English 2327
First Assignment
1. We shall read Anpao by Jamake Highwater first. This assigned book will help us understand the nature of the epic structure, which forms the heart of our course. This book received the John Newbury Medal when it was first published.
Read this book in two or three sittings if you can; studies show that more than two sittings for a book of this length seriously detracts from your knowing the book--remembering characters, plot, setting and so forth. I suggest, further that you read "The Storyteller's Farewell," and "Notes on Sources," pp. 239, ff. before you read the book from Chapter 1.
Your first writing assignment for this book will ask you to discuss your favorite chapters in terms of answering the questions, "What is familiar about this story (chapter) especially as it relates to what I know in my own culture?" "What is so thoroughly unfamiliar about this story (chapter) in terms of my own culture?"
Anticipate this assignment as a MAJOR PAPER:
The second writng assignment will center upon our discussion of the epic in light of Louise Cowan's essay, "The Epic as Cosmopoesis."
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