Ovidius University, Constanta

Faculty of Letters

Instructor:
Ludmila Martanovschi

Contemporary American Indian Literature(s)

MA Program 2015-2016
course: 1h / week; seminar: 1h / week

Course Description: The course focuses on contemporary writers who have had a
significant role in the shaping of a visible American Indian literature in the recent
decades. The survey of this particular minority literature in the USA takes students from
the understanding of the basics in the field to the study of representative poetry (Simon
Ortiz, Joy Harjo), fiction (Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie), drama (LeAnne Howe and
Roxy Gordon) and autobiography. The texts will be presented from a decolonizing
perspective, which implies the inclusion of cultural, historical and anthropological
considerations. A recent endeavor developed by indigenous groups all around the world,
decolonization has become quintessential to the field of American Indian Studies.
Objectives: Students are expected to read both primary and secondary sources, to
approach text analysis from an informed perspective and to contribute to class
discussions. By the end of the semester students will have developed the skills of
responding critically to the culturally specific works discussed during the course and the
seminar.
Course Requirements and Grading:

attendance + participation (50 %);

final examination (50 %)

Week 1

Introduction

Week 2

American Indian Literary Developments in the Twentieth Century.

Critical Perspectives

Week 3

Memory, Storytelling and Acoma Pueblo Culture Simon Ortiz

Week 4

Simon Ortiz: selection of poems Woven Stone (seminar)

Week 5

Cultural Survival and Feminine Empowerment Joy Harjo 28 oct

Week 6

Joy Harjo: selection of poems How We Became Human (seminar) 6 nov

Week 7

Reconciliation and Healing. An Anishinaabe Saga Louise Erdrich,

The North Dakota Cycle

Week 8

Louise Erdrich: Love Medicine (seminar)

Week 9

Contemporary Journeys. Deconstructing Stereotypes

Sherman Alexie

Week 10

Sherman Alexie: The Trial of Thomas-Builds-the-Fire in The Lone

Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (collection of short-stories)
(seminar)

Week 11

Autobiographical Insights
Sherman Alexie: The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me in Here First.
Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers edited by Arnold
Krupat and Brian Swann (seminar) SEE THE MOVIE!!!

Week 12

American Indian Drama

LeAnne Howe and Roxy Gordon: Indian Radio Days (seminar)

Week 13

Revision

Week 14

Exam

Compulsory Reading:
Hafen, P. Jane. Native American Literatures. A Companion to American Indian
History. Eds. Philip J. Deloria and Neal Salisbury. Malden, Massachusetts:
Blackwell Publishers, 2002. 234-247.
Ortiz, Simon. Woven Stone. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1992.
Rpt.1998. selection of poems
Blaeser, Kimberly. Sacred Journey, Poetic Journey. Simon J. Ortiz. A Poetic
Legacy of Indigenous Continuance. Eds. Susan Berry Brill de Ramrez and
Evelina Zuni Lucero. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009. 213231. 22 oct
Harjo, Joy. How We Became Human. New and Selected Poems: 1975-2001. New
York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002. selection of poems
Womack, Craig. Red on Red. Native American Literary Separatism. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2000. 25-49. 223-261.

 Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.

Hafen, P. Jane. Reading Louise Erdrichs Love Medicine. Boise, Idaho: Boise
State University, 2003.
Alexie, Sherman. The Trial of Thomas-Builds-the-Fire. The Lone Ranger and
Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Harper Perennial, 1994. 93-103.
Archuleta, Elizabeth. An Extreme Need to Tell the Truth. Silence and Language
in Sherman Alexies The Trial of Thomas Build-the-Fire. Sherman Alexie. A
Collection of Critical Essays. Eds. Jeff Berglund and Jan Roush. Salt Lake City:
The University of Utah Press, 2010. 44-61.
Alexie, Sherman. The Unauthorized Autobiography of Me. Eds. Arnold Krupat
and Brian Swann. Here First. Autobiographical Essays by Native American
Writers. New York: The Modern Library, 2000. 3-14.
Sweet Wong, Hertha. Native American Life Writing. The Cambridge
Companion to Native American Literature. Eds. Joy Porter and Kenneth M.
Roemer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 125-144.
Howe, LeAnne and Roxy Gordon. Indian Radio Days. Seventh Generation: an
Anthology of Native American Plays. Ed. Mimi Gisolfi DAponte. New York:
Theatre Communications Group, 1999. 101-148.
Martanovschi, Ludmila. Performing Tribalography as Dissent in Indian Radio
Days by LeAnne Howe and Roxy Gordon. The American Tradition of
Descent/Dissent: The Underground, the Countercultural, the (Anti)Utopian. Eds.
Adina Ciugureanu, Ludmila Martanovschi and Nicoleta Stanca. Iai: Institutul
European, 2012. 497-506.
Further Reading:
Primary Sources:
Alexie, Sherman. Indian Killer. New York: Warner Books, 1998.
Alexie, Sherman. Reservation Blues. New York: Grove Press, 1995.
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York:
Harper Perennial, 1994.
Alexie, Sherman. The Toughest Indian in the World. New York: Atlantic Monthly
Press, 2000.
Erdrich, Louise. Four Souls. New York: Harper Collins, 2004.
Erdrich, Louise. The Beet Queen. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1986.
Erdrich, Louise. The Bingo Palace. New York: Perennial, 1995.
Erdrich, Louise. The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse. New York:
Perennial, 2002.
Erdrich, Louise. Tales of Burning Love. New York: HarperPerennial, 1997.
Erdrich, Louise. Tracks. New York: HarperPerennial, 1989.

 Harjo, Joy. How We Became Human. New and Selected Poems: 1975-2001. New
York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002.
Krupat, Arnold and Brian Swann, eds. Here First. Autobiographical Essays by
Native American Writers. New York: The Modern Library, 2000.
Ortiz, Simon. Ortiz, Simon. Out There Somewhere. Tucson: The University of
Arizona Press, 2002.
Ortiz, Simon. Woven Stone. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1992.
Rpt.1998.
Secondary Sources:
Berglund, Jeff and Jan Roush, eds. Sherman Alexie. A Collection of Critical
Essays. Salt Lake City: The University of Utah Press, 2010.
Brill de Ramrez, Susan Berry and Evelina Zuni Lucero, eds. Simon J. Ortiz. A
Poetic Legacy of Indigenous Continuance. Albuquerque: University of New
Mexico Press, 2009.
Cummings, Denise, ed. Visualities. Perspectives on Contemporary American
Indian Film and Art. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2011.
Fast, Robin Riley. The Heart as a Drum. Continuance and Resistance in
American Indian Poetry. 1999. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press,
2002.
Henry, Gordon Jr., Nieves Pascual Soler, and Silvia Martnez-Falquina, eds.
North American Writing, Storytelling, and Critique. East Lansing: Michigan State
University Press, 2009.
Iverson, Peter. We Are Still Here: American Indians in the Twentieth Century.
Wheeling, Illinois: Harlan Davidson, 1998.
Kidwell, Clara Sue and Alan Velie. Native American Studies. Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 2005.
Lundquist, Susan. Native American Literatures: An Introduction. New York:
Continuum, 2004.
Rader, Dean and Janice Gould, eds. Speak to Me Words. Essays on Contemporary
American Indian Poetry. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2003.
Porter, Joy and Kenneth M. Roemer, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Native
American Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Tuhiwai Smith, Linda. Decolonizing Methodologies. Research and Indigenous
Peoples. New York: St. Martins Press, 1999.
Womack, Craig S. Red on Red. Native American Literary Separatism.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999.