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Syllabus Sample

ANES 625 The West and the American Imagination

Spring 2007

Joseph Conforti

11 Granite Street
Office: 780-4898
E-Mail: conforti@usm.maine.edu

Office Hours

Wednesdays, 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM, and by appointment. I am available most afternoons.

A prominent Western historian recently observed that for the last one hundred years "the West has been America's most strongly imagined region." This course will examine the nineteenth and twentieth century West as both an historic or "real" place and as an imagined region. The course will explore the historical, cultural, geographical, political and economic patterns that define the West as a distinctive American region. It will focus on the place of the West in the American imagination, often stressing how popular culture in varied forms has shaped our understanding of the West. This course is informed by both recent developments in regional studies and by the "new western history," a sometimes controversial school of interpretation that has revised many scholars' understanding of the region's past.

Required Books

  • Patricia Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest (New York, 1987)
  • Julie Roy Jeffrey, Frontier Women (rev. ed., New York 1998)
  • Elliott West, The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier (Lincoln, Neb., 1979)
  • Stephen Pyne, How the Canyon Became Grand (New York, 1998)
  • John Neihardt, ed., Black Elk Speaks (1932, rpt. Lincoln, Neb., 1979)
  • Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927, rpt. New York, 1990)
  • Bill Brown, Reading the West (New York, 1997)
  • Jane Tompkins, West of Everything: The Inner Life of Westerns (New York, 1992)
  • Mark David Spence, Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks (New York, 1999)
  • Timothy Egan, Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West (New York 1998)

A few additional readings are on Electronic Reserve.

Electronic Reserves

Semester: Spring 2007
Course: ANE 625
Course Title: The West and the American Imagination
Instructor: Joseph Conforti

To access electronic reserve documents:

  1. E-Reserve Web Site: http://docutek.ursus.maine.edu
  2. Click on Electronic Reserves and Reserves Pages
  3. Type in Course Number in the search field and click Search.
  4. Click on the Course Number on the left hand side of the screen.
  5. Enter the password for your course: CONANE625; Click the Accept button.

Note: electronic reserve documents are listed by Title/Author.

To view and print electronic reserves from home, you will need one of the following:

  • Windows:
    • Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
    • Netscape 4.0 or higher
  • Macintosh:
    • Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher
    • Netscape 4.0 or higher

Since electronic reserves are in PDF format, you will also need the Adobe Acrobat Reader® software. Go to http://www.adobe.com for the free download.

Papers

There are three papers required in the course. Two five-page papers will be due during the semester. They will be focused on reading assignments including movies. A final 10-15 page paper will be due a week after classes end. I will provide details on a separate sheet.

Evaluation

First Paper 25%
Second Paper 25%
Final Paper 35%
Class Participation 15%
Total 100%

If you choose to write one research paper, the paper and class participation will serve as the basis for evaluation.

Support for Students with Disabilities

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability please see me or contact the Office of Support for Students with Disabilities in Luther Bonney 242. Phone: 780-4706 or TTY 780-4395, e-mail: ossad@usm.maine.edu.

University Closings

In the event of snow, USM sometimes cancels classes. To find out if the University is closed, call 780-4800. Note: sometimes if the university is closed in the morning, it reopens later in the day. Decisions about 4:10 PM and 7:00 PM classes are made by 2:00 PM.

Topics and Readings

Jan. 22: Introduction to the West and from the Frontier to the New Western History
  • Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Frontier in American History" (1893)
    (Just familiarize yourself with this widely available essay. I put a copy on electronic reserve.)
  • Patricia Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West (1987), Intro, chs. 1-5, pp. 17-175
Jan. 29: The New Western History, Part II
  • Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West, chs. 6-9, pp. 179-321
  • Film: Lone Star
Feb. 5: Women in the 19th Century West: From Pioneers to Prostitutes
  • Julie Roy Jeffrey, Frontier Women: "Civilizing" the West? 1840-1880 (rev. ed., 1998), Intro, chs. 1-2, 4-7
  • Stephen Crane, "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" (1898)
Feb. 12: From the Rocky Mountains to Gold Rush California: The Masculine World of Mining Communities
  • Elliott West, The Saloon on the Rocky Mountain Mining Frontier (1979)
  • Patricia Limerick, "The Gold Rush and the Shaping of the American West," in Something in the Soil (New York 2000), pp. 214-227
Feb. 19: Winter Vacation
Feb. 26: The Dime Novel
  • Bill Brown, Reading the West, (1997) Intro and Selections.
Mar. 5: The Plains Indians, the Buffalo and Custer in Western Life and the American Imagination
  • John G. Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks (1932; rpt 1978), selected chs.
Mar. 12: National Parks, Indian Reservations, and the Imagined West
  • Mark David Spence, Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks (New York, 1999)
Mar. 19: The Western Landscape and Monumentalism
  • Stephen Pyne, How the Canyon Became Grand (1999)
Mar. 26: Spring Vacation
Apr. 2: The Southwest Borderlands
  • Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
Apr. 9: The Old West: From the Wild West Show to Advertising
  • Richard Aquila, Wanted Dead or Alive: The American West in Popular Culture (1996) chs. 3, 5, 9, 10
April 16: Hollywood's West, Part I
  • Jane Tompkins, West of Everything (1992).
Apr. 23: Hollywood's West, Part II: From the Classic to the Revisionist Western
  • Movies: Stagecoach (1939) or Shane (1953) and Unforgiven (1992)
April 30: The Contemporary West in American Life and the National Imagination
  • Timothy Egan, Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West (1998), selected chs.
May 7: Final Papers Due