In Nation and Narration, Homi Bhabha asks "What forms of narrative express the ideology of the modern nation? How do questions of race and gender, class and colonialism, change the boundaries of national identity? Who speaks in the name of the nation?" We will explore these questions as they shape culture and politics in Mexico and Brazil, primarily in the 20th century. Focusing on literary and visual analysis, this all-level program will look at fictional and visual stories about national and regional identities in both countries. We will ask how such representations of "the nation"-symbolic attempts at constructing unity-involve points of inclusion and exclusion, collective hopes and potential contradictions.

Over the course of the quarter, we will critically analyze several literary works within their historical contexts; authors may include Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Rosario Castellanos, Carlos Fuentes, Elena Poniatowska, and Subcomandante Marcos from Mexico and José de Alencar, Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Oswald de Andrade, Clarice Lispector, and Caio Fernando Abreu from Brazil. In addition, we will explore the significance of visual cultures from the same time periods, from early 20th-century art movements such as muralism to contemporary films like Amores perros. Selected historical and theoretical texts will provide frameworks for our inquiry. The program will emphasize building writing skills across several genres, including personal narrative, literary and cultural analysis, and film criticism.

In addition to the 12-credit core described above, students may enroll in a 4-credit Spanish language class at the appropriate level, or complete an additional 4-credit project within the program itself. For this project, each student will choose a writer or artist to research in depth over the course of the quarter, culminating in a written essay and oral presentation of this work during the last week of the program.

The Northwest has a rich tradition of craft-objects for use, for ceremony and for celebration that are made primarily by hand and marked by a sense of belonging to place and community. This program will explore Native and non-Native craft traditions in this region and give students an opportunity to make their own craft works in clay and wood.

The program will center on studio work and on a series of visiting artists and authorities on Northwest crafts who will share their work and understanding with us. Work will also include regular seminars, work discussions, writing assignments and field trips.

Students will spend roughly half the quarter working with clay and half with wood. In the ceramics studio, students will prepare clay, master basic hand-building techniques, produce a range of craft-related pieces, glaze the work and fire it in electric or gas kilns. In the wood shop, students will study the origins and characteristics of various local woods, learn basic skills with hand tools and make and finish one or more wooden pieces for use. Readings will address contemporary craft history and issues, craftsmanship, beauty, function and the role of art in communities. We will ask students to write short papers clarifying their thinking about their own ideas, work and working process, and to write an independent research paper and presentation on a contemporary artist working in a craft in the Northwest.

The goals of the program include an informed understanding of the range of crafts practiced in the Northwest and the artists and communities that produce them; an ability to speak about the role of craftspeople in our communities; an awareness of how shaping objects shapes our daily experience; and the development of the skills and attention needed to make expressive objects for use in clay and wood.

The best way to read a novel is the best way to write one: by full immersion. This intense, medium-residency program will demand extensive readings of novels and of novelists on novel writing, coupled with a journeyman-like approach to the development of the students' own novels. Students will meet as a large group the first, fifth and 10th week of each quarter for lecture, discussion and critique. Classroom work will focus on the creation and integration of the novel's most important elements: character, scene and dialogue. Besides the large group sessions, five-person groups will meet once a week to discuss specific elements from their readings and once a week to critique each other's new work. Some meetings, critiques and discussions will occur in cyberspace, so experience with e-mail attachments, chat rooms and Microsoft Word's "Tools" features is recommended. Emphasis will be on writing fast while writing well. Students can expect to produce a substantial volume of writing on schedule each week. Experience with face-to-face critique of personal writing is essential.

Students will read Browne and King's Self-Editing for Fiction Writers and Stephen King's Misery (book, not movie), among other works.