AJL25047 Indigenous Literature

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2. 6 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Martina Horáková, Ph.D.
Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Tomáš Hanzálek
Supplier department: Department of English and American Studies – Faculty of Arts
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/20, only registered: 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 17 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
This course aims to examine in more detail contemporary Indigenous literature in North America. Students will be asked to study texts of various genre, analyze themes and narrative strategies and contemplate the ways in which Indigenous literature today may articulate a distinctive artform. The textual analysis will be put into a larger context of the historical development of Indigenous literature in the USA and Canada since its renaissance in the 1960s and also into the perspective of traditions of oral cultures.
Learning outcomes
At the end of the course students should have a better appreciation of the minority literary discourse and the development of Indigenous artistic forms in North America in the last four decades.
Syllabus
  • Syllabus:
  • Week 1: Introduction to North American Indigenous literatures
  • Week 2: Indigenous Gender Roles: Louise Erdrich, The Last Miracle on the Little No Horse (2001)
  • Week 3: Indigenous Humor: Sherman Alexie, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
  • Week 4: Indigenous Postmodernism: Thomas King, Green Grass, Running Water (1993)
  • Week 5: Indigenous Gothic: Eden Robinson, Monkey Beach (2000)
  • Week 6: Indigenous Non-Fiction: Thomas King, The Inconvenient Indian (2012)
  • Week 7: reading week
  • Week 8: Indigenous Drama: Drew Hayden Taylor, The Berlin Blues (2007)
  • Week 9: Indigenous Bildungsroman: Jeannette Armstrong, Slash (1985)
  • Week 10: Indigenous Short Stories: Joseph Boyden, Born with a Tooth (2001)
  • Week 11: Indigenous Life Writing: Beth Brant, “Writing Life and Baking Bread” and N. Scott Momaday, The Way to Rainy Mountain (1969)
  • Week 12: Indigenous critical theory: Lee Maracle, Robert Warrior, Craig Womack
Literature
    required literature
  • Boyden, Joselg, Born with a Tooth (2001)
  • Sherman Alexie, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993)
  • KING, Thomas. The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America. Anchor Canada edition. [Toronto]: Anchor Canada, 2013, xvi, 314. ISBN 9780385664226. info
  • TAYLOR, Drew Hayden. The Berlin blues. 1st print. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2007, 96 s. ISBN 9780889225817. info
  • HOGAN, Linda. The woman who watches over the world : a native memoir. 1st publ. as a Norton pbk. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2002, 207 s. ISBN 0393323056. info
  • ERDRICH, Louise. The last report on the miracles at Little No Horse. 1st ed. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001, 361 s. ISBN 0060187271. info
  • ROBINSON, Eden. Monkey beach. 1st pub. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, 377 s. ISBN 0618073272. info
  • KING, Thomas. Green grass, running water. 1st HarperPerennial ed. Toronto: Harper & Collins, 1994, 431 s. ISBN 0-00-647506-X. info
  • BRANT, Beth. Writing as witness :essay and talk. Canada: Women's Press, 1994, 127 s. ISBN 0-88961-200-5. info
  • ARMSTRONG, Jeannette C. Slash. Rev. ed. Penticton: Theytus Books, 1990, 251 s. ISBN 0919441297. info
Teaching methods
mini-lectures, group and class discussions, oral presentations
Assessment methods
active participation in discussions 15%
oral presentation 15%
response papers during the semester 30%
final research paper 50%
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2022.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/AJL25047