ENGL 131AW: |
Studies in American Literature
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Western American Literature |
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| Winter 2008 |
| Instructor: Stephanie LeMenager |
| Meets on: TR 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM SH 1430 |
| Prerequisites: Writing 2, 50, or 109; English 10; or upper-division standing Writing 2 or 50 or 109AA-ZZ or English 10 |
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| Satisfies a GE area G and a Writing requirement |
| http://acc.english.ucsb.edu/courses/acc_overview.asp?CourseID=304 |
| May be repeated for credit to a maximum of 12 units provided the letter designations are different, but only 8 units may be applied toward the English major. |
| This course explores the cultural meanings of the West through a variety of “westerns,” from popular forms like the tall tale, the legend, and the cowboy movie to complex reinterpretations of those forms in modernist novels, contemporary memoir and film. The course questions how the landscapes and diverse peoples of the North American West have become synonymous with an “American,” national character that is imagined to be at once violent and beautiful, lawless and moral, racially homogenous and culturally mixed. The deep ironies built into the West as a cultural ideal are reflected in the hybrid literary products Western writers often produce. Course units address representations of the “gold West” of old California, the continuing significance of the frontier in American cultures, the aesthetic appropriation of the West, the gendering of the West, and the uses of Western nostalgia. |
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