ENGL 4670 - Native American Poetry of Resistance

(crosslisted) AIIS 4670, AMST 4670
(LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits. Student option grading.

C. Warrior.

What techniques, tools, and contexts are needed to perform reasonably well-informed readings and interpretations of Native American poetry? If a poem illuminates an injustice, what historical context do we need to know? When a poet depicts a humorous image or celebrates the body of a lover, does the poem – by virtue of its authorship – disturb stereotypes? These questions and more will direct our inquiry into how Indigenous poets represent and strategically re-invent Euro-American literary forms to revitalize Indigenous aesthetic traditions and register resistance to oppression. We’ll read numerous Indigenous poetic voices from across the continent, and see how they range from caustic criticism of EuroAmerican values, celebrate Indigenous relationships to place, and reject the role of victim or subjugation through trickster play and humor.