ClassInfo - Spring 2019 American Indian Studies Classes

Spring 2019 | AMIN 1912 Section 001: Strange Spirits: Monsters, Star Beings, and Other Mysterious Creatures in American Indian Literature (66944)

Instructor(s): Carter Meland
Class Component:: Discussion
Credits:: 3 Credits
Grading Basis:: A-F only
Instructor Consent:: No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:: In Person Term Based
Times and Locations:: Regular Academic Session

01/22/2019 - 05/06/2019

Tue, Thu 02:30PM - 03:45PM

UMTC, East Bank

Burton Hall 123
Enrollment Status:: Open (8 of 20 seats filled)

Course Catalog Description:: Maybe you've seen a movie where the characters spot some strange creature moving through the dark woods of a shadowy night and one of them explains, "It's a windigo. Native Americans say it eats human flesh." Maybe you wondered what this monster is and what Native people think of it. Maybe you thought it strange that a film was using a creature from Native tradition to threaten non-Native characters. Maybe you thought using such a creature was a bit too similar to those old movies where "savage" Indians threaten pioneer families. In this seminar, we explore what strange spirits like windigos, Sasquatch, or Star Beings (aliens) mean in Native and non-Native contexts. In Indigenous contexts, such stories carry knowledge about how to live ethically with the world. We will also examine texts by non-Natives that engage with the Native content of these stories, asking whether they engage with this content as knowledge or as entertainment. Our comparative examination raises important questions about the relation of colonialism to the appropriation of Native lands and cultural expressions.
Class Description:: Student may contact the instructor or department for information.
Textbooks:: https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/66944/1193

To link directly to this ClassInfo page from your website or to save it as a bookmark, use:: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=AMIN&catalog_nbr=1912&term=1193
To see a URL-only list for use in the Faculty Center URL fields, use:: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=AMIN&catalog_nbr=1912&term=1193&url=1
To see this page output as XML, use:: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=AMIN&catalog_nbr=1912&term=1193&xml=1
To see this page output as JSON, use:: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=AMIN&catalog_nbr=1912&term=1193&json=1
To see this page output as CSV, use:: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?subject=AMIN&catalog_nbr=1912&term=1193&csv=1

ClassInfo created and maintained by the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

If you have questions about specific courses, we strongly encourage you to contact the department where the course resides.