124267 AR Cultural/Media Studies 1/2 (AR) (2016S)

Aims: The aim of the course is to make students aware of the difficulties of presenting and re-presenting (iconic) North American "Indians" from a (habitually?) hegemonic and literature-centered viewpoint and to encourage them to deconstruct the almost stereotypical "Otherness" of these consistently marginalized populations.

Content: This course will deal with the (often controversial) construction and 'marketing' of some of the most prominent "Indians" in US-American, Canadian and Mexican culture(s): Malinalli/La Malinche (c.1501-29, Nahua translator and mistress to Hernán Cortés), Matoaka/Pocahontas (1595-1617, of John Smith and Walt Disney fame), Catherine Tekakwitha (1656-80, the first Native North American Catholic saint, canonized in 2012), Si'ahl/Seattle (c.1786-1866, Duwamish chief), Louis Riel (1844-85, leader of Métis rebellions against the Canadian government), and Goyathle/Geronimo (1829-1909, Chiricahua-Mescalero medicine man and "the most hated Indian warrior" of his time).
Starting with the (often enough conflicting) historical and biographical data available, we will analyse how these figures were in time culturally, politically and commercially commodified and popularized as larger-than-life representations of North American "Indianness".

Methods: Discussion of (multimedia) texts and presentations in class.