Abstract:
This seminar is designed for educators interested in incorporating Indigenous perspectives and storytelling traditions into their teaching practices. In the first part of the seminar, a lecture will introduce several key issues in Native American literature, including cultural contact and conflict, forced assimilation, oral narrative traditions, the trickster figure, Indigenous identity, and the emerging genre of Indigenous horror. It will cover a selection of short texts ranging from the early 20th-century Modernist period through the Native American Renaissance in the 1960s to Postmodernist and contemporary works, providing brief historical and literary contexts to help understand these texts.
The second half of the seminar consists of an interactive workshop with an emphasis on practical approaches to teaching Indigenous short stories in the EFL-classroom. We will examine a few short texts by authors such as Zitkala-Ša, N. Scott Momaday (together with a video clip made by his daughter), Thomas King (together with the graphic novel adaptation of his short story), and others, and discuss strategies for effectively integrating these works into classroom curricula. A seminar reader, including sample texts and teaching materials, will be provided.
Bio:
Erik Redling is professor of American Literature at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He has co-edited The Handbook of the American Short Story (with Oliver Scheiding, De Gruyter, 2022) and regularly teaches courses on American short fiction, including Indigenous short narratives.