Course calendar

Library reserves

Week 1: Introductions
M 01/05: Syllabus and assignments. Lecture: Parameters for the Course. In-class reading and discussion: John Tirman, "The future of the American Frontier", The American Scholar, Winter 2009.

Week 2: Creation Stories
M 01/12: Lecture: The West Before Its Creation. Buffalo Bill, dime novels and Frederick Jackson Turner. Reading: Etulain, Preface, Prologue and chapter 1, xi-xiii and 1-30. Milner, chapter 2 (Deverell with Brown and Limerick), 29-66. Online: Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Significance of the Frontier in American History." Chapter 1 from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TURNER. Also, browse "Dime Novels and Penny Dreadfuls". Screening: The Great Train Robbery (1902) and excerpt from A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies (2000). First materials analysis assigned.

****Note: the formal discussion of Gloss begins with week 5. However, I recommend that you start early to give yourself time to read it in a thoughtful manner.

Week 3: No class
M 01/19: MLK Day. First essay posted. For next week (10/26), choose a detail from page 1 in Gloss and write a few sentences on what that detail suggests about the main character?s experience in the West. This will be the Reading Preparation for week 3.

Week 4: Traditional and Untold Stories
M 01/26: The Virginian, Billy the Kid, Native voices, and Stagecoach. Materials analysis. Reading: Etulain, chapter 2 and 3, 67-94 and 51-65. Milner, chapter 7 (Lewis), 213-240. Online: From Owen Wister's The Virginian: chapter 2, "'When you call me That, Smile!'" and chapter 33, "The Spinster Loses Some Sleep" from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/wister/cover.html. Screening: Stagecoach (1939).

Week 5: Traditional and Untold Stories
M 02/02: Louis L'Amour, Mary Hallock Foote, Calamity Jane, and High Noon. Reading: Etulain, chapter 3 and chapter 2, 94-106 and 31-51. Milner, chapter 8 (Johnson with Hurtado and González), 255-288. Online: browse the entries on Foote, Mary Hallock -- Foote, Mary Hollock. Screening: High Noon (1952). Be sure to bring Gloss. Second essay assigned.

Week 6: Untold Stories
M 02/09: Asian and African-American voices, the railroad. Reading: Milner, chapter 5 (Nomura with Mazumdar and Okihiro) and chapter 9 (Taylor), 135-173 and 289-300. On reserve: Appendix 3 (Booker T. Washington) to William Katz, The Black West, Rev. ed. (Garden City, NY, Doubleday Anchor, 1973), 313-317. Screening: The West, episode 5: The Grandest Enterprise Under God (1996). Second materials analysis assigned.

Week 7: New Stories
M 02/16: Wallace Stegner, looking South, and The Wild Bunch. Materials analysis. Reading: Etulain, chapter 4, 107-118. Milner, chapter 3 (Gutiérrez with De Léon and Ruiz), 67-103. Screening: The Wild Bunch (1969). Be sure to bring Gloss Third essay assigned.

Week 8: New Stories
M 02/23: Patricia Nelson Limerick and Unforgiven. Reading: Etulain, chapter 4, 119-128. On reserve: the Introduction and chapter 10 to Nelson Limerick, Legacy of Conquest (New York, W.W. Norton, 1987), 16-32 and 322-349, plus Notes on 351-352 and 365-368. Screening: Unforgiven (1992). Be sure to bring Gloss. Third materials analysis assigned.

Week 9: New Stories
M 03/02: Leslie Marmon Silko, Larry McMurtry and Jesse James. Materials analysis. Reading: Etulain, chapter 4, 128-148. Milner, chapter 7 (Iverson and Toelken), 241-254. Screening: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007). Fourth essay assigned.

Week 10: A Gray Story M 03/09: Final thoughts. Reconsidering the Western on television. Reading: Etulain, Epilogue, 149-152. On reserve: chapter 21 to Richard White, "It's your misfortune and none of my own": A New History of the American West (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1991), 613-632. Screening: episodes from Deadwood, Firefly, and Angel. Be sure to bring Gloss. Final essay assigned.

Finals week: Final essay due at 4:00 pm on W 03/16. Details TBA.