We’ll encounter celebrated shapeshifters from the mythologies of several world regions, including the Pacific, the Western U.S., and Central America. We'll think about how trickster figures like Etao of the Marshall Islands, swimming as a parrot fish or shooting hoops as a basketball player, or Kamapua'a of Hawai’i, running through the forest as a hog or wooing Goddess Pele as a handsome youth, remain vital to people’s lives and stories. In the works we read and in the orature we experience, we'll see how traditional stories, beliefs, and practices exist alongside—and, at times, inform—contemporary situations and practices.Along with close reading, we’ll examine select primary works through the lens of cultural criticism: Lewis Hyde’s Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art. This critical approach will allow us to identify trickster behaviors and traits in stories and poems, and to consider contemporary artists who employ a trickster consciousness—a playful, disruptive, sometimes paradigm-shifting practice of artmaking and imagining.Students will write two essays (one analytical, one hybrid or narrative account). Brief weekly writings in and outside of class will keep us engaged with the stories and poems, and they will help us be prepared to draft the essays. As part of a small group, each student will present contextual cultural information, facilitate an activity and discussion about a poem or story, or share a contemporary artist’s work.Writing 2 continues the work begun in Writing 1 on strengthening students' ability to write, read and discuss at the college level, with emphasis on literary and visual analysis, and research and argumentation skills. The course will revolve around a specific theme selected by the instructor.

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