community read 2007

The Center for American Literary Studies, the Institute for Arts and Humanities, and the Office of the Penn State Vice Provost for Educational Equity present

The Center for American Literary Studies
Community Read 2007

The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead

 

Shared texts constitute a key form of community building. Whether readers agree or disagree about the interpretation of a given text, the act of discussing a text, offering cogent arguments about a text, and negotiating what a text might mean brings them together.

The Center for American Literary Studies is pleased to announce the first in what will be a series of "Community Reads" on the Penn Sate campus. The American novel at the heart of the "Community Read" for the Spring term of 2007 will be The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead-a volume chosen by our distinguished Paterno Family Professor of Literature, Michael Bérubé.

The Intuitionist is a thought-provoking consideration of power, morality, politics, and race through the quirky world of elevator inspectors in a major American metropolis. In Whitehead's city, the elevator inspectors divide into two distinct camps-the Empiricists who inspect elevators by carefully examining and testing every bolt and switch with scientific precision, and the Intuitionists who inspect elevators by instinctively sensing their operations. The book focuses on Lila Mae Watson, the city's first black female inspector, an Intuitionist with a perfect inspection record. Lila Mae is NEVER wrong. When an elevator that she deems fit for service suddenly plunges sixty stories, she is forced to solve the mystery herself in order to clear her name. The Intuitionist is a fascinating industrial mystery that manages to weave Lila Mae's quest into a profound, and very funny, commentary on issues of race and questions of how we know what we know--or think we know.

Copies of Colson Whitehead's The Intuitionist are available at
a 20% discount from the Penn State Bookstore