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Name of Institution:  Western Carolina University

Name of First Year Seminar: The Literature of Home and Belonging - ENGL 190, Elizabeth Heffelfinger and Deidre Elliott, English

Abstract of the First Year Seminar:

      As an introduction to the different disciplinary focuses within the English major, this Freshman seminar will explore ways that “home,” “family,” and “belonging,” are presented in short stories, poetry, essays, novels, drama, and film. We will read Barbara Kingsolver’s collection of essays, Small Wonder, the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, the creative non-fiction work, Shadow Divers, short stories by Ron Rash and others, poems by both regional and international authors, and we will study films such as A River Runs Through It, The Joy Luck Club, and City of Joy, and we will attend the on-campus production of a play. The class will do a variety of short writing projects, such as a personal “Family Heritage” project, creative writing that imitates the genres we are learning about, and literary and film reviews. You will also do team-building, experiential, and service learning projects as a way to understand the complexity of what it means to belong and how we create family structures and a sense of home.

     Link to Syllabus or PDF of Syllabus: 

     Contact heff@email.wcu.edu or delliott@email.wcu.edu

http://www.wcu.edu/29870.asp