This course introduces students to the study of Cherokee literature through close reading, thoughtful discussion, and engagement with fiction and related texts grounded in the historical and cultural contexts of what became the U.S. Southeast. We will explore how literature shapes and reflects the world, considering questions of identity, society, place, and human experience as they emerge from Indigenous-authored narratives.

Focusing on historical and contemporary fiction, the course examines how Cherokee writers represent removal, survival, and the ongoing afterlives of nineteenth-century U.S. settler colonialism. Students will read novels alongside selected historical documents, excerpts from Cherokee print culture, and short critical readings to understand how fiction functions as a form of historical meaning-making rather than a departure from it. Through writing, discussion, and reflection, students will develop skills in close reading and interpretation while considering how literature articulates sovereignty, memory, and Indigenous presence in the present and future.