EWL 426 Erdrich Seminar
Louise Erdrich, a registered member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe (Chippewa) Indians, writes about the contact zones between Native Americans and European Americans. In her interconnected novels, she creates an extensive world that stretches back to the 19th century and into the present; in this imagined world, she explores how Native American and European-American identities are constructed and illustrates how the past impinges on the present, both personally through family feuds and nationally through colonialism and indigenous sovereignty. Her novels also engage Native and European stories, and therefore is a place to explore the relationship between western literary theories and indigenous studies.