Self-Representation, Resistance, And Postmodern Native Americans: Twentieth Century Native Authors Literature Seminar 400 (Critical Essay‪)‬

I have had the opportunity to teach LIT 400 senior seminars on Native American literature with some regularity at West Chester University, which is part of the Pennsylvania State System of Education, for the past eight years. LIT 400 seminars are comprised of a maximum of 14 students who pursue either the Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature or the Bachelor of Science degree in education with a major in English. Both the BA Lit and the BSEd students are required to take three undergraduate literature seminars at the 400 level as part of their regular program in order to graduate with a major in English. While the BSEd students plan to teach English in the secondary school, grades 7-12, and are certified to do so upon graduation, the BA lit students enter either graduate school or a variety of careers in which they rely heavily on their skills in reading, writing, and research. The graduate level course on Native American literature is open to students who pursue either a Master's degree in Literature or English Studies or a post-baccalaureate certificate to teach English at the high school level I have also taught Native literature at the graduate level, but I focus this discussion on the undergraduate literature seminar which I taught most recently, in Fall, 2005. My reading list begins with Mourning Dove's Cogewea and ends with Bell's Faces in the Moon. Louis Owens' Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel serves remarkably well as the critical text for the course in addition to articles about Native literature and Native studies by renowned scholars in the field, which I put together in a course packet. (See syllabus and annotated bibliography at the end of this discussion.) West Chester University does not have a Native Studies Program and I have not had Native students in class.