Listed in: American Studies, as AMST-320 | Black Studies, as BLST-332
Kiara M. Vigil (Section 01)
Throughout this class we will consider the "crossroads," marked by an X, as a visual and symbolic point of intersection with undefined meaning and the potential for fateful outcomes. Reading literary and historical texts students will consider how the crossroads X carries specific meanings for an Afro-Native literary tradition. We will bring Scott Lyons's theory of the X mark, as the signature Native people placed on treaties, to issues of coercion and consent in African American literature and history. Thus, this class focuses on texts that speak in a triple voice, inflected by echoes of a Native American oral tradition, flashes of African American vernacular culture, and forms and techniques adapted from various models of modern Western literature. Students will read literary works as well as primary and secondary historical sources that point to the sometimes powerful and also fraught intersections of Black and Indian histories in the United States from the nineteenth century to the decades following the Civil Rights and Black and Red Power movements. Topics of particular attention include land and politics, history and identity, and gender and sexuality. We will also focus on themes of race, place, family, and belonging. Some of the authors featured in this course are Tiya Miles, Craig Womack, Lauret Savoy, LeAnne Howe, and Michael Dorris. In addition to active participation in seminar discussions students will write a series of short papers in response to the readings and conduct short research assignments.
Spring semester. Professor Vigil.
Section 01
M 02:00 PM - 03:20 PM MORG 110
W 02:00 PM - 03:20 PM MORG 110
| ISBN | Title | Publisher | Author(s) | Comment | Book Store | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trace: Memory, History, Race, and the American Landscape | Counterpoint | Savoy, Lauret | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Real Native Genuis: How an Ex-Slave and a White Mormon Became Famous Indians | University of North Carolina Press | Hudson, Angela Pulley | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Hartford's Ann Plato and the Native Borders of Identity | State University of New York Press | Welburn, Ron | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Black, White and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family | Oxford University Press | Saunt, Claudio | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story | University of North Carolina Press | Miles, Tiya | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Drowning in Fire | University of Arizona Press | Womack, Craig | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts | John F. Blair Publisher | Miles, Tiya | Amherst Books | TBD | ||
| Mike Kings: An Indian Baseball Story | Aunt Lute Books | Howe, LeAnne | Amherst Books | TBD |
These books are available locally at Amherst Books.