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Materials

• Course information

  • Meets: MW, 11:30-1:20 p.m.
  • Room: Condon 105

• Instructor information

  • Kimberlee Gillis-Bridges
  • Padelford A305
  • 206.543.4892
  • kgb[at]u[dot]washington[dot]edu

• Office Hours

  • MW, 9:00-10:00, or by appt.


• Leslie Marmon Silko

  "So in Ceremony we have in this old story the idea that we human beings are not dependable creatures, we are easily lured from one way or another, we get out of balance and out of harmony with our natural surroundings and also we can get out of harmony with one another. And then it is quite difficult and painful but necessary to make a kind of ceremony to find our way back. I began to realize that hasn't changed. Human beings can have lessons of things that happened in the past, in history, and say Look, this is what happens. But somehow people sometimes won't pay attention, won't listen and we have to suffer through and have to learn again, remember all over again why it is that we have to have a certain respect or care for hard work and for working with one another. There is no magic that is going to hand things over. When I wrote Ceremony I realized that this old story is still very relevant, even now, even though these old stories take place in the past they have meaning now. Oral literatures of the indigenous populations worldwide contain these kinds of valuable insights. When Sigmund Freud wrote his Interpretation of Dreams, he began to respect folklore. You can look at the old stories that were told among the tribal people here in a north country and see that within them is the same kind of valuable lessons about human behavior and that we need them still. ” ("An Interview With Leslie Marmon Silko ," Alt-X)