Course details

Name: ENGL - 315

Title: AMERICAN INDIAN THEMES: INDIGENOUS LITERATURES OF NORTH AMERICA

Section: 01

Semester: Fall - 2023

Credits: 3

Description:
This course in ethnopoetics will survey the very extensive and diverse bodies of traditional Native American literatures from Guatemala to Alaska, the largest and richest collection of oral literatures in the World, emerging from thousands of years of indigenous American presence on the continent. We will study the process of composition and transmission by which all oral literatures generate and sustain themselves (and from which "poetic" discourse itself historically originates).

We will read, view and discuss transcribed (and video) texts and performances of pre-Columbian, colonial and contemporary narratives, songs, ritual chant and speeches beginning with the masterwork of the Quiché Maya, the Popol Vuh. We will read selected texts from Nahua (Aztec), Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Dakota, Diné (Navajo), Yaqui, Chinook, Pueblo (Hopi, Zuñi, Acoma), Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), Lenape (Delaware) and Tlingit traditions. We will read several of the most influential recorded speeches of Native Americans who led resistance movements against the predations of European colonial powers in the displacement of indigenous societies and territories. We will read at least one novel and a selection of poems by contemporary Native American writers who speak for the circumstances of Native American peoples in the 21st century, USA. We will discuss the continuing influence of these literatures in contemporary American writing and the circumstances of "survivance" and flourishing of literatures among Native peoples and their traditions down the present.

In the process of reviewing these literary materials we will become acquainted with the many contexts of struggle and survival through which Native nations have defined and redefined themselves in their relationships to the modern nations—US, Mexico, Canada—which have grown up around them. For English majors this course will count in the ethnic studies and international issues categories and as pre-1900.
Midterm quiz; a class report, and a term paper. Both the report and the paper could be team projects for teams of 2 or 3 students.

Last updated on 2023-03-25 By Lykidis Alexios (lykidisa)

Schedule: Tuesday From 2:30 pm To 5:00 pm

Graduation requirements:

  • Pre-1900 American (TE 1c)
  • Other American (TE 1d)
  • Pre-1900 (1c)
  • International Issues (3a)
  • Ethnic Studies (3b)

Teaching Faculty: Gingerich Willard (gingerichw)

Is course canceled: No