Professor Mary McCay
Tuition: 300 Euro
Venue: Zoom
Dates: 7 March to 25 April 2022
Monday nights from 8pm to 9.30pm Irish time
In America today there are approximately 576 different Native American tribes with about 9.7 million people. In 1492 there were an estimated 112 million indigenous inhabitants of the “New World.” Of that number over 90% were killed by diseases, wars and resettlement brought about the colonizers. After the Civil War, the US Cavalry was charged with the removal of Native peoples from their lands to make way for westward expansion. After World War II there began a Renaissance in Native American writing. That period, called the First Renaissance, was followed by a second as American Native peoples, especially of the Plains and the West, continued to celebrate their identities, cultures and relations with the world around them. This course will study writers of those two Renaissances to see how Native Americans have survived and thrived, despite adversity. This course will examine writings from a number of different tribal groups, both those on reservations and those living among the “white eyes”, in order to understand the relationship between America and its first peoples.
Reading List
Vine Deloria (1933–2005)
Custer Died for Your Sins
N. Scott Momaday (1934–)
The Way to Rainy Mountain
James Welch (1940–2003)
Fools Crow
Leslie Marmon Silko (1948)
Ceremony
Joy Harbo (1951–)
Poet Warrior
Louise Erdrich (1954–)
Love Medicine
Sherman Alexi (1966–)
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Tony Orange (1982–)
There There
Mary McCay, Professor Emerita, has taught several weekend seminars in Ireland, including Southern Writers and W.B. Yeats. During the pandemic, she taught three Zoom classes to Claire Keegan’s groups: African American Voices, James Joyce, and Feminist Writings. Mary McCay was Claire Keegan’s advisor and professor during her time at Loyola University and is responsible for her introduction to and initial studies of literature.