First-Year Research Seminar: Writing on the Wild Side

Semester and Year	SP 2011
Course Number	FIRST-UG728
Section	001
Instructor	Jeanette Tran
Days	Tue,Thu
Time	11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Units	4.0
Level	U
Foundation Requirement

Description

From the Wild West to Where the Wild Things Are , this course will explore our longstanding fear of and fascination with all things wild. We will approach the "wild" through the disciplines of literature, film, and anthropology in order to engage with the multiple senses of the word. We will consider how the "wild" functions as an adjective used to describe animals, places, persons, and things; as a social marker whereby a wild person is savage, uncultured, or rude; as a value-laden term that designates the immoral, violent, destructive and cruel, the sexually unrestrained and licentious, as well as the free, unconventional, experimental, sexy, and romantic. Students will write two essays analyzing and synthesizing scholarly works, an 8-10 page research paper, and a reflective essay on interdisciplinary study as a form of intellectual wildness. Readings may include works by Henry David Thoreau, Annie Dillard, John Krakauer, Annie Proulx, Mark Danielewski, Andrew Marvell, Clifford Geertz, and Laura Bohannan. We will discuss John Ford’s The Searchers as well as Spike Jonze's film adaptation of Maurice Sendak.

Course Type

First-Year Program: Research Seminars (FIRST-UG)