The American West, 2023-24

This is an ADDITION to the Course Reader, part 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Diu36CPuyJ3nBZIcPpJwX0dSXMPNKSGd/view?usp=sharing

Dear students,

a few pages are missing from the Umberto Eco essay in the course reader, part 2. THESE PAGES ARE NOW HERE.

A.C.

Dear students,

because of the national transportation strike today (again!), I will be offering a webex call (link below) to those unable to be in class THIS AFTERNOON.

I will be in the room as usual, hoping many of you can join me for a live conversation. WebEx call will begin at 2.10 pm approximately.

Best wishes,

A. Carosso
WebEx: https://unito.webex.com/meet/andrea.carosso

Midterm Test 1 scores are now available on Moodle.

covering weeks 6 through 9, is now available on Moodle!

A.C.

Because of a concurrent engagement, I will start our Review Session of Feb 29th at 2.15 p.m.

Thanks,

A.C.

All course exams, including midterms, are administered on MOODLE (click for direct link).

Make sure you log on WELL BEFORE the exam day, using an anonymous browser on a PC (not your smartphone!!!), MAKING URE THAT EVERYTHING WORKS and that you can access and read the Moodle page in full.

Full written exam info and instructions are available here: https://sites.google.com/view/andreacarosso/home/written-exams

Course Readers are available on MOODLE

A.C.

ALL STUDENTS please register to this class. Moodle and exam access are only available to registered students. You cannot take any exams for this class if you are not registered.

Registration is now possible only by sending an email to andrea.carosso@unito.it

Thank you!

This course relies on student participation and class interaction.

ALL CLASSES are 2 to 5 pm on Thursdays AND Fridays, 6 hours a week for 10 weeks. ALL SESSIONS are held at Centro Aldo Moro, room S3.

COURSE STRUCTURE:
This course is structured is part as a LECTURE COURSE, in part as a DISCUSSION SEMINAR. Students are expected to READ texts BEFORE CLASS an INTERACT ON them in class.

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FULL COURSE CALENDAR & WEEKLY READING LIST: This is the OFFICIAL, CONFIRMED COURSE CALENDAR and indicates in detail the weekly discuss topics. Do not email me asking confirmation of the course calendar: this is it.

WEEK	DATE	week’s TOPIC	week’s texts (from course reader)	week’s books & screenings
1	Feb 1-2	The West as American Frontier	Henry N. Smith. Eigteenth Century Origins, from Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (1950); John O’Sullivan, Annexation; F.J. Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History; G.D. Nash, The West as Frontier; T. Roosevelt, The Winning of the Frontier; J. Cawelti, God’s Country, Las Vegas, …; L. McMurtry, Inventing the West
2	Feb 8-9	The West as Region	G.D. Nash, The West as Region; S. Aron, Taking the farther West; N. S. Momaday, A First American Views His Land, C. Gersdorf, Mapping the (critical) Territory; J. Didion, Holy Water	week’s novel: H. Sides, Blood and Thunder, ch. 1-18
3	Feb 15-16	Cities of the American West, part 1	G.D. Nash, The West as Urban Civilization; Abu-Lughod, Los Angeles, 1820-1870;	this week’s novel: H. Sides, Blood and Thunder, ch. 19-28
4	Feb 22-23	Cities of the American West, part 2	S. B. Warner, Megalopolis; C. Abbott, Multicentered Cities	this week’s novel: H. Sides, Blood and Thunder, ch. 29-35 this week’s screening: Shotgun Freeway: Drives Through Lost L.A. (Morgan Neville, Harry Pallenberg, 1995)
5	Feb 29-March 1st	REVIEW and EARLY EXAM 1	Feb. 29 at 2 pm: REVIEW SESSION March 1st at 2.00 pm, aula informatica 3.06 Via S.Ottavio 54: EARLY EXAM n. 1 (esonero – covering materials for weeks 1 through 4 – – only for students who have attended at least 70% of sessions in the 1st part of the semester).
6	Mar 7-8	Borderlands: the West as Transnational Space	(these texts are at the bottom of COURSE READER PART 1) S. Aron, Reconstructing Races and Rights; G. Anzaldua, Borderlands; J. Abu Lughod, the LA Region Transformed; Economist, Dreaming of the Other Side of the Wire; New Yorker, A Voyage Along Trump’s Wall; Washington Post, How sanctuary cities work; Economist, Field of Tears INTRODUCTORY READINGS TO Narratives of Water Conference (week 8): Pilkin, from Sea Level Rise; Davis, from Ecologies of Fear	this week’s novel: N. West, The Day of the Locust, ch. 1-16 this week’s screening:
7	Mar 14-15	Hyperreal West	Ross, How Hollywood Became Hollywood; Kazin, “Introduction” to The Day of the Locust; U. Eco, from Travels in Hyperreality; Carlson, More Real than Reality; Davis, Fortress Los Angeles	this week’s novel: N. West, The Day of the Locust, ch. 17-end this week’s screening:
8	Mar 21-22	INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE + PERFORMANCE	March 21 and 22, 9am to 6 pm Narratives of Water, an International Conference. Full Program: https://sites.google.com/view/ narratives-of-water March 21st at 6pm: Troubled Waters: performance delle acque (Auditorium Aldo Moro) Related readings (part of the course syllabus)
9	April 11-12	Silicon Valley and the future of the Am. West + STUDENT PROJECTS	Fishman, Beyond Suburbia; Gleaser, The Rise of Silicon Valley; Wolfe, from Valley of the Gods; Zuboff, You Are the Object …	this week’s novel : S. Cisneros, The House on Mango Street this week’s screening:
10	April 18-19	REVIEW and EARLY EXAM 2	April 18 at 2 pm: REVIEW SESSION – ONLINE AT: April 19 at 2.00 pm, Aula Informatica 2, Aldo Moro : EARLY EXAM N. 2 (esonero – covering materials for weeks 6 through 9 – – only for students who have attended at least 70% of sessions in the 2nd part of the semester).
10	May 9	OFFICIAL WRITTEN EXAM	(This test is ONLY for students who still need to take one – or both – written exams). CHECK myunito for DATE AND VENUE: @ 2pm: written exam n. 1 @ 4pm: written exam n. 2 This 4-hour exam is offered in May 2024, September 2024 and January 2025. I do NOT RECOMMEND postponing this to September or – even worse – January. Exam syllabus WILL CHANGE after January 2025. No exceptions!

If you are a student of this class, you should return to this blog at least once a week beginning in mid-January 2024. Class materials, announcements and course information will be posted HERE.

Before emailing me, please read this course blog carefully in its entirety!! I MEAN everything I write here (and elsewhere): please do not email to confirm things I have already written. Ignorance of the course rules and syllabus is NOT an excuse for not following the Syllabus/Rules. Each student is responsible for understanding and following these rules.

STUDENTS WISHING TO TAKE AND COMPLETE THIS COURSE MUST READ AND FULLY UNDERSTAND ALL INFORMATION BELOW. THERE WILL BE NO EXCEPTIONS TO THESE RULES. THANK YOU.

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COURSE TITLE: “THE AMERICAN WEST, PAST AND PRESENT”

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
In his seminal “Creating the West”, historian Gerald D. Nash has defined the U.S. West “as a frontier, a region, as an urban civilisation, and as a mythical utopia”. This course will interrogate Nash’s “four ecologies” of the American West, and will study the modes and forms under which the notion of the West has been created and transformed over the last two centuries.

We will study literary and visual texts (art, film, TV series), as well as scholarly investigations from various disciplines (history, urban studies, architecture, anthropology, cultural studies), interrogating the transformations of the abstract concept of the West as well as of the West as a physical place, by looking at some of its most significant transformations – from American frontier to new frontier of the American Dream (the desert, the frontier, westward migration), from utopian space (Hollywood, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, national parks) to site of new cultural, economic and social horizons (Silicon Valley, Seattle)

REQUIREMENTS:
Good proficiency in written and spoken English, a desire to learn and participate in classroom activity, and a curiosity for all things American highlight the ideal profile of students in this course.
This course is fully taught in English.

SEMINAR SESSIONS, SCHEDULE, VENUE:
This course is taught in the second semester of 2023-24, 6 hours per week, beginning in February. The course calendar in the post above (available by late January) provides a week by week breakdown of the course materials. Please review this course blog on updates on the publication of lectures and discussion sessions.

COURSE REGISTRATION:
Students attending this course MUST sign up using the link in one of the posts above. Unregistered students will not be admitted to the Moodle materials nor to the final examinations.

REQUIRED TEXTS:
A. STUDENTS MUST PURCHASE and study

1. Hampton Sides. Blood and Thunder. An Epic of the American West (Anchor Books)
2. Nathaniel West. The Day of the Locust (Penguin)
3. Sandra Cisneros. The House on Mango Street (Knopf)
4. Joan Didion, The White Album (FSG) — this book is a REQUIREMENT only for non attending students.
Any full edition (in English) of the above novels will do. Students, please make sure you purchase these books BEFORE the start of classes.
PLEASE NOTICE: E-books are not suitable for university study. Students must own PRINT COPIES of these books BEFORE the start of classes.

B. STUDENTS MUST DOWNLOAD and study a course reader (parts 1 and 2, available from the course blog at the start of weeks 1 and 6) containing essays and other materials relevant to the course.

C. STUDENTS MUST WATCH films and other video excerpts. These will be presented during class, listed in the course calendar and included in the examination questions.

STUDENT EVALUATION AND GRADING: 
Course syllabus is the same for ALL students and consists of 2 written tests (mandatory for all) and one oral interview. Students must pass both written tests in order to be admitted to the oral interview. The oral interview is waived for those students giving a CLASSROOM PRESENTATION during week 9 (see course calendare, above). Written tests are offered during the course (as “esoneri”) to students atttending regularly (minimum attendance: 70%) or as official written exams, once per examination session (May, September, January). Both tests are taken at the same time – except for “esoneri”, when tests are taken one at a time. After the January 2025 session, examinations for this course will NO LONGER BE OFFERED and my syllabus will change.

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS:
A non attending is ANY student who has not attended AT LEAST 70% of IN PERSON sessions. Non attending students MUST:

1. meet with the professor during office hours at least one month before taking the written exam (and preferably BEFORE the start of classes) AND

2. attend at least TWO CLASSROOM SESSIONS during the semester.

Students who do not comply with these two, simple requirements are not admitted to take the final written and oral exams.

EXCHANGE STUDENTS wishing to complete this course must attend regularly and must request to be admitted to the course by writing to me BEFORE the start of the course.

HAVE A GREAT SEMESTER,
A. Carosso