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Topics in Indigenous Literatures I - Rewriting the Canon from Indigenous Perspectives

ENGL 481
Undergraduate
Fall 2026
3 Units
In-person
3
  • ENGL 200 / 6.0
  • ENGL 290 / 3.0
  • A minimum GPA of 2.3 in 9.0 units of ENGL

     Or

  •  Level 4 or above and registration in an INDG Plan 

This seminar introduces students to the analytic interpretation of narrative prose within the context of literary adaption. We will discuss four contemporary Indigenous-authored novels that retell works of the literary canon from Indigenous perspectives: Jane Austen ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ ’s Pride and Prejudice, James Matthew Barrie ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ ’s Peter Pan; Frances Hodgson Burnett ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ ’s The Secret Garden; and C.S. Lewis ¹ú²ú´«Ã½ ’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. We will explore the Indigenous authors’ motivations and the literary strategies they use to expose colonial ideologies in the canonical works and assert Indigenous agency and narrative sovereignty.

**This course is repeatable for credit under different topic titles.

¹ú²ú´«Ã½ Repeatable Courses
With repeatable courses, the course number (e.g., ENGL 466) is repeatable, but the topic is not. You can take as many topics as you like under the same course number, but you can only take each individual topic once. 

Questions? Please email our Undergraduate Assistant

Assessments

Grading Components

  • Attendance/Participation (15% of final grade) 
  • An oral close/critical reading presentation of a passage from one of the novels (10%)
  • Three 950 to 1000-word critical reflections (25% each)

**Subject to change **

Instructor

Petra Fachinger