I took this course with Rick Monture in Spring/Summer of 2010 and is about literature by native people in the US. The course is cross listed as communication studies 3x03, English 3x03, indigenous studies 3e03 and peace studies 3x03 and so there were people with different backgrounds of study in the class.This was my first university English course so I thought the course would be really hard but I found it to be enjoyable and easy to do well in. The literature we looked at included 3 novels, some essays, poetry, short stories, movies, literary theory, performance art, dance and some photography …. Basically, there is something for everyone! Also, we had a guest lecturer from New Zealand who gave a talk about Maori literature.
Course Breakdown
Writing Assignment = 15%
Midterm = 20%
Essay = 35 %
Exam = 30 %
The midterm and exams had essay style questions as well as long answer questions. The writing assignment is specific to one of two questions that are provided. I thought all the assessments were fair.
The instructor was great. He told us a lot of stories and was helpful in understanding the materials. The course materials were generally enjoyable (however, one of the novels was hard to get into and literary theory is a bit hard but we only just talked about that).
I think this course would be better in the fall/winter period because the novels and essays can be a little hard to keep up with in a condensed periods however the prof was accommodating. I enjoyed this course a lot and I will also be taking the Canadian native lit in the fall!
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