E641: Crossing Boundaries: Alaskan Literary Genres
Course Syllabus & Texts
E641: Fiction/Nonfiction Boundaries: Alaskan Literary Genres
Instructor: Stephen Reid
email @ stephen.reid@colostate.edu
Colorado State University, Spring Semester, 2010
Syllabus
Jan 20: Course Introduction to fiction/non fiction boundaries
Theoretical considerations; literature of fact; hybrid and genre-bending texts
Jan 27: Krakauer, Into the Wild; Sean Penn, Into the Wild (Film); and background texts
Feb 3: Nick Jans, The Grizzly Maze; Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (Film); and background texts
Feb 10: Historical and exploration narratives; selections by John Muir, Frederick Schwatka
Charles Kuralt, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Ernie Pyle, Berton Roueche
Feb 17: Historical and exploration narratives, Cont'd; Essay #1 prospectus
Feb 24: Native Literatures: Velma Wallis, Two Old Women; Selected Essays. Project 1 drafts.
Mar 3: Jack London, The Call of the Wild, "To Build a Fire";
Historical and Contemporary Homesteading/Survival/Subsistence Narratives.
Project 1 Workshop.
Mar 10: Selections from John McPhee, Barry Lopez, Nick Jans, Seth Kantner, Nancy Lord; Project 1 Due
Spring Vacation
Mar 24: Seth Kanter, Ordinary Wolves & selected essays and images
Mar 31: Contemporary Selections from Hanley and Kremers; Selections by Sherry Simpson,
Carolyn Servid, Nancy Lord, and others
April 7: Fiction/Nonfiction, Project 2 prospectus
Apr 14: Baldino and Hage, Two in a Red Canoe (Selections);
Libby Riddles, Race Across Alaska (Selections)
Apr 21: Selected contemporary essays; Fiction/Nonfiction Project 2 presentations
Apr 28: Fiction/Nonfiction project 2 presentations
May 5: Fiction/Nonfiction Project 2 presentations
Final Exam: Project 2 Due
Course Texts:
Alan Ryan, The Reader's Companion to Alaska
Anne Hanley and Carolyn Kremers, The Alaska Reader: Voices from the North
Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild
Sean Penn, Into the Wild (Film)
Nick Jans, The Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears
Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (Film)
Jack London, The Call of the Wild
Seth Kantner, Ordinary Wolves
John McPhee, Coming into the Country (selections)
Barry Lopez, Arctic Dreams (selections)
Jean Aspen, Arctic Daughter (selections)
Velma Wallis, Two Old Women
Margaret E. Murie, Two in the Far North (Selections)
Libby Riddles, Race Across Alaska: First Woman to Win the Iditarod(Selections);
Megan Baldino and Matt Hage, Two in a Red Canoe (selections)
Selected essays by Sherry Simpson, Carolyn Servid, Nancy Lord
Seth Kantner Image 
Note from Alexander "Supertramp" McCandless