This introductory course analyzes several key works of Native American literature and culture from the early 20th century to the present, focusing on the ways Native peoples' engagements with European colonization shape cultural forms and content. In addition to exploring these connections between culture and politics, we will consider the role of traditions and issues of gender in Native writing as well as the ways the assigned works engage stereotypes of and popular narratives about Native peoples. Our analyses will cover a broad range of materials including novels, plays, essays, manifestoes, poems, and films, exploring the work of such authors as D'Arcy McNickle, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Monique Mojica, and Sherman Alexie.

In addition to being Arts and Letters group-satisfying, this course also fulfills the UO multicultural requirement, category B: Identity, Pluralism, and Tolerance because of its engagement with the changing nature of Native identities and the historical and contemporary relationships between Native communities and the dominant U.S. society.