This will be an immersive reading of Leslie Marmon Silko’s The Almanac of the Dead, once described by the historian of Indigenous movements Nick Estes as the “red man’s Capital.” Pursuing this description, this course will explore what might we learn from The Almanac of the Dead about capitalist production and its relationship to the Indigenous situation in the Americas, i.e. the conditions of living in a settler colony.

As a scholar of science fiction and decolonial thought, Lou Cornum is particularly interested in situating Silko’s novel in a speculative fiction tradition that is also a theoretical study on the present and future work of decolonizing the Americas. Her vision is one that calls for an expansive internationalist approach to Indigenous movements, invoking the histories of trans-Atlantic slavery and border imperialism. Readings for each class will include chapters from the novel and occasional supplementary texts by political theorists.

Topics explored will include: capitalist settler colonialism, trans-American approaches to the history of settler colonialism, the U.S.-Mexican borderlands, Indigenous internationalism, speculative fiction, decolonial theory, historical materialist approaches to US history, Indigenous literature, and areas of interest proposed by the participants.