LITR 5731 Seminar in American Multicultural Literature
Minority Literature

Lecture Notes

conclude Love Medicine

Tuesday, 23 March: Conclude Love Medicine

Reading Assignments:

Love Medicine (complete)

Reading discussion leader: Deanna Scott

Poetry: Simon J. Ortiz, “The Margins Where We Live”

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Jennifer Huebenthal

Instructor's Discussion Questions:

Continue previous questions.

Gerry Nanapush as trickster?

Mexican American Literature

Tuesday, 30 March:

Reading Assignments:

Story of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Bless Me, Ultima through p. 105 or chapter Diez

Reading discussion leader: Rachel Risinger

Poetry: Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, "You Men"

Poetry reader / discussion leader: Mallory Rogers (more biography than usual?)

Instructor's Discussion Questions:

"Guadalupe" as origins story of Mexico / Mexican America

What structures, conflicts, values? What human types?

Extend to Bless Me, Ultima

Erdrich in wave of recent ethnic women writers who balance wide popularity with critical respectability. How? Compare / contrast to popular & critically praised African American and Mexican American women writers (e. g. Maya Angelou, Sandra Cisneros, maybe Toni Morrison)

collections of stories > novels? What upsides or problems?

magic realism

religious symbols: eggs, firebird, fish, Good Friday

"The Trickster"

Questions for discussion / lecture:

Definitions of "trickster?"

Other examples?

upsides-downsides of mythological criticism

Love Medicine: Gerry Nanapush as trickster? How? What pleasures and profundities?

Application to minority literature:

outsider, excluded parties or styles

participation threatens, overturns hierarchies

Examples from our course?

Guitar in Song of Solomon

Sandy in Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass

Slave Trickster Tales

Vitamin Kid and Horse in Bless Me, Ultima

Upsides of trickster concept:

trans-cultural concept, "archetype" that tends to show up in diverse human cultures; therefore a supposed unity in human cultures regardless of direct influence--compare language acquisition as molar growth

puts a creative value on disruption, even destruction--for the new to emerge, the old has to be exposed and degraded.

especially younger students may relish this idea; can also teach older learners and teachers the potential value of people who don't fit in and won't submit quietly

Potential downsides of trickster concept:

A topic, subject, or motif that is so universal threatens to become meaningless--cf. astrology or handwriting analysis: it could apply to anyone or anything

But . . .

The trickster has a way of rejuvenating itself--just about the time the concept has lost life or become boxed in, it escapes and overthrows the formulas . . . .

Objective 4

To register the minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance—i. e., do you fight or join the culture that oppressed you? What balance do minorities strike between economic benefits and personal or cultural sacrifices?

4a. To identify the "new American" who crosses, combines, or confuses ethnic or gender identities (e. g., Tiger Woods, Halle Berry, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, K. D. Lang, Dennis Rodman, RuPaul, David Bowie)

American Indian as elusive, ephemeral identity

Contrast to static "Vanishing Indian" frozen in past

Black Elk is not simply a wise old medicine man, nor a Catholic convert

Everyone "likes" American Indians, but it's likely just a fantasy image that meets personal needs

Upsides of trickster concept:

trans-cultural concept, "archetype" that tends to show up in diverse human cultures

can put a creative value on disruption; especially younger students may relish this idea; can also teach older learners and teachers the potential value of people who don't fit in and won't submit quietly

Personal example: students who drive me crazy

Initial reaction: stamp them out, drive them away, make them submit!

Following abject failure of initial reaction, the subsequent attitude or approach has evolved:

What potentially worthwhile value is this student trying to express, even in distorted or deformed ways?

What weaknesses or blindnesses in my own assumptions is s/he threatening? (After all, it's me who's going crazy--what's my problem?)

Danger of expanding application of trickster concept:

Can validate antisocial behavior to extent that this figure may overshadow or crowd out consideration of other worthy character types.

The concept becomes so inclusive as to become meaningless; cf. contemporary literary use of "voice" (means everything in general and nothing in particular).