What is it to be a writer of indigenous literature? What does such categorization suggest about a work?and what does it fail to mention? Is ?indigenous literature? an indicator of genre? Or simply an ascribed attribute of the writer? If the former, what devices, tropes, or themes does it share? If the latter, what prejudices do we bring to the work? This course examines contemporary Native American poetry, fiction, essays, and theories as both expressions and interrogations of indigenous identity and culture and as strategies for survivance within the larger American context.