Syllabus
English 240, World Literature: Issues in Indigenous Literatures, CRN 44119
NAS 310, Native American Literature, CRN 44124
Days and times: 11-12:20 TR; Classroom: Founders Hall 177;
Prof. J. W. Powell, Ph.D.; Office 110 University Annex, 11-12 Mondays and Fridays, W 11:30-12:30 at Wildberry’s; Tues 1:30-2:30, and by appt. Phone 826-5753; E-mail jwp2@humboldt.edu; I live in my office daytimes when not teaching or in committee meetings—your odds are fairly good of finding me if you stop by.
Description: This course provides an introduction to literature by American Indian writers and to issues raised in those works, emphasizing contemporary sources and issues which resonate world-wide. We will look at works originating in oral traditions and at works central to Native American literary history when those works are intimately bound up in current works. (Many oral traditions are contemporary in Native American Literature.) We will also look at contemporary works of autobiography, fiction, poetry, and essays. We will consider some problems in literary criticism, but our primary focus will be on involvement with texts. We will learn skills necessary to literary study by practicing them. Because the course cannot take up the wealth of material available in a thorough way, we will also look at resources for further investigation after the course is over for those students who wish to continue.
This course involves a change of topic and change of instructor for those signed up for ENGL 240. Briefly, none of Prof. Michael Eldridge’s selection of works remain in the course, but several of the issues in which he is interested remain. American Indian literary works are often clearly anti-colonial literature. Other themes should be clear from the list of issues below. Further, Prof. Eldridge and I, I think, share a conviction that some of these are among the most important things literature can address.
ENGL 240 is a four-credit course while NAS 310 is for three. I will detail for the ENGL 240 students additional work they will do for the fourth credit. Here’s a summary: You will choose a Native American poet or novelist or short story writer (I’ll provide suggestions) and become an expert on that author, with one-page progress reports every three weeks on what you have read and how those works illuminate for you what World Lit is and what Native American Lit is, and a four-to-six page paper at the end on a topic decided in collaboration with me.
Issues: We will address some of the following issues or problems:
What does it mean to belong to a culture’s canon (that set of documents and artworks by which a culture defines itself)? What kinds of arguments justify a work’s inclusion in a canon? Is there a Native American canon (as opposed to tribal canons, and as opposed to an Anglo canon)? If so, what are its relations and possible relations to the surrounding non-Indian culture? Is it possible to sketch a larger canon which includes both Indian and non-Indian work? How is Indian lit anti-colonial?
Is the history of genocide, oppression, poverty, and removals a necessary part of Native American identity? How might the answer to this be affected by increases in the number of mixed-blood tribal members?
What (apart from being recognized by the U.S. government) does it mean to be a tribal member? An Indian? Where do legal answers fit into this? How does the tendency to romanticize Indians mislead us on these issues?
What are the (serious and non-serious) functions of humor for Indian authors?
What are the costs of poverty, alcoholism, and alienation from the dominant culture for Indians? Are there advantages as well?
What are the roles and functions of stories and storytelling among Indians? Are these roles and functions different from the roles and functions among non-Indians? Are there literary forms which particularly suit Indian authors? Are there other forms which are anathema to Indians?
Are rescues of spiritual truths or connections by way of magic or mysticism real, or are magic and mysticism only ways of fooling ourselves (or both or neither)? Must spiritual health be founded in mysticism or magic? Can literature help articulate things which otherwise are beyond words?
Are there sacred matters which should not be shared among the non-initiated? Why or why not?
To what extent are issues about alienation vs. being at home (in a tribe, in a tradition, in a landscape, etc.) central in Native American Literature? To what extent do Native writers regard it a mistake to identify ourselves as individual and autonomous (and dualistic, meaning mind-and-body) persons? What results or insights on those issues can we derive from their works?
How are literary issues such as those above like and unlike issues in other disciplines (for instance, issues in science, in law, in economics, in religion, in domestic life, in education)? What distinguishes literary approaches from those others?
Students with particular interests in any of these issues will be encouraged to extend their research beyond this course and write on them, and to share their work with the class. This is not a complete list. Other issues will be noted as authors bring them up.
Format: The course will be mixed lecture and discussion, in varying proportions over the semester. Some discussion may be conducted in small groups, though most will be the class as a whole. There will be opportunities for participation in discussion via e-mail. Some readings will be on Blackboard, requiring students to have access to a Web browser. Each student will be asked to present discussion of a work to the class, either orally or by distributing a two-to-three-page handout.
Texts: Gerald Vizenor, Native American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology (Longman: 1995) (ISBN 0-673-46978-6) and Joy Harjo and Gloria Bird, eds., Reinventing the Enemy’s Language (W.W. Norton: 1998) ISBN 0393318281) will be our main texts, but several readings will be posted on Blackboard to be accessed via the Internet. Some readings will be distributed as paper copies in class. We will also hear some storytellers in class.
Attendance is required, and any student who misses more than five classes (out of thirty scheduled) without conferring with the instructor will be penalized. (5 absences will cut 1/3 grade point off your final grade; 6-10 absences, one full grade point off. No student who misses more than ten sessions will be allowed to pass the course.)
Grading: There will be two essay midterms and an essay final. Each exam will consist of a few short-answer questions, and then the main part will be several questions distributed a week ahead, from which students will choose one or two and write either take-home essays or in class, your choice. Format for your essays will be discussed in class. Outstanding discussion either in class or via e-mail can raise your final grade by one-third of a grade point. The the two midterms, the discussion presentation, and the final will be the main part of your grade, each counting one fourth. Attendance and discussion will be factored in at the end. A handout on grading criteria for the essays will be distributed in class, as part of introductory material on the basics of studying literature. If students are not keeping up with the reading, as evidenced by the quality of discussion, I will begin to give quizzes at the very beginning of each class, usually consisting of five multiple-choice questions which I will not return except to post a key on Blackboard. These quizzes may raise or lower a student’s grade by one third grade point at the end. Missed exams or quizzes cannot be made up. I give no Incompletes.
Teacher: (If I'm telling you more than you want, I apologize.) I am an Associate Professor in Philosophy, with particular interests in ancient Greek philosophy, philosophy of language, and the study of philosophical methods--and Native American philosophy. I've been teaching at HSU full time since the fall of 1993, after having taught at the University of Oregon (mostly part time while teaching for, advising for, and coordinating the Educational Opportunities Program there), Oregon State University, and Chemeketa Community College. My teaching before I came here was mostly in literature, writing, and critical thinking. I did an undergraduate degree in literature with honors course work, and three years plus of graduate work in literature before I was recruited into philosophy. I have written on Native American influences in philosophy, have attended Native American academic conferences, and have presented at the Navajo Studies Conference on issues regarding the relation of Navajo sandpaintings to non-Indian or non-Navajo theories of art. I routinely use Indian examples (writing and artworks) and issues in my philosophy teaching.
Schedule: This is very tentative. Many of these works could raise issues which make us slow down, and neglected issues may demand attention, depending on interests of the class. If we get on the scent of something interesting, then we may change direction for a while. Most of the poetry and short story titles in the Vizenor anthology and the Harjo-and-Bird anthology are not given. (Bb=Blackboard; GV=Vizenor anthology; JH=Harjo anthology Res=On Reserve (not =on the reservation); H=classroom handout.)
Week One: A quick sample of brief works and then methods. Elizabeth Cook Lynn, “The End of a Metaphor” (limits of literature and prettying things up by putting them in stories), from Why I Can’t Read Wallace Stegner and Other Essays (Bb). Sherman Alexie, “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” (Bb). Selected Poems (H).
Two: Methods continued. Leslie Marmon Silko, “Lullaby” (Bb). Thomas King, “The One about Coyote Going West,” (H). Vizenor, “Measuring My Blood” (GV). Duane Niatum, selected poems (Bb). Symbols which live vs. symbols pulled out of the attic. Joseph Bruchac, “Contemporary Native American Writing: An Overview” (Bb).
Three: How Native American Literature may be different from other literature: Louis Owens on Darcy McNickle (H). Selections from Darcy McNickle (Bb). Deloria’s “Foreward” to Black Elk Speaks, and selections from his The Metaphysics of Modern Experience.
Four: Oral traditions and literature: Paul Zolbrod on capturing the poetic effects of oral tradition in texts (H). Selections from Dine Bahane (the Navajo creation and origin account) (Bb).
Five: Autobiography and Native Identity, and the need for identity as a regrettable effect of some profound loss; Momaday on the arrival at Rainy Mountain (GV). Elizabeth Cook Lynn on an Indian in white man’s courtroom, and law as substitute for what is lost (H). The contrast between achieved identities and growing up at home. Joy Harjo, “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window.”
Six: Lyric poetry. Selected poems, various authors (GV, H, JH). Lance Henson, “Another Song for America.” James Welch, “The Day the Children Took Over.”
Seven: Lyric poetry continued.
Eight: Short story. Selected short stories, various authors (GV, H).
Nine: Short story continued.
Ten: longer works: from Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Leslie Marmon Silko, from Almanac of the Dead.
Eleven: Longer works continued ( Ceremony? Dark River? The Sharpest Sight?)
Twelve: The storyteller figure. Cheap rebellion vs. deep subversion. Silko, from Almanac of the Dead (Bb). Faris, selections from The Nightway (Bb, illustrations Res). The question of archetypes: “Coyote Meets Raven” by Peter Blue Cloud and the meaning of trickster figures. (Maybe also “Coyote’s Anthro” by PBC?)
Thirteen: Local storytellers. Storytelling as genre-busting. Stories and discussion. On angelica root and grief, from Ararapikva, by Julian Lang. “Interview with Julian Lang,” by Mark McKenna.
Fourteen: Neglected issues, loose ends, leftover presentations.
Fifteen: How to continue in Native American Literature.
Final exams. The scheduled time for our final is Thursday, 18 December, at 10:20-12:10.
Prayer for First Day, American Indian Lit
May these things we say here not be words.
May they have a trajectory and a weight.
May we tilt our heads back,
May we let our feet come out our mouths,
Let our bellies and bowels come out our mouths,
Let our tear ducts and our scratches,
Our stab and exit wounds come out our mouths.
Let our living ancestors and our children
Fly around us, strike us with blows
And kiss and caress us.
Let this work of ours not be stuck on pages,
Let this work not be caught in a room,
Let it not move from within one wall
To within another wall.
Let every thing we say be our viscera
And our blood,
And let our stories be our lives
And let our lives be prayers.
Here are links to some handouts and essay assignment prompts: