The Assignment
Build a visual timeline tracking our readings in chronological order of publication. For each text, record themes, motifs, historical context, and your evolving understanding of Native American literature.
This is your personal map of the "Native American Renaissance." Update it as the semester progresses — after each text, after each lecture, after each conversation. By the end, you'll have a visual artifact that traces how literary conventions changed (or persisted) from 1968 to 2018.
Format: Your Call
There is no required format. Make it however you want. The only requirement is that it's visual and shows chronological progression. Beyond that — go wild.
Physical poster, digital document, Canva, Prezi, hand-drawn sketchbook, collage — whatever works for your brain. The point is that it helps you see the relationships between texts.
What to Include
For each text on your timeline:
Publication Info
Year, title, author, tribal affiliation
Historical Context
What was happening in Federal Indian Policy? (Termination, Self-Determination, etc.)
Key Themes
2-3 major themes you noticed in the text
Literary Conventions
How is it written? Narrative structure, voice, style
Connections
How does it relate to previous texts? What changed? What persisted?
Your Notes
Questions, observations, things that struck you
One-Page Reflection
Submit a one-page reflection alongside your timeline addressing:
- What patterns emerged across the timeline?
- How did literary conventions change (or persist) from 1968 to 2018?
- What surprised you?
- How does your timeline answer (or complicate) the question: "Was it truly a Renaissance?"
Example Entries
Here's what strong timeline entries look like. Your format can be completely different — these just show the kind of content to include.
Historical Context
Published during the Termination Era (1945-1968), just as the Self-Determination Era begins. The Indian Civil Rights Act passes this same year. Relocation programs are pushing Native people into urban areas like Los Angeles, where Abel ends up.
Key Themes
- Alienation and return (Abel's journey from war to home to city and back)
- The power of language and oral tradition (the "Word" as creation)
- Land as identity (the relationship between place and self)
Literary Conventions
- Non-linear, fragmented narrative structure
- Multiple narrators/perspectives
- Blending of ceremonial language with modernist prose
- Time operates cyclically, not linearly
Connections
First text on timeline — establishes the "starting point" of the Renaissance. Sets up themes that will recur: alienation, return, land, language. The fragmented structure will contrast with Welch's sparse realism.
Historical Context
Self-Determination Era in full swing. Indian Self-Determination Act will pass in 1975. Nixon's 1970 message rejected termination. Yet reservations still face poverty, alcoholism, disconnection.
Key Themes
- Disconnection from culture and ancestors
- Memory and trauma (grandmother's stories, the narrator's brother's death)
- The "distance" the narrator feels from everything
Literary Conventions
- First-person narrator who is emotionally flat, detached
- Sparse, minimalist prose (contrast with Momaday's lyricism)
- Dark humor as a survival mechanism
- Realistic, almost documentary style
Connections to Previous Texts
Like Abel, the narrator is alienated — but the style is completely different. Momaday = lyrical, fragmented, ceremonial / Welch = sparse, linear, realistic. Both deal with return to the reservation, but Welch's narrator never really "returns" emotionally.