AML4 class 6

AML4 class 6

1

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AML4 class 6

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Class

AML4

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Class

Reading 1

Louise Erdrich - "Fleur"

Reading 2 Richard Olivas - "I'm Sitting in My History Class"

Study Guide:

Louise Erdrich - "Fleur"

Louise is a chippewa american author (native american)

first published as short story, then expanded on the story and
characters in the novel Tracks

narrator Pauline, describes Fleurʼs destiny

Fleur drowned twice in Lake Turcot, she was saved by two men, they
both suffer terrible fates after (one is killed, second wanders off)

Years later, a twenty-year-old Fleur drowns again, but the men are too
scared to save her, fearing that they will meet similar fates

everyone fears Fleur - she is beautiful, but men especially fear her (they
do not want to be killed after saving her again)

After her drownings, Fleur becomes unpredictable, dressing like a man
and dabbling in Chippewa charms and magic

other Chippewa wanted to push her out of the reservation, but before
they do that, she leaves on her own, she oves south to the town of
Argus

Fleur gets a job at a full-service butcher shop (owner Pete Kozka -
impressed by Fleurʼs strenght)

October 29, 2023 851 AM

AML4 class 6

2

other workers Lily, Tor and Dutch are fascinated by her beauty

Pauline - invisible, no one cares about her, she is watching everything

Fleur - playing card with men, unacceptable, she is good but cannot
bluff

Fleur wins in the cards and scoops up all the money, leaving to
slaughter a pig rather than play another round as Lily demand - the men
good look for Fleur, Lily attacks Fleur (and then sexually), the other men
died (baricated in the freezer  Pauline did that, manipulated by Fleurʼs
magic powers?

first person narration - subjective

morality in the story

Pauline moves back to Lake Turcot where she finds Fleur has also
returned. People on the reservation still avoid Fleur, but Pauline visits
her occasionally. Fleur lives on the lake with her boat and gives birth to
a child with green eyes and copper skin. Pauline wonders if the father
of the baby is one of the men who assaulted Fleur

Richard Olivas - "I'm Sitting in My History Class"

Class Notes:

NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE

themes: questioning identity, cultural assimilation, BUT stronger connection
to the land (lacks in the other nationalities), anger, frustration about
particular loss/defeat, determination to win the land back

originally, they do not have any written literature in the european sense, but
had pictograms

Native American (real people) x American Indian? (sometimes literary
representation) - generally both are accepted, but Indian can refer to India
(more confusing)

question: who is the Native American? there is a certificate of degree of
Indian blood, to make sure your are really an Indian (social care system,
social privileges connected to that - therefore they have to prove)

AML4 class 6

3

What is Native American literature?

expression and experience - “attitudes about a shared historyˮ

post-apocalyptic worldviews, the miracle of survival, concepts of
communal identity, the language and plce/time