English 453 M SEMINAR IN LATER AMERICAN LITERATURE, Parker. TUTH 9:30-10:45
TOPIC: American Indian Literature

One course cannot "cover" the enormous chronological, cultural, or generic range of Native American literature, but it can gather a sampling of fascinating works, and it can introduce the fields of American Indian literature and American Indian studies both in themselves and as part of the larger framework of contemporary American literary study. We will begin with oral tales and the practice and theory of translating and writing down Native American oral literature. Then we will read two novels from the 1930s: John Joseph Mathews’ Sundown and D’Arcy McNickle’s The Surrounded. In the second half of the semester we will concentrate on fiction and poetry from the great burgeoning of American Indian literature in the last thirty years, including Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine, and Thomas King’s Medicine River, as well as poetry by Ray A. Young Bear, Joy Harjo, Erdrich, Chrystos, and Sherman Alexie. Early on, we will also read theoretical accounts of cultural identity and of Native American identities. Please note that a possibly lengthy reading assignment for the first class will be posted by my office door at least one week before classes begin. Anyone considering the course is welcome to talk with me before registering (my office is EB 329). Writing assignments will include your choice of either a) three short-to-medium length papers or b) one short paper followed by a paper that aspires to article scale. Assigned reading will include (tentatively) the above five novels, the volumes listed below, and a large amount of additional material. (It might be useful to add that this is an exciting time to take up American Indian studies in graduate work at the UIUC, as we are witnessing the birth of a new Native American Center, an American Indian Studies Program, and a cooperative network for Indian studies with major universities across the midwest.)

TEXTS: Paul Radin, The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology, 1956; Finding the Center: Narrative Poetry of the Zuni Indians, ed. Dennis Tedlock, 1972, 1999; Ray A. Young Bear, Black Eagle Child: The Facepaint Narratives, 1992; Robert Dale Parker, The Invention of Native American Literature, 2003.