American Indian Life Narratives
Spring 2006
English 3344-001 Office hours: T/TH
3:30-5 or by apt.; 405
Dr. Roemer Please schedule all appointments.
T/TH: 11-12:20 Phone: 817-272-2729; please leave name and phone number.
Preston Hall 100 roemer@uta.edu (note: I prefer phone messages.)
Autobiography is one of the most popular and most controversial forms of Native American literature. There are hundreds of compelling collaborative and single-authored narratives. There are also fake life stories and misleading as-told-to collaborations between Native and non-Natives that have mislead generations of readers. Instead of emphasizing the latter, the course focuses on life narratives performed or written, primarily in English, by American Indians in the 18th, 19th, and especially the 20th centuries. The focus invites questions particular to Native American writing--for instance, concepts of self that blur communal and individual boundaries and negotiations between written and oral literature, as well as issues relevant to all written creations of “lives”—for example: how the selection, ordering, and interpretation of experiences, how the intended audiences and presumed intentions of the author/performer, and how literary forms define the written or performative self. Form will be especially important to our discussions (hence the title “Shaping Lives.”) We discuss the self defined in song, pictograph, and oral narrative; in Christian conversion and other forms of assimilation narratives; in blends of cultural history, natural history and protest manifestos; in collaborations between two Indians; in collections of mythic recreations, non-fiction, fiction, poetry, and visual images (including photography); and in different types of films (readings, interviews, performed vignettes, feature-length). I also suggest the diversity of the literature by including personae as young as six-year old and (almost) as old as a century, men and women from different tribes, eras, and regions; and narrative times-spans as broad as several centuries and as concentrated as a pregnancy and birth.
Goals/Assessment
Students who complete the readings and assignments successfully will: (1) be acquainted with 13 significant autobiographical texts written by Native Americans, as well as a beginning knowledge of how song, story, visual images, and four films represent Native lives; (2) have knowledge of the importance of the various forms of written and performed literature indicated above; (3) be able to address the specific and general autobiographical issues listed above; (4) have experience representing their lives in two forms of written expression; and (5) have demonstrated the ability to write a brief research paper on American Indian autobiography.
For methods of achieving these goals and evaluating student performance, see the Topics, Readings, Tentative Schedule; Examinations; Exercises; Papers; and Approximate Grading Weights sections.
Required Readings/Viewing (CP = course packet)
CP: Wong
http://faculty.csusb.edu/dcarlson/AmericanIndian Autobiography/index.html
By This Song I Walk [film shown in class]
CP: Occom, Apess, Copway, Winnemucca
Zitkala-Sa, American Indian Stories
CP: Eastman, Standing Bear
Mathews, Talking to
the Moon
Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain
CP: Deloria
Silko, Storyteller
Running on the Edge of the Rainbow [film shown in class]
Sarris, Mabel McKay
Erdrich, Blue Jay’s Dance
Naturally Native [film shown in class]
Sun, Moon, and Feather [film shown in class]
Topics,
To indicate changes over time and the importance of historical/cultural contexts, I organized the course materials chronologically. As Hertha Wong indicates in her essay, there are many other approaches to organization (e.g., form, region, tribes, gender).
1/17, 19 Introductions: to the Course, to American Indian History, to American Indian Literatures, and to American Indian Life Narratives
1/19 Identity
Experiment Due
Singing, Telling, and Drawing the Self
1/19 Non-Written Forms of Life Narrative
Reading/Viewing: CP (Wong); By This Song I Walk (in Navajo)
1/24 Short-Answer Exam on Wong’s Essay
1/24,26 18th- and 19th-Century Childhood and Adult Conversions from the Northeast
1/31,2/2 The Self
as Historical / Tribal Protest from the
2/7, 9,14 Gender and
Immersion Transformation: Boarding-School Cases Studies from “
2/16 Essay
Exam
Life “
2/21,23,28 Roots
Deeper that
3/2,7,9 Roots in a Hollow Log that Speaks Three Voices
3/13-19 Spring Break
3/21 Essay
Exam
3/23 Three-Voice
Identity Exercise Due
Autobiography & Manifesto
3/23 A Dedicated Life
Multi-Media
3/[23],28,30, The Selves of a “Laguna Woman”
4/4
Reading/Viewing: Silko’s Storyteller; Running on the Edge of the Rainbow [film]
The Vitality of Old and New Lives
4/[6], 11,13 Indian
/ Indian: A
4/13 Research
Paper Prospectus Due
4/18,20,25 Of Bodies and Birthing: The Miraculous in the Mundane
Indian Women’s Lives on Stage and in Film, Coast to Coast
4/27; [5/2] One Life-in-Three of a
Viewing: Valerie Red Horse’s Naturally Native [film]
5/2 Brooklyn, Via
Viewing: Spider Woman Theater’s Sun, Moon, Feather [film]
5/4 Review for Final
5/9 Final
Exam
Examinations
The first exercise (due 1/19) will be a (pass/fail) outline explained during the first class. The second (due 3/23) will be a personal application of Momaday’s three-voice approach to written identity creation: i.e., you will use three voices to create a section similar to one of Momaday’s 24 sections using stories, “facts,” and memories from your own life. I will distribute a detailed guide and samples.
Length: approximately 2,000 words (approximately eight pages); due date: 5/4.
Criteria: The paper should demonstrate your ability: (1) to
select a focus appropriate for the paper length and an argument that you can
justify as being significant to readers; (2) to integrate your own ideas and
the ideas of scholars and critics (at least five); i.e., enter the critical
conversation about the text(s); (3) to support arguments adequately and to
organize them in logical and convincing ways;
(4) to master basic mechanics of writing (grammar, spelling,
punctuation, etc.). (The
Although the prospectus (due 4/13) will be graded, it should not be perceived as a straight jacket. Major changes are appropriate if they will improve the quality of the paper. The prospectus (approximately 1 - 3 pages typed) must include:
1. A one-to-three sentence statement of the thesis that defines the primary question(s) addressed and the focus of the paper.
2. A one-to-four sentence statement of the significance of the thesis/question.
3. A one-to-five sentence statement of the anticipated method(s) used (e.g., biographical, feminist, ethnic studies, New Critical) and why the method(s) are appropriate.
4. A one-to-five sentence initial and tentative description of the organization of the paper.
5. A brief, short-title list that indicates the major critical sources (indicate any problems anticipated obtaining these sources).
Wong’s “major secondary sources” list is a good place to
begin looking for critical sources on autobiography. One book she does not list
(because it is “brand new”) is David J. Carlson’s Sovereign Selves: American Indian Autobiography and the Law (
The MultiCultural Collection on the second floor of the Central Library is an excellent place to search for written and Internet sources.
Approximate Grading Weights
Short Answer Exam 5%
Two Exercises 10%
First essay Exam 20%
Second Essay Exam 15%
Research Paper 30% (5% for prospectus)
Constructive Warnings
Professors are no longer allowed to drop students for excessive absences. If you plan to withdraw from the course, you must follow University procedures. If you do not, you will receive an F for the semester. Excessive unexcused absences (more than FIVE classes) will affect your grade (half grade for each set of FIVE absences), since the group discussions / presentations are a significant part of the class time.
In the past I have had few problems with plagiarism or other forms of academic dishonesty. An excellent definition of plagiarism is included in the MLA Handbook, 6th ed. (Chapter 2). Instances of academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, will be turned over to the office of the Associate Vice-President for Student Affairs.
Encouragement
Intangible grading factors: improvement and consistent class participation (especially in the group discussions and presentations) have turned many a C+ into a B- and quite a few B+s into A-s. I am very willing to accommodate disabled students. Early in the semester, they should present their authorized documents from appropriate University offices. Students needing academic or personal counseling should consult the English Undergraduate Advisor and if necessary the Office of Student Success Programs (817-272-6107)