ENGL 200 E: Reading Literary Forms

ENGL200E “Waters of the Northwest”

Instructor: Megan Callow

This course explores the streams, rivers, lakes, sounds, bays, and oceans of the Pacific Northwest, as they are portrayed through literature. Water is a thematic focus of the course because it has always been an important character, perhaps even the main character, of so much of the literature coming out of the northwestern United States. Through our reading of a selection of short fiction, poetry, essays, and other writings, we will attempt to learn:

• how how water shapes life, industry, and spirituality;
• whether there is a uniquely discernible northwestern identity that is made apparent in literature;
• whether principles of literary regionalism can help us to determine if there is a distinctive, coherent body of northwestern literature.