American Frontiers
Hauptseminar
R. Stinshoff
Di 16-18
A 1 - 0 – 004
Preliminary class outline
Of the many frontiers there are in American history and culture this class will
deal with the western or trans-Mississippi frontier; it will be organised into a
first part, during which we will explore and discuss the historiographical
concept of frontier and its recent revisions, and a second part during which you
will present your research on individual topics taken from frontier history and
culture for discussion in class. The list below contains a number of suggestions,
you are, however, perfectly free to use your own favorite.
Important: Your presentation should focus on how your topic relates
(historically, culturally) to the notion of the frontier and in which way this
concept is needed to understand the text, film etc you’ve been working on.
In the first meeting we’ll discuss presentation style (and its evaluation), which
always will involve the other students in class, and we will nail down your
choice of project.
Meetings 1 – 2: Oct 24, 31
Introducing the concept: Walt Whitman, O Pioneers; Frederick Jackson Turner,
The Significance of the Frontier in American History. These texts will be
included in my collection of reading material available from the English
Department’s office (Ms Severin) by early September.
Meeting 3: Nov 7
Reading by the Native American poet Carter Revard; you can prepare for that by
going to http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/revard/, there you’ll find many
biographical details and a link to SAIL (= Studies in Native American Literature)
vol 15, No 1, spring 2003; this (online) issue of SAIL is wholly devoted to
Carter Revard’s work.
Meeting 4-6: Nov 14, 21, 28
“The Legacy of Conquest”: New Western history and the concept of frontier
Reading material beyond Patricia Nelson Limerick’s book The Legacy of
Conquest will be available from the departemental office (Ms Severin) by early
September.
Meeting 7-12: Dec 5, 12, 19, Jan 9, 16, 23
Presentation of student research projects. Here is a list of potential topics:
 novels: by 'classic' western/regional authors like Owen Wister, Willa
Cather, O.E. Rölvaag, Hamlin Garland, Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck,
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Laura Ingalls Wilder etc. to contemporary ones like Wallace Stegner,
A.B.Guthrie, Norman Maclean, Larry McMurtry, Pete Dexter, Larry
Watson, Dan O’Brien, Native American novelists, e.g. N.Scott Momaday,
Leslie Marmon Silko, Linda Hogan; James Welch, Louise Erdrich…, or
travellogues: e.g. Dayton Duncan, Miles from Nowhere, Ian Frazier, Great
Plains, Jonathan Raban, Badland, or
short stories such as Bret Harte, The Luck of Roaring Camp (and/or other
stories by him), Hamlin Garland, Under the Lion’s Paw; Mari Sandoz,
Winter Thunder; Dan O’Brien, Eminent Domain; Louise Erdrich,
American Horse; on the reserve shelf there are many more wonderful
stories to be found in the anthologies edited by John Tuska or William
Kittredge, or in Roger Welsch’s collection of his own stories It’s Not the
End of the Earth, But You Can See It from Here;
personal memoirs then and now: e.g. Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a
Woman Homesteader; Walker D. Wyman (ed.), Frontier Woman, the Life
of a Woman Homesteader on the Dakota Frontier; Annick Smith,
Homestead; Linda Hasselstrom, Windbreak, a Woman Rancher on the
Northern Plains; Carrie Young, Nothing to Do But Stay, My Pioneer
Mother;
films (e.g. Heartland, Country, A River Runs Through It, Dances with
Wolves, Thunderheart, Smoke Signals, The Horse Whisperer to name just
a few examples, or your favourite or most disliked western
movie/documentary,
characters: Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Billy the Kid,
Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, or
seminal events and conflicts: such as the Lewis and Clark expedition or
later explorations of the West, the overland migrations, the battle of the
Little Bighorn, the Johnson County War, the Black Hills case, or
western music or music about the West: anything between and beyond,
let’s say Johnny Cash and Floyd Westerman, or
environmental issues such as land use, water & aridity, or
last not least… scholarly issues like ‘violence and the frontier myth’,
topics from new western history…
Meeting 13, 14: Jan 30, Feb 6
Overspill & evaluation
Material: There will be a well-stocked reserve shelf in the library, and for films
you’d like to have a look in the library’s mediothek or talk to me.
Before you give up on any of your ideas, let’s talk about it because I happen to
have some (textual, visual, film) material myself.