Richard Harrison's visit

A reminder that Richard Harrison will be coming to my Canadian lit class on Wednesday April 20th. I am making this an open class, so you are welcome to invite anyone you know who would be interested in hearing him read and talk about his work. We'll be meeting for that day at John Dewey Lounge in the Old Mill Building. Class runs from 11:15-12:05

I've posted something on my personal blog about Richard's latest poem, "NH Elegy," which has been hitting the news around the world since it was first published last week.

Topics for Second Essay

1. In many of the texts we have read from Australia and Aotearoa (New Zealand), there are questions raised about the connection between heredity and identity. In some cases, characters who are by blood only partly native find a deep connection with their ancestry, while others with equal or even greater parts Native ancestry find themselves unable or uninterested in connecting with this part of their family history. Focusing on a single character from two texts, discuss how each grapples with the relationship between their own ancestry and their sense of who they are.

2. Native literature from Australia and Aotearoa frequently deals with the devastating and long-term effects of European settlement in these countries. Choose two books or selections from the anthologies and look at the portrayal of these effects. Some questions you might want to consider include: What aspect of the “colonization” of these two lands has had the most crippling effects on its native peoples?; In the texts you are examining, is there a sense of hope in the end?; What do the characters or subjects do to move past this cultural trauma?; Can it ever be overcome?

Essay length: 1500 - 2000 words
DUE April 29 1:25 PM