Techniques in Fiction: Techniques and Debates of the Fourth Wave

COURSE MEETING

  • Thursdays, 6-8:30PM
  • IN-PERSON: Sakamaki Hall, classroom TBA

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In her 2016 Writer’s Chronicle essay “The Fourth Wave in Native American Fiction,” Erika Wurth begins with the premise that “Native American authors of the ‘Fourth Wave,’ many of who attended the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) […] had begun to produce work that was more and more innovative than their predecessors.” Wurth goes on to define the first, second, and third waves in Native American fiction, before focusing on the authors of the fourth wave and IAIA’s central role in the techniques, conversations, debates, and innovations that define the past 25 years of Native American fiction.

Wurth’s article implicitly frames IAIA as an equal to the likes of Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and CalArts: schools that gave birth to artistic movements of the 20th Century. Here, at UH Mānoa, our writers and artists are also at the vanguard. Moreover, we are in the rare position to be in conversation not only with writers and artists from Turtle Island but also those from across Oceania. Thus, IAIA can serve as a touchstone – not unlike the MCW program at University of Auckland—where a close study of its writers and their writing reveals stylistic hallmarks, innovative craft techniques, and theoretical frameworks that can enliven, challenge, and support our own work. IAIA can also be seen as an artistic lineage, the study of which might inspire how we articulate and delve into our own artistic becoming.

The reading schedule will be rigorous and rich — with several authors coming to visit us in person! Theoretical texts will be assigned alongside novels, short story collections, and memoir. (This is a course that happily invites writers of all genres, though the craft focus will be on fiction and, to a lesser extent, nonfiction.) In addition, weekly writing assignments—some analytical and some creative—will be due on Sunday nights. Ideally, you’ll be producing work that can feed into your thesis and dissertation projects as well as discovering texts that help you prepare for area exams and critical introductions.

You will have the opportunity to participate in small-group workshops a couple of times during the semester. You’ll also study other artistic “schools” as a way of broadly considering additional artistic movements. Finally, as we draw to the close of the term, you’ll reflect on the richness of your own artistic lineage, considering what it means to write in and from Mānoa and the broader Pacific, and what literary wave(s) you see yourself a part of.

 

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of the semester, students should be able to:

  • demonstrate knowledge of creative writing history, theories, and craft techniques related to the fourth wave of Native American fiction
  • utilize one or more theoretical frameworks while studying and/or making creative or analytical writing
  • employ close reading skills to analyze texts, engaging with the debates, aesthetic decisions, and political issues salient to those texts and their authors
  • demonstrate an ability to map, historicize, and contextualize their own creative writing within broader artistic and scholarly conversations
  • engage responsibly with independent research, including the integration of primary and secondary sources with creative skills
  • develop a writing community that can offer support beyond the classroom

 

COURSE TEXTS

This list has NOT been finalized. I will email in December, after registration is complete, with a final list of course texts for purchase. However, some of the works under consideration include:

  • Native American Fiction: A User’s Manual by David Treuer
  • Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice
  • Sinking Bell by Bojan Louis
  • Whiskey Tender by Deborah Taffa
  • There There by Tommy Orange
  • Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling
  • Where the Dead Sit Talking by Brandon Hobson
  • From the Hilltop by Toni Jensen
  • The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong by Stephen Graham Jones
  • The Missing Morningstar by Stacie Denetsosie

Offered FOR FREE via our Laulima course site will be essays, stories, excerpts, and art by the likes of Kimberly Blaeser, Elissa Washuta, Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, Ryan Redcorn, Ramona Emerson, and many others.