Against Mastery: Teaching Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water

Publisher： Cambridge University Press

E-ISSN： 2052-2622|3|2|241-254

ISSN： 2052-2614

Source： Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, Vol.3, Iss.2, 2016-03, pp. : 241-254

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

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Abstract

Thomas King’s novel Green Grass, Running Water stands as an indictment of North American colonialism and the continuing injustices facing indigenous peoples; it also offers valuable insights in terms of what constitutes good teaching. With reference to personal experiences of teaching the novel in a large lecture course, this article discusses its author’s efforts at implementing the novel’s implied pedagogical principles, which include a scepticism about granting authority to certain texts over others; a collaborative model of learning; a wariness regarding totalizing narratives and claims of interpretive mastery; and a need to wrestle in class discussion with texts’ unresolved problematics.

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