ENG 485 Native American/Indigenous Literature: Resources

A clear, comprehensive, and systematic look at the diversity of critical approaches to the idea of "Indian-ness." Essays in this volume are focused upon the diverse and sophisticated responses of Native writers and scholars, while offering comparative perspectives on Native Hawaiian, Chicano, and Canadian literatures.

Describes criticism of Native literature as operating from one of three critical perspectives against colonialism: nationalism, which is foremost concerned with tribal sovereignty, indigenism, which focuses on non-Western modes of knowledge, and cosmopolitanism, which looks elsewhere for comparative possibilities, and contends that all three can work in a complementary rather than an oppositional fashion.

Articulates the foundations and boundaries of a distinctive Native American critical theory in the postcolonial era and confronts key issues and questions such as: Is a distinctive way of reading and interpreting Native texts possible or needed?