Meets the following requirements: W HS   

Native American literature is preeminently and humanly ecological. The category of Native American Literature is also problematic and political.  Native Americans writers come from many different cultures, yet there seems to be a general theme of Pan-Indianness to the genre, as it has been defined  Native Americans who do not write about native life are not taught in Native American Literature classes.  To what uses is this tradition being put, and by whom?  Some Native authors deeply and profoundly seek to share their wisdom with Westerners; others express anger and despair; still others do not wish non-natives to write about their work.  This class will simultaneously engage students in the challenge of reading Native American Literature and consider the risks of appropriating it.  We survey creation stories;  myths and tales; songs and early documents; stories and speeches from the nineteenth-century period of Indian removals, wars, exterminations and the development of the reservation system; and the literature that has developed in the second half of the twentieth century.  In this writing focused section of Native American Literature, our discussion will be literary, informed by considerations of history and culture.  Students will be asked to do written and oral analyses of particular texts while considering the risks and rewards of studying a literature as it develops, a literature both produced and contaminated by its interaction with Anglo-American culture and conquest.  Analysis will also focus actively on the challenges of defining a tradition based on what is often an outsiders view.  Students will write and revise four short papers with an emphasis on writing as process.  There will be an additional, required laboratory section for conferencing on papers and peer review.  The focus of the essays will be on effective integration of quoted material and development of literary arguments.   Taking two courses with a W or writing focused designation is equivalent to meeting the Writing Requirement.

Level: Introductory.  Preference is given to first-year students.  Class Limit: 12.  Lab fee $10.  *W* * HS *