Abstract
Settler colonialism relies on land seizure and the erasure of Indigenous peoples and culture, and has not ended, despite common belief (Arvin et al., 2013; Patel, 2021). As settler colonialism continues to function, so does its oppressive structures. This study identified dual phenomena requiring investigation. First, the presence of settler colonialism in U.S. culture that manifests through systems of Whiteness and heteropatriarchy that enforce the normalization of both these structures. Second, this study examined the experiences of students with an emergent canon of literature situated in this cultural system. Using a hybrid phenomenological case study approach, this study explored the phenomena at a single site for in-depth analysis. The study focused on student experiences in literature courses in the California State University (CSU) system.
Using three data sets, including system-wide course catalogs, 5 years of course syllabi, and 13 student interviews, this study presents an emergent American Literary canon across the CSU. Three spaces of interaction were identified: the macro cultural system every person in the United States exists in, the meso system of the historical foundations of American Literature, and the micro space of the literature classroom. These data sources allow this study to document the real-life impact and potential replicative oppression of textual selection and pedagogy.This study views text, peer, and instructor interaction as three spaces that converge variably, requiring students to navigate any combination of these at any given time. A primary tool of analysis emerged from Freire’s (1970/2000) concept of generative themes, and Bakhtin’s (1981) concept of heteroglossia. Primarily, when viewed through a hybridized Freirean-Bakhtinian lens of generative themes and heteroglossia, a literary canon in a settler colonial culture with dominant narratives can become an authority of identity value.
Key findings include the development and application of the term generative-heteroglossia as a method of analyzing student experiences as they navigate text, peer, and instructor interactions. Faced with moments requiring decisions and action, students frequently have to reflect and decide how to respond, internalize, and react to situations that can lead to oppression or liberation.
Recommendations include re-evaluation of reading lists in American Literature survey courses, a need for faculty to engage in purposeful questioning of how and why a text is taught, and a broader cultural questioning of literary canons and the power they hold in representing or resisting dominant sociocultural systems.