anthology of American Literature, can be used as the basis of a one or two-semester college-level course or for teacher professional development. Produced by Oregon Public Broadcasting. 2003.