Today we talked about representations and perceptions of Native Americans in contemporary culture. We listed stereotypes, and discussed classifications of “popular” Native American figures into groups such as the “noble savage,” the “helpmate,” and the “demonic savage.” We read one of Mark Turcotte’s poems as an expression of intra-racial racism, or perhaps just the tensions involved in defining one’s self as “Indian.” We found that several aspects of African-American criticism were applicable to these poems, including the aforementioned intra-racial racism and double-consciousness. We also had a presentation on Postcolonial Criticism, and used those tenets to analyze Erdrich’s “Dear John Wayne.”
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