ENGL 308 A1: Indigenous Literature: Intellectual Traditions

C. Bracken

This course was originally inspired by an interview that Sherman Alexie gave to the New York Times in November, 2013. Asked if he would recommend any new books by Native American authors, Alexie says that what catches his interest today is Indigenous genre fiction: “sci-fi, horror, crime and experimental fiction.” Alexie himself has written horror and crime. Alexie’s remark recalls something Eden Robinson says in the notes to her novel Blood Sports: “I prefer the older, bloodier versions of fairy tales.” More recently, in August, 2020, the Times published another article, ‘We’ve Already Survived an Apocalypse,’ on the enduring popularity of genre fiction among Indigenous authors (and presumably, their readers). The article course offers an introduction to the trend:

Probable Texts:

Jeff Barnaby, dir. Rhymes for Young Ghouls (Prospector Films 2013)
Cherie Dimaline, Empire of Wild (PenguinRandomHouse)
Louise Erdrich, The Round House (Harper Macmillan)
Stephen Graham Jones, Mongrels (HarperCollins)
Eden Robinson, Traplines (McClelland & Stewart)