This course orbits around two primary works: East of Eden, by John Steinbeck and Sometimes a Great Notion, by Ken Kesey. Like pulsar stars, these epic novels sound off of each other and send signals of American family life through constellations of critical inquiry. What does it mean to be a family in America? How does a family live in the American landscape? What is the role of work in a country that celebrates both independence and community? How are American identities (and citizens) formed in the context of family and work and landscape?

Questions such as these will be explored within the primary texts and also through diverse satellites of secondary material. By reading different genres such as fiction (both long and short), poetry, memoir, essays, and criticism, we can investigate the inter-dependent relationship between form and content that distinguishes literature as a means of making sense of the world (or, as we may discover, making worlds of our senses). A course pack will include diverse writers such as Sherman Alexie, Kate Chopin, Robinson Jeffers, Stephen Vincent Benét, and Martha Southgate, among others. And in addition to written works, we will watch a couple of films and listen to some radio broadcasts – fun for the whole family!

This course fulfills “W” designation requirements. As such, written work will include three short papers (with revision) and periodic reading responses. There will also be a mid-term exam, group presentations, and the threat of pop-quizzes. As a literature course, it is ASSUMED that you will read ALL of the assigned texts, participate in rigorous discussions, and engage the course material with imagination and introspection.

Required Texts:

>> Steinbeck, John. East of Eden (0142004235).
>> Kesey, Ken. Sometimes a Great Notion (0140045295).
>> Course Pack