Legacy Course Catalog
ENGL 696B - Landscape And Literature: Reading And Teaching Texts Of The American West
| Effectivity: | 01/07/2008 - 05/03/2008 @ Purdue West Lafayette Traditional |
|---|---|
| Credits: | 3 |
| Instructional Types: | Lec |
| Usually Offered: | fal spr sum |
| Short Title: | Landscape & Literature |
| Description: | The construction of the American West in literature and the popular imagination draws upon representations by a wide variety of writers beginning with the explorers, artists, and naturalists who initially traversed the region: early accounts that focused on topics ranging from cartography and natural resources to Indians and art. Those who "settled" the West, such as Prairie women writers, often kept their own record in more personal forms including diaries and letters. In the centuries since, of course, the West has served as the setting-and moreover the subject-for the works of many celebrated literary figures. Reading and teaching such texts involves reckoning with historical and cultural dimensions rooted in the fabled frontier. Clearly, the historical West-with its grand landscapes, indigenous peoples, and pioneer experiences -has long been mythologized. Contemporary authors inherit this complex legacy, revisiting recurrent themes such as relationship to place, exploitation of nature, preservation of wilderness, and the shaping of cultural identity. Contemporary Native American writers among others, for example, have explored the region's rich confluence of cultures in particularly poignant ways. Beyond reading and interpreting texts of the American West across a variety of genres and periods, in Landscape and Literature we will return whenever appropriate to the question of how they might be taught effectively. Participants in the seminar will have opportunities to shape the course in several fundamental ways: electing to focus on particular readings and helping to guide our conversations, as well as pursuing research topics of the greatest personal and scholarly interest. |
| School: | College Of Liberal Arts |
| Department: | English |
| Credit By Exam: | NO |
| Repeatable Flag: | YES |
| Temporary Flag: | YES |
| Full Time Privilege Flag: | NO |
| Honors Flag: | NO |
| Variable Title Flag: | NO |
Fall 2007 *** indicates the course was still an active course and was transferred to the Banner Catalog effective Spring 2008. This course was not expired Fall 2007.
