Alaska - the Last Frontier

elective courses

Classroom

Alaska as one of the isolated states from the mainland, characterised with extreme climate and vast wild and uninhabited areas is often imagined as the last American frontier on Earth. Although Alaska became the 49th state in 1959, numerous people still move there in order to lead a pioneer’s life. They settle in off-grid cottages in a forest, some times miles away from the nearest city or a village. They hunt, fish and admire the landscape. Some share their experiences online, some write diaries or memoirs .

How is life in Alaska different today from the one a pioneer experienced in the 19th century? How has narratives about Alaska changed since then? What values and ides are present in the narratives? What identity do they express? How did the concepts of the West, nature and the frontier in Alaska changed?

Alaska as one of the isolated states from the mainland, characterised with extreme climate and vast wild and uninhabited areas is often imagined as the last American frontier on Earth. Although Alaska became the 49th state in 1959, numerous people still move there in order to lead a pioneer’s life. They settle in off-grid cottages in a forest, some times miles away from the nearest city or a village. They hunt, fish and admire the landscape. Some share their experiences online, some write diaries or memoirs .

How is life in Alaska different today from the one a pioneer experienced in the 19th century? How has narratives about Alaska changed since then? What values and ides are present in the narratives? What identity do they express? How did the concepts of the West, nature and the frontier in Alaska changed?

The course will include the following or modules:

frontier; nature; adventure; search for the self; First People; women; civilization;

minimalism, DIY culture. Each module consists of 1- 4 classes.

Students will read scientific texts, short stories, fragments of autobiographies and travel memoirs, as well as watch YouTube channels about various aspects of life in Alaska.

Narratives:

Ingstad Helge. 1951/2006. Nunamiut. Among Alaska’s Inland Eskimos. The Country Man Press. (fragment)

Krakauer, Jon. 1997. Into the Wild. Anchor Books. (fragment or Sean Penn's film: Into the Wild).

London, Jack - short stories, for instance To the Man on the Trail.

McPhee, John. 1976. Coming into the Country, Farrar, Straus and Girroux (fragments)

Meaux, Jean Morgan (ed.). 2013. In Pursuit of Alaska. An Anthology of Travelers’ Tales 1879-1909, Univeristy of Washington Press. - selected texts - women’s voices

Miur, John. „Fort Wrangler, Alaska, August 8, 1879” , In Pursuit of Alaska. An Anthology of Travelers’ Tales 1879-1909, edited by Jean Morgan Meaux, Univeristy of Washington Press 2013.

Murie, Margaret. 1951/ 1997. Two in the Far North. Alaska Northwest Books (fragment)

Schooler, Lynn. 2002. The Blue Bear. A True story of Friendship and Discovery in the Alaskan Wild. HarperCollins.(fragment)

Murdoch, John.1988. Ethnological Results of Point Barrow Expedition. Smithsonian Institution Press (fragment)

Velma Wallis. 1993. Two Old Women. An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival. HarperPrennial.

You Tube Channels:

Betting on Alaska

Simple Living Alaska

Our Simple Life

Academic texts (selected chapters)

Chayka, Kyle. 2020. The longing for less. Living with minimalism. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Crowell, Aaron L. et al (ed.) 2010. Living our Cultures. Sharing Or Heritage. The First Poeples of Alaska. Smitsonian Books. (fragment)

Daley, Patrick J. and Beverly A. James. Cultural Politics and the Mass Media Alaskan Native Voices.

Fussel, Edwin.1965 Frontier. American Literature and the American West. Princeton University Press.

Haycox, Stephen Alaska. 2020. An American Colony. University of Washington Press.

Kollin, Susan.2001. Nature’s State. Imaging Alaska as the Last Frontier. The University of North California Press.

Williams, Raymond. 1975. The Country and the City, Oxford University Press.

The reading list may be changed.

Knowledge

Students will know:

- 19th-century as well as 20th- and 21st-century narratives of travellers and of First People in Alaska;

- concepts of frontier, wilderness and civilization

Skills

Students will be able to

- analyze historical and contemporary narratives presenting life in the Alaskan wilderness, and their cultural siginificance,

- decipher identity expressed in autobiographical (textual and multimedia) narratives recounting living in Alaskan wilderness

Social competences

Students will practice speaking in public and giving presentations, as well as

exchanging opinions in discussions about fronitier, minimalism and ecology, as well as the juxtaposition of nature an civilization.

participation - 20% of the final grade

presentation - 30% of the final grade

a mid term paper (short response, 2 pages) - 20% of the final grade

final test (with open questions) - 30%

Grading: 100-88/5; 87-73/4; 72-57/3; 56-0/2