Introduction to American Indian
Literatures
Summer 2001
English 6339-001
Office Hrs: T-TH, 3-4 p.m. & by apt.
Instructor: Dr. Roemer
405
M-TH, 1-3 p.m., 201
Nature of the Course
/Goals / Assessment
The working (and somewhat
arbitrary) definition of American Indian (or Native American) literatures used
in this course is the body of oral and written literatures created by Indians
within the approximate boundaries of the
Although the course is a
introduction and introductions tend to touch on many issues, two important and
related questions will help to unify the course: what are the artistic, cultural, ideological,
and ethical implications (1) of
transforming oral literatures performed for particular family or tribal
audiences into written literatures in English for either specialized or broad
reading audiences? and (2) the
implications of identifying such a diverse body of oral and written literatures
as "Indian"? The emphasis will
be on "primary" sources (videos in English, Hopi, and Navajo; English
translations of oral materials, texts written in English) though the assigned
short readings and the paper will offer opportunities to examine various
critical and theoretical approaches to the texts.
By the end of the course
students who have successfully completed the in- and out-of-class assignments should be able
to: discuss intelligently, though
certainly not exhaustively, the range, variety, and continuity of significant
Native American oral and written genres (evaluation: classroom presentations and the exams);
understand the importance of the two focal questions mentioned above
(evaluation: class presentations, exams, and possibly the paper); and
demonstrate the ability to define a significant research project related to the
field and to write a research paper that incorporates relevant criticism into
their analysis of (a) particular text(s) (evaluation: the prospectus and the paper).
Required
Ruoff, American Indian Literatures
Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain
Bierhorst, Four Masterworks of Am. Indian Lit. (Night
Chant section; ON RESERVE)
Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks
Underhill, Papago Woman
Silko, Storyteller
Niatum, ed., Harper's Anthol. of 20th Century Native
American Poetry
Tapahonso, Saanii Dahataal AND
Alexie, The Business of Fancy
Dabcing
Momaday, House Made of Dawn OR Welch, Winter
in the Blood
Silko, Ceremony
Erdrich, Love Medicine
Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Short Readings (SR) as
indicated in the outline below
Tentative Schedule of
Topics,
5/29 Introduction to the Introduction
5/29,30,31 A Multi-Genre Introd.: Transforming a Particular Personality, Family,
Culture, and History into "Literature" and "Art": Kiowa Readings: Rainy Mountain; and Rainy
Mountain section of SR; Ruoff
(76-78, 177)
Suppl.: Slides
6/4 Performing/Transforming Oral Literatures: Hopi,
Laguna,
Suppl.: Silko's film, Arrowboy and the Witches ON
RESERVE and a video of a Hopi trickster narrative performance)
6/5,6 Ceremonial Liturgies: Navajo Readings: Matthews' translation of the "Night
Chant" in Bierhorst; Nightway section of SR; Ruoff
(19-39)
Suppl.: "By This Song I Walk" (videotape)
6/7 Examination
(WTRM through Nightway)
6/11-14 Creating Written Lives from Spoken
Encounters: Lakota, O'odham, Pomo, Laguna
Storyteller (6/13,
14);
Ruoff (52-62)
Suppl: "Running on the Edge of the
Rainbow" video as a form of autobiography
6/18 Paper
Prospectus Due
6/18, 19 The Diversity of Written Poetry in
English
6/20-28 From Oral Performance to Fiction
Optional Suppl. Greg Sarris's Grand Avenue HBO film and Alexie's
film Smoke Signals will be ON RESERVE.
6/29 Paper
Due
7/2 Final
Examination
Examinations
During the class before each
of the two exams, I will distribute detailed study sheets that will describe
the essay question(s) options. The exams
are "open book"; you can bring books, notes, and outlines. Grading criteria: I will be particularly interested in how well
you develop coherent arguments directly related to the question(s) and how well
you support your arguments with relevant and specific examples from the
readings and class discussions.
Paper
The paper should focus on
one or a small number of Native American texts.
The critical approach to the text is up to you. In the past I have received excellent papers
with New Critical, New (and old) Historical, anthropological-culture studies,
biographical, and feminist orientations.
Depending on the topic, the length may also vary greatly (from 12 to 20
pages). The two most important criteria are the ability to explain the
significance of your topic and approach and the ability to integrate, in a
convincing and well-organized manner, your positions and the positions of
relevant critics (and theorists if that is relevant to your approach). I also expect no serious problems with
writing "mechanics" (spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc.) The
prospectus (one or two pages; due 6/18) must include: (1) definition of the
scope and significance of the topic; (2)
indication of the primary critical approach(es); (3) tentative indication of
the organization; (4) indication of the most important critical sources.
One of the most valuable on-campus resources for research
on American Indian literatures is UTA's
Minority Cultures Collection on the second floor of the Central
Library. The written and electronic
sources are many. Here is a sampling.
Reference
resources include: A. LaVonne Brown Ruoff's American Indian Literatures; Kenneth
Roemer's Native American Writers of the
United States (Dictionary of Literary
Biography, Vol. 175); Andrew Wiget's Handbook
of Native American Literature;Andrew Wiget's Native American Literature; Janet
Witalec's Native North American
Literature; Daniel Littlefield and James Parin's A Biobibliography of Native American Writers; H. David Brumble, An Annotated Bibliography of American Indian and Eskimo
Autobiographies; Louis Owens & Tom Collonnese's American Indian Novelists; Kay Juricek and Kelly Morgan's Contemporary Native American Authors; (historical / cultural / political
contexts) Jack Utter's American
Indians (rev. ed. fc. 2001-2002). Critical sources include (general) Abraham Chapman, Literature of the American Indian; Paula
Gunn Allen's Studies in American Indian
Literature and The Sacred Hoop; Arnold Krupat's Voice in the Margin and Ethnocriticism; David Murry's Forked Tongues; Brian
Swann's Recovering the Word and (with
Krupat) New Voices in Native American
Literary Criticism; Roger Dunsmore's
Earth's Mind; (oral
literatures) Karl Kroeber, ed. Traditional Literature of the American Indian; Jarold Ramsey, Reading the Fire;Dell Hymes, In Vane I Tried to Tell You; Brian Swann, Smoothing the Ground; (life stories) H. David Brumble, American Indian Autobiography; Arnold
Krupat's For Those Who Come After; Hertha Wong's Sending My Heart Back Across the Years; Kay Sands's Telling a Good One; (poetry
written in English) Michael Castro's Interpreting
the Indian; Kenneth Lincoln's Sing With the Heart of the Bear and Native American Renaissance; Norma Wilson's Native American Poetry; (drama) Hanay Geiogamah's New Native American Drama and Stories
of Our Way; (fiction) Charles Larson's American
Indian Fiction (out of date),
Kenneth Lincoln's Native American
Renaissance, Louis Owens' Other
Destinies and Mixedblood Messages, Richard Fleck's Critical Perspectives on Native American Fiction, James Ruppert's Mediation in Contemporary Native American
Fiction, Catherine Rainwater, Dreams
of Fiery Stars, Eric Gary Anderson, American
Indian Literature and the Southwest, Sid Larsen, Captive in the Middle, Susan Berry Brill de Ramirez, Contemporary American Indian Literatures and
the Oral Tradition, Joni Adamson's American
Indian Literature, Environmental Justice and Ethnocriticism, Craig Womack's
Red on Red, and Jace Weaver's That the People Might Live. Important journals
include: SAIL (Studies in American Indian
Literatures), which has its own excellent Web site (see the inside front
cover of the current issue), American Indian Culture and Research Journal
(AICRJ), American Indian Quarterly (AIQ), and Wicazo Sa Review. Some excellent
articles have also appeared in less specialized journals such as Critical Inquiry, College English, American
Literary History, PMLA, Modern Fiction Studies, and American Literature. Bibliographical guides to articles and
books on specific authors can be found in recent issues of American Literary Scholarship, the
PMLA Bibliographies, SAIL, AICRJ . The First Search internet resource available
in the Library can also be helpful. Many
Web sites can provide information on
Native writers in general and on specific authors. Besides the SAIL site mentioned above (<http://www.richmond.edu/~rnelson/SAILns/>
) which does have a good Listserv for
ASAIL members, one
of the best general sites is <www.anpa.ualr.edu> , the American Native
Press Archives. Another excellent Web site is the
Approximate Grading
Weights
First Exam (20%); Final Exam (30%); Prospectus & Paper
(50%).
Important note: For each class, after the first class, each
student will be asked to focus on a particular part of the next week's reading
or on a particular question related to the reading. Often these will be small group
assignments. Your responses to these
questions (informal oral presentations) can be an important factor in your
semester grade. If by the end of the
semester your exam and paper average is a B(+) , but you have made consistently
good presentations in class, I can raise your semester grade to an A- , which
on your transcript will appear as an A.
Class and University Policies
Warnings: (1)
Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty will be handled according to
University policies. (If you are
confused about what constitutes academic dishonesty, especially plagiarism,
contact me or consult the
Encouragement: (1)
I respect improvement. If you receive a less-than-sterling grade on the first
exam, but your class presentation and written work improve, I will weigh the
latter work more heavily. (2) As indicated above, consistent and strong
class participation can improve your semester grade significantly. (3) In
cooperation with the Counseling and Student Disabilities Offices, I am very
willing to work with disabled students.