Each student is responsible for reading the books and writing a critical assessment of the content in terms of how it relates to the focus of the course, "land and life" historically in the Southwest. Certain things should be emphasized in the review. First, state the extent to which the book achieves our goal. Comment on how sufficiently the book portrays the people and their relationship to the land (land being defined loosely to include territory, water, flora, fauna, etc.). Second, critique the authenticity of the book. Here, you should pay special attention to the writer's goal, audience, background (educational as well as ethnic), and perspective. Biases should be discussed. Third, you should state how your understanding, attitudes, or perception of the Southwest has been changed by the book. Finally, the review should integrate information, ideas or materials discussed in class or with which you are personally familiar from other classes, experience, etc.
The review should be 500-700 words in length, or approximately 2-3 double-spaced pages. Do not take up a lot of space with unnecessary information. Do not use a cover sheet or any type of folder. Head each review with one line containing a short title and your name.
Examples of some good and not so good book reviews are on reserve in the Life Sciences Library in the Main Building.
This is not necessarily an easy assignment. These are not "book reports." The operative is "critical assessment." The literary definition of critical is: Characterized by careful, exact evaluation and judgment. Being critical in this sense does not mean to find fault with or to denigrate. "Judgement" is the operative here. One definition of judgment is : The capacity to form an opinion by distinguishing and evaluating. Another is: An opinion formed after consideration or deliberation. Being judgmental in this sense does not to cast dispersions upon. The operative here is "opinion." Opinion is defined as: A judgment based on special knowledge and given by an expert; a judgment or estimation of the merit of a thing; and a conclusion held with confidence but not substantiated by positive knowledge or proof. Opinion should not be confused with some viceral emotion, whim, or caprice. In sum, the assignment is for you to render your opinion, to evaluate each book carefully, with deliberation, using your special knowledge, before passing judgment in regard to the theme of this course.
The assignment is to visit an art museum or gallery that specializes in, or at least contains some "Southwestern" works. A couple of really good choices in Austin are El Taller Gallery (2438 West Anderson Lane), and Mexic-Arte Museum (419 Congress Ave.). Others might exist in your hometown or wherever you are going on Spring Break. For example, the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville and the Sid Richardson Museum in Fort Worth both have fine collections of Cowboy Art, the Museum of Fine Art in Houston has a nice Native American collection, the San Antonio Museum of Art has a nice collection of Spanish Colonial Art, and, finally, a most thorough and exquistie collection of Spanish Colonial Art constitutes the Museo Franz Mayer in Mexico City. It makes no difference which gallery or museum you visit. While there, look over the various pieces, be they paintings, prints, etchings, drawings, sculptures, rugs, blankets, ceramics, metal work, etc. Then, prepare a one or two-page paper explaining what you saw and how you felt. You may focus on one piece that you personally find intriguing. Or, you may discuss the corpus of works. Do not describe! Attempt to convey what the artist is telling you. Be critical. Be insightful.
On a separate but related note, you might be interested in knowing that some art galleries and museums have websites and post works of art online. A seach via Yahoo, Google, or some other search engine, should result in the discovery of some. As good as these are, however, they are not as good as visiting a museum or gallery, in person. Accordingly, online "visits" are not permitted for this exercise.
Created by William E. Doolittle. Last revised 21 May 2008, wed