Contemporary Native American Literature

Sophie Croisy
sophie.croisy@uvsq.fr

This course will offer students an overview of Native American literature through readings of literary and critical texts that participate in unfolding the major issues and themes that are being addressed by Native authors today, the main issue being that of representation.

Though this course will focus specifically on contemporary literary and critical Native writings, students will quickly realize that the themes covered in these texts are in fact transhistorical. Thus, the conversations we will share on these writings will take us back in time as we will need to look at the communal, national and transnational political developments undergone by native communities in the 19th and 20th centuries to give a social and political context to contemporary literature and the themes addressed in it; to better understand these developments and changes, we will also refer to earlier Native literary texts when necessary.
Contemporary Native American writers address the specificities of their communities in their work and are very much concerned with local issues of self-determination and cultural continuance, aspects of Native American literature we will specifically focus on in our discussions on the texts, though a multiplicity of other themes will be addressed.

September-December 2012

-a brochure with literary and critical texts will be handed out to the students on the first day of class
- other required reading:
Louise Erdrich. Love Medicine

-One mid-term oral examination /20 and one oral participation grade /20
-One final paper in class /20