Studies in Native American and Indigenous Literatures (374-0-20)
Topic
Protest Indigenous Literature: From Red Power to S
Instructors
Kelly E Wisecup
Meeting Info
Kresge Centennial Hall 2-329: Tues, Thurs 11:00AM - 12:20PM
Overview of class
The Laguna Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko wrote in 1977 that stories are "all we have to fight off illness and death." 40 years later, in 2017, Orion Magazine published a cluster of poems written by Native writers "for the Water Protectors at Standing Rock." How, this course asks, have stories and poems been part of Indigenous protest movements and decolonial resistance? How have Indigenous writers used novels, newspapers, and films to document, critique, and refuse what Nick Estes calls settler colonial common sense?
This course examines the interrelated stories of Native American literatures & resistance movements from the Red Power activism of the 1960s-1970s to the water protectors at Standing Rock. We'll examine how writers like Louise Erdrich have used fiction to intervene in legal protections and policies for Indigenous women. We'll examine how speculative fiction and visual art imagine beyond a world shaped by colonialism and climate change. By pairing these literary texts with Indigenous Studies scholarship, we'll examine the different approaches Indigenous writers have taken to questions of sovereignty, environmental justice, legal jurisdiction, and political recognition.
Teaching Method
Discussion; short lectures; hands-on archive workshops.
Class Materials (Required)
Please purchase the following texts. Additional readings will be available on Canvas.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, As We Have Always Done (978-1-5179-0387-9)
Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (9780143104919)
Deborah Miranda, Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir (9781597142014)
Louise Erdrich, The Round House (9780062065254)
Cherie Dimaline, The Marrow Thieves (9781770864870)
Texts will be available at: University Bookstore. Many used editions of these books are available for purchase online; any of these are great. Bookshop.org supports local bookstores and is a good alternative to Amazon. Native-owned and independent bookstores also carry these books. See Louise Erdrich's store Birchbark Books, which will ship books (be sure to order well in advance): https://birchbarkbooks.com/ or for Evanston/Chicago bookstores, check out Bookends & Beginnings (Evanston); Women and Children First (Andersonville); or Unabridged (Lakeview).
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
U.S. Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity