Course description
This course introduces fiction and poetry in a small sampling of the over 1,000 native nations across Turtle Island in North America and Oceania. Thematically, we consider a variety of contemporary issues that impact indigenous story-telling today: environmental and social justice; gender and sexuality; land rights and city life; war and extractive capitalism; and the law and tribal recognition. In our readings, we ask how do the oral, visual, sonic, cosmological, environmental, or political contexts influence contemporary Indigenous authors and their writing? Course texts include poetry by Joy Harjo (Muscogee), Haunani Kay Trask (Kanaka Maoli), Craig Santos Perez (Chamoru), Deborah Miranda (Esselen and Chumash), and Natalie Diaz (Mojave), as well as fiction by Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), Patricia Grace (Maori), Tommy Orange (Cheyenne and Arapaho), and Darcy Little Badger (Lipan Apache). With attention to specific histories and traditions, while also considering shared experiences, we explore how literature plays a role in expressing contemporary indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.
