Digging Up California

What does it mean for a place to continually be
dug up by people, natural forces, and myth? How
can we use what we dig up in California such as
history and topography to craft familiar and not
so familiar narratives? This class will examine
how these narratives can transform the landscape,
people, and history of California and how
California shapes it all back. From the iconic
literature of Hollywood from Joan Didion, writings
of Angela Morales growing up in Los Angeles, to an
intimate film about gentrification in San
Francisco by Joe Talbot, this course will examine
how to reshape narrative within a place that is
always reshaping itself out of forgotten memory
and the not-so-far-away buried past. This course
will also examine the essentials of a Californian
city. Each student will write an essay examining a
past incident in California and where the traces
of it are seen now, and an essay that examines the
use of the past in a literary work we read and
discussed in class. By the end of the course, each
student will use both essays to craft a creative
piece grounded in some form of text in response to
their research and careful examinations of place
within California.