Bücher der Reihe American Indian Studies Series

Southwestern American Indian Literature: In the Classroom and Beyond addresses several challenges that teaching Southwestern American Indian literature presents, and suggests innovative ways of teaching the material. Drawing on the author¿s experiences teaching literature ¿ both in the classroom and in the canyons of the Southwest ¿ the book covers works ranging from the famous (Leslie Marmon Silkös Ceremony) to the underappreciated (George Webb¿s A Pima Remembers). One chapter discusses teaching Sherman Alexie¿s Smoke Signals along with Silkös «Yellow Woman» as world literature; another functions as a guide to organizing a travel seminar that will enable students to experience American Indian literature and culture in potentially life-changing ways. This book provides a practical approach to the teaching of Southwestern American Indian literature without simplifying its inherent challenges.

Louise Erdrich positions herself as a contemporary tribal storyteller with her interlocking tales of her Chippewa people and her German-American ancestors. From the tribe¿s struggle to survive (Tracks), to the Depression (The Beet Queen), to the mid-twentieth century (Love Medicine), to contemporary times (The Bingo Palace, Tales of Burning Love, and The Antelope Wise), Erdrich sympathetically, compassionately, and realistically renders a portrait of people striving to survive governmental bureaucracy, Catholic Church intrusion, and climatic severity.