Book Review: Approaches to Teaching Louise Erdrich

That a critical vocabulary has been established for addressing Louise Erdrich\u27s body of work is quite evident in Approaches to Teaching Louise Erdrich. Key words in the Erdrich lexicon- syncretic, hybridize, amalgamate, mediate, integrate, dialogic, accretive, connective, merging, blurring, webbed, multivoiced, transformative- echo throughout the collection and stamp the text\u27s theoretical approach to her oeuvre. There are two common pedagogical themes that dominate the essays. Teachers elaborate on ways to help students understand the challenges to hegemonic views of culture, history, gender, and religion that Erdrich, drawing upon an imagination nourished by her ethnic and cultural identity as a contemporary American woman of Native and German descent, weaves through her poetry, autobiography, and fiction. Many of the essays also discuss ways to foreground Erdrich\u27s innovative approach to narration in the classroom