Writing-Based Inquiry Seminars:
Descriptions for Fall 2007
(please note: section topics and descriptions are subject to change)
Title: What Is An American?
Course: WBIS 188
Section: 005
Instructor: Staff
This course is designed to develop your sense of writing as an ongoing process of invention, drafting, and revising, along with developing skills in reading (anayzle, interpret, and generalize from a variety of texts). As a theme for the semester, this course will focus on the question: What is an American? While J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur imagined on the eve of the 18th century that in America "individuals of all nations (would be) melted into a new race of men" and women, in the 21st century his theory of "melting pot" has given way to theories emphasizing individuality and pluralism. Grounding our inquiry in theories of identity and nationhood, we will examine the plurality of contemporary American literature and culture by studying how various authors in the United States articulate--and perhaps more importantly describe--the relationship between individual and national identify in their works. These works include James McBride's The Color of Water and Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory.
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Last modified: February 16, 2007Send comments, questions, etc., to henson@uwosh.edu