What do you know about your family's history? What kinds of "family stories" have been handed down to you? Have you ever wondered how accurate or truthful those stories are? Have you ever checked? If you wanted to, how would you? And what would it mean--for your understanding of family, your understanding of story, and your understanding of history--if you found that your foundational family stories were not quite true? These are some of the questions that will occupy us this semester as we study a range of American writers who have approached the complex question of the "family story" through fiction.

Our aim in this course will be to sort through the complex, confusing, and deeply intriguing questions that are contained within the seemingly simple concept of the "family history" and the "family story." We will ask what history is (or what histories are); we will examine how stories and histories separate and merge; and we will work from these considerations to a broader reflection on the idea of family itself. Along the way, we'll familiarize ourselves with the vast and growing body of electronic resources for those who do family history.

Required Texts (available at the Penn Book Center):
Ball, Edward, Slaves in the Family
Frazier, Charles, Cold Mountain
Gates, Henry Louis, African American Lives
Stegner, Wallace, Angle of Repose
Steinbeck, John, East of Eden

Requirements: One short paper (5-7 pages), due February 28
One longer research paper (15-20 pages), due April 24
Weekly weblog postings
Various short, informal writing and research exercises

Schedule of Readings

January 8 Introduction
January 10 Family history exercise; Outside class: Read Steinbeck

January 15 MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
January 17 Family history exercise; Outside class: Read Steinbeck

January 22 In-class writing -- narration exercise; Outside class: Read Steinbeck
January 24 Steinbeck

January 29 Steinbeck
January 31 Steinbeck

February 5 Steinbeck
February 7 Roots controversy; outside class: Read Slaves in the Family

February 12 Roots controversy; outside class: Read Slaves in the Family
February 14 Research exercises: censuses and other records; outside class: Read Slaves in the Family

February 19 Slaves in the Family
February 21 African American Lives

February 26 Workshop
February 28 First paper due

March 5 SPRING BREAK
March 7 SPRING BREAK

March 12 Stegner
March 14 Stegner

March 19 Stegner
March 21 Stegner
Research exercise: personal papers

March 26 In-class writing exercise
March 28 Stegner

April 2 Frazier
April 4 Frazier

April 9 Frazier
April 11 Frazier

April 16 Workshop
April 18 LAST DAY OF CLASS

April 24 FINAL PAPER DUE