This course is an intensive examination of two major works by American writers, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Almanac of the Dead. Rather than breadth or coverage, emphasis will be on depth of reading and sustained engagement with a work of literature. These are two long, complex books and our efforts will be to read them carefully, critically, and with multiple perspectives. In examining the ideas raised in the works, we will look both at the relationship of those ideas to their historical context as well as how the authors’ linguistic and narrative craftsmanship encourages their readers to engage those ideas in particular ways. Meanwhile, we’ll learn what these writers have to say about American culture and experience. Our ongoing conversation, furthermore, will address what makes a “major text” in a given literary canon, interrogating the assumptions that go behind a designation like this.