Discussions of fictional literature and the role it plays in human life (both within and without educational institutions, historically and in the contemporary moment) often revolve around how or whether fictional texts generate, reveal, critique, or reinforce values in their readers, and, therefore, change how those readers interact with their "real" worlds outside of the books they read, worlds full of people whose cultural experience is often quite different from their own. So, we tend to try to categorize (often problematically) fictional texts by the conditions that seem to most strongly inform the worlds they imagine--e.g. "Ethnic Fiction," "Environmental Fiction," "Gothic Fiction," "Detective Fiction."

For this class, we'll take up this problem by examining the extremely complex category of "Native American fiction." David Treuer, an Ojibwe writer and critic, has argued that "[Indians] function the way ghosts function in ghost stories," as cultural figures already dead, "admonishing" the living about what they're doing wrong in their lives. He controversially insists that we would be better readers of fiction if we realized that "Native American fiction does not exist," that both Indians and non-Indians "treat Native American fiction as a kind of cultural wish fulfillment" that, in the end, elides the important work that these texts and writers do in the broader culture, focusing more on the "Native" than the "Literature." So, using Treuer's critique as a starting point, we'll read texts written by both Indian and non-Indian writers that somehow represent "Native American" experience and see how our own critical reading might destabilize what we think we know about the !
differences between "real" and "fictional" worlds and the people and histories that inhabit them.

This is a 'W' course, so students will be responsible for producing 10-15 pages of writing (in the form of two 5-7 page essays) subject to instructor feedback and revision. Further responsibilities will include a short small-group presentation, several short writing/journal assignments, and consistent contribution to class and group discussions.

Texts and/or authors may include Helen Hunt Jackson, Black Elk, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, David Treuer, Sherman Alexie, Jim Jarmusch, Zacharias Kunuk, and others.

Course Reader available from Ave Copy

Texts:

• Leslie Marmon Silko. Storyteller. [155970005X]
• Louise Erdrich. Love Medicine. [0061787426]
• David Treuer. The Translation of Dr Appelles. [0307386627]
• Sherman Alexie. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. [0316013692]