LITR 4332 American Minority Literature

Lecture notes

Asian Indians, American Indians

Original confusion by Columbus: Native Americans > "Indios" b/c he thought he'd discovered India

Still confusion over "Indians"--someone from India? Indian Americans or American Indians? Indian Americans say "Red Indians"

Deep-origin stories of American Indians: Asia like Africa for African Americans

Research complicates any single theory about Native American origins, but prevailing unitary theory . . .

Indians cross Bering Straits b/w Russia and Alaska 10-12 thousand years ago

Map

In 1970s, this background developed as a theme in modern American Indian literature

Background: 20th-century Native American presence in U. S. Armed Forces

World War 2 (1942-45) against Japanese Asians

Vietnam War against Vietnamese Asians

Love Medicine

116 Asian-looking eyes

176 Vietnam memory

Two major books of "American Indian Renaissance" of 1960s-70s describe irony of American Indians serving White America by fighting Asian Americans

N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (1968; Pulitzer Prize 1969)

Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (1977)

complete Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine (expanded version 1993)

Virgin of Guadalupe

meeting of Spanish & Indian culture; modern & traditional culture

Two distinct identities at creation:

Bishop as representative of Europe, Catholic Christianity, the palace and court

Juan Diego as representative of Native America, native beliefs, countryside, family

action: Juan Diego torn between serving Virgin + Bishop, or taking care of his uncle

resolution: identity of Virgin as Mary + Indian

syncretism--introduction, p. 165: "The V of G is a syncretic figure. . . . her apparition was on a sacred site traditionally associated with a female Indian god of fertility, Tonantzin. For centuries she has been the image of miscegenation incarnate, the blending of Spanish and Indian worlds."

p. 172 "Her sacred face is very beautiful, grave, and somewhat dark"

Quiz update

Quiz 4 in limbo--#3 on immigrant symbol was wrong, but need to figure out how or why

if nothing else, won't count against anyone, but will try to resolve

5b. Native American Indian alternative narrative: "Loss and Survival"

• Dominant / immigrant culture leaves its past behind to gain rights and opportunities--the American Dream.

•  For Indians, the American Dream of immigration is the American Nightmare, creating an undeniable narrative of loss: the native people were once “the Americans” but lost most of their people, land, rights, and opportunities.

• Despite these terrible losses, Native Americans defy the myth of "the vanishing Indian," choosing to "survive," sometimes in faith that the dominant culture will eventually destroy itself, and the forests and buffalo will return.

• The American dominant culture usually writes only half of the Indians' story, romanticizing their loss (e. g., The Last of the Mohicans) and ignoring the Indians who adapt and survive.

12 allotment, lost forever

73 lost or gained

124 doom

43 Marie Lazarre

35 Firebird

120 his own miraculous continuance

236-7 loss

255 came back even after death

Quiz 5: first half of Love Medicine–Briefly answer 5 of 7 questions

1. Identify King and/or Lynette.

2. How are the brothers Nector and Eli different in education, knowledge, and old age?

3. How are King and Lipsha related?

4. Who does Sister Leopolda fight with? (2 possible answers)

5. How does June almost die as a child?

6. What does Beverly Lamartine sell in the city?

7. What is Nector’s role in Western movies?

pp. 123, 124

• The American dominant culture usually writes only half of the Indians' story, romanticizing their loss (e. g., The Last of the Mohicans) and ignoring the Indians who adapt and survive.

instructor: traditional & modern

363 her knowledge as an old-time traditional

217 never call the dead by their names, Grandma said

253, 257 traditional / modern

295 drowned

survival: Gerry Nanapush as Trickster

purpose of trickster

problem of minority studies as "divisive"

6b. To emphasize how all speakers and writers use literary devices such as narrative and figures of speech.

language as defining human, literacy as modern civilization

symbols

236 Chippewa Gods . . . tricky Nanobozho

285 Gerry = son of Moses Pillager

199 conceived in prison visiting room

2c. "Quick check" on minority status: What is the individual’s or group’s relation to the law or other dominant institutions? Does "the law" (e. g., the police) make things better or worse?

205 tender . . . queer delicacy

209 cf. rabbit

362-3 always on the run