(3 cr. hrs.) IW course

MW 11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Jointly offered with CMCL-C314

How can we understand the interplay of memory and fantasy in stories
of American life?  Why are so many stories structured along the
themes of captivity and release?  This class is, in its broadest
sense, an exploration of memory and storytelling in America. We will
approach our topic through the lens of a persistent American genre:
the captivity narrative. We will study various expressions of social
and personal containment and freedom. We will think about the making
of categories like self and other, race and gender, the imagination
and the real, and power and trauma in American culture, from
Colonial days to the present.