Fall 2006 Courses

English 194-03: The International Novel: Contemporary Indigenous Fiction (Attewell)

TR 1:00-2:30 pm, Theater 205

Focusing on contemporary indigenous fiction from Australia, Canada, and Aotearoa/New Zealand, this course reflects on the dangers and possibilities of transnational thought and politics. What constitutes an ethical and productive internationalism? Indigenous novels such as Witi Ihimaera's The Whale Rider and Nugi Garimara's Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence have recently achieved international success through their translation into film. This suggests the extent to which indigenous concerns now command global attention. But why these indigenous texts and not others? What is their appeal? How are international canons of taste created and maintained?

In addition to exploring how literary texts circulate in international markets, we will consider what kinds of readings a global literary market makes possible. What thematic continuities link the work of a Cree writer like Tomson Highway with that of a Maori writer like Patricia Grace? To what extent do these thematic continuities reflect the writers' shared experience and contestation of colonialism, itself a dubious kind of transnational project?

Finally, we will examine how indigenous people are themselves managing the distance between the local and the global, forging cross-border connections while almost always also asserting the sanctity of the local and the national. We will seek to understand, in other words, the relationship between indigenous nationalisms and indigenous internationalisms.

Texts will include novels by Alan Duff, Patricia Grace, Tomson Highway, Witi Ihimaera, Sally Morgan, Paula Morris, and Leslie Marmon Silko, as well as selected theoretical and historiographical materials. Assignments will include weekly e-mail posts and short critical essays.

Fall 2006 Course Listings