ENGL 392 - Unsettling Manifest Destiny: The Western as World Literature

FC ARHU

4 credits
This class explores the literature, art, and popular culture that emerges out of the contested and unceded regions we now call the North American west. From the sixteenth-century through the nineteenth-century, the west was one of the most contested-and quickly globalizing-regions of the world. Over this period of time, Indigenous peoples, white settlers, and Black and Asian Americans, among others, wrote, drew, and performed histories of their place within that contested world for audiences on a world stage. We will read literature ranging from early European travel narratives in the Americas to accounts of Indigenous American delegations to Europe, and from biographies, popularized adventure tales, and poetry of nineteenth century resistance leaders such as Joaquin Murieta, Geronimo, Zitkala-sa, to some of the earliest “Western” novels. Alongside this literature, we will examine visual and performance art representing the “American West” for global audiences, ranging from the ledger book art of Howling Wolf and Sitting Bull, to the European tour of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and twentieth-century Italian western movies. We will ask: what is “the Western”? Who participates in the emergence and shaping of the genre? And where is its place in the “world”? Assignments will include archival research and creative project options.
Prerequisites & Notes: Recommended having taken one English class prior.