Leah Sneider | Montgomery College (original) (raw)
Papers by Leah Sneider
American Indian Quarterly, Jun 1, 2012
American Indian Quarterly, 2012
An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors att... more An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors attempt to build balanced relationships and conversations across cultures, nations, and histories. I explore ways that Native authors depict gender violence and male characters who, like Native women, negotiate colonization and assert sovereignty. Doing so offers a new way of reading Native literature that seeks to also decolonize our analytical approaches for similar use across academic disciplines and for practical applications within and outside of academia. I define Indigenous Feminism as the responsibility for the nurturance and growth of Native communities through storytelling as a communal process and action reflecting personal sovereign power. I focus on how these authors adapt traditional knowledge of social balance through ideological subversion. I read literary conventions as creating complementary and reciprocal relationships in order to develop critical awareness thus enacting an Indigenous feminist ideology. An author's rhetorical and literary use of these vii principles attempts to create a balanced relationship between reader and author that simultaneously decolonizes readers' minds. Reading constructions of masculinities in connection with complementarity and reciprocity discloses and helps to understand colonial gender violence thus asserting an Indigenous feminist decolonizing process that seeks to remove colonial ideological shackles. Thus, I read Native texts for a balanced distribution of power across relationships, specifically gender-based relationships and systems of power. This exploration of complementary and reciprocal relationships enables us to read literature as critical responses to gender violence and its effects on both Native men and women. These texts and their authors offer a way of seeing gender identity on a continuum based on both individual and communal needs. Furthermore, such an analysis allows for balanced dialogue needed to uncover a new understanding of shared experiences to effect social change. Therefore, a more inclusive Indigenous feminist perspective presents a new way of recognizing literature and storytelling as social activism, or attempting to affect social justice within the imaginations and ideologies of its readers. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2013
Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial... more Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial force in the formation of Canadian identity would be bolstered with additional information regarding distribution, circulation, and reception; more attention given to layout and paratext; and a consideration of how copyediting and deadlines, as well as the absence of factchecking in newspapers, affect coverage and stereotypes. Furthermore, a gesture toward other print media would have been desirable and would have felt more pertinent than a reliance on Fanon and somewhat dated theoretical posturing. To not at least mention magazine culture— especially Saturday Night— is a significant shortcoming considering the prominent role magazines played in twentiethcentury Canada. That the authors do find room to reference television and Hollywood movies puts this shortcoming into sharper relief. Seeing Red does rightly challenge conventional thinking about Canada– First Nations relations and the ...
American Indian Quarterly, 2012
Arming themselves with “manifest destiny” rhetoric, which claimed divine Anglo-Saxon superiority ... more Arming themselves with “manifest destiny” rhetoric, which claimed divine Anglo-Saxon superiority as justifi cation for the conquest of Indigenous and Mexican peoples and the land they occupied, white settlers forcefully pushed into California territory. The two-year-long MexicanAmerican War resulted in the acquisition of the present-day states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. However, Native tribes and landed Mexicans continued to stand in the way of not only “civilized progress” but the vast riches that gold and the California soil offered the ever-growing numbers of US citizens. Relationships with the Paiute Nation became key to movement into the area as their lands stood directly in the path of settlers and miners moving toward California through the Sierra Nevada. Paiutes were subject to various methods of removal and attempts at assimilating or civilizing the Indian, then became wards of the state through the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871. Daughter to the chief, Sarah Winnemucca witnessed and engaged in her tribe’s struggles to remain in their ancestral lands and maintain sovereignty while attempting to build balanced relationships with their white relatives according to her cultural traditions. Her Life among the Piutes, Their Wrongs and Claims (1883) is the fi rst autobiographical account written by a Native woman and reveals valuable information regarding this history and confl ict. However, her autobiography focuses less on her life and more on the trials and tribulations of her tribe’s relationship with the United States. Born around 1844, Winnemucca learned to read and write English while a domestic worker for a white woman after expulsion from a convent school for being Indian. Furthermore, her birth coincided with the politiciza-
Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo/Mexican/European) is one of the foremost contemporary Native A... more Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo/Mexican/European) is one of the foremost contemporary Native American authors and considered a leading Native American literary renaissance author. Silko's body of work includes poetry, novels, short stories, a memoir, correspondence, and essays. Much of her work tends to issues of identity, justice, oppression, culture, and the land. Ceremony is her most widely read, analyzed, and taught novel. Keywords: Almanac of the Dead ; American borderlands; American literature; ceremony; colonialism; ethnicity; Native American
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2013
Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial... more Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial force in the formation of Canadian identity would be bolstered with additional information regarding distribution, circulation, and reception; more attention given to layout and paratext; and a consideration of how copyediting and deadlines, as well as the absence of factchecking in newspapers, affect coverage and stereotypes. Furthermore, a gesture toward other print media would have been desirable and would have felt more pertinent than a reliance on Fanon and somewhat dated theoretical posturing. To not at least mention magazine culture— especially Saturday Night— is a significant shortcoming considering the prominent role magazines played in twentiethcentury Canada. That the authors do find room to reference television and Hollywood movies puts this shortcoming into sharper relief. Seeing Red does rightly challenge conventional thinking about Canada– First Nations relations and the ...
OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of ... more OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy English The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2009
Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000
American Indian Quarterly, Oct 2012
Studies in American Indian Literatures, Jan 1, 2010
An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors att... more An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors attempt to build balanced relationships and conversations across cultures, nations, and histories. I explore ways that Native authors depict gender violence and male characters ...
American Indian Quarterly, Jun 1, 2012
American Indian Quarterly, 2012
An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors att... more An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors attempt to build balanced relationships and conversations across cultures, nations, and histories. I explore ways that Native authors depict gender violence and male characters who, like Native women, negotiate colonization and assert sovereignty. Doing so offers a new way of reading Native literature that seeks to also decolonize our analytical approaches for similar use across academic disciplines and for practical applications within and outside of academia. I define Indigenous Feminism as the responsibility for the nurturance and growth of Native communities through storytelling as a communal process and action reflecting personal sovereign power. I focus on how these authors adapt traditional knowledge of social balance through ideological subversion. I read literary conventions as creating complementary and reciprocal relationships in order to develop critical awareness thus enacting an Indigenous feminist ideology. An author's rhetorical and literary use of these vii principles attempts to create a balanced relationship between reader and author that simultaneously decolonizes readers' minds. Reading constructions of masculinities in connection with complementarity and reciprocity discloses and helps to understand colonial gender violence thus asserting an Indigenous feminist decolonizing process that seeks to remove colonial ideological shackles. Thus, I read Native texts for a balanced distribution of power across relationships, specifically gender-based relationships and systems of power. This exploration of complementary and reciprocal relationships enables us to read literature as critical responses to gender violence and its effects on both Native men and women. These texts and their authors offer a way of seeing gender identity on a continuum based on both individual and communal needs. Furthermore, such an analysis allows for balanced dialogue needed to uncover a new understanding of shared experiences to effect social change. Therefore, a more inclusive Indigenous feminist perspective presents a new way of recognizing literature and storytelling as social activism, or attempting to affect social justice within the imaginations and ideologies of its readers. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2013
Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial... more Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial force in the formation of Canadian identity would be bolstered with additional information regarding distribution, circulation, and reception; more attention given to layout and paratext; and a consideration of how copyediting and deadlines, as well as the absence of factchecking in newspapers, affect coverage and stereotypes. Furthermore, a gesture toward other print media would have been desirable and would have felt more pertinent than a reliance on Fanon and somewhat dated theoretical posturing. To not at least mention magazine culture— especially Saturday Night— is a significant shortcoming considering the prominent role magazines played in twentiethcentury Canada. That the authors do find room to reference television and Hollywood movies puts this shortcoming into sharper relief. Seeing Red does rightly challenge conventional thinking about Canada– First Nations relations and the ...
American Indian Quarterly, 2012
Arming themselves with “manifest destiny” rhetoric, which claimed divine Anglo-Saxon superiority ... more Arming themselves with “manifest destiny” rhetoric, which claimed divine Anglo-Saxon superiority as justifi cation for the conquest of Indigenous and Mexican peoples and the land they occupied, white settlers forcefully pushed into California territory. The two-year-long MexicanAmerican War resulted in the acquisition of the present-day states of California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada. However, Native tribes and landed Mexicans continued to stand in the way of not only “civilized progress” but the vast riches that gold and the California soil offered the ever-growing numbers of US citizens. Relationships with the Paiute Nation became key to movement into the area as their lands stood directly in the path of settlers and miners moving toward California through the Sierra Nevada. Paiutes were subject to various methods of removal and attempts at assimilating or civilizing the Indian, then became wards of the state through the Indian Appropriation Act of 1871. Daughter to the chief, Sarah Winnemucca witnessed and engaged in her tribe’s struggles to remain in their ancestral lands and maintain sovereignty while attempting to build balanced relationships with their white relatives according to her cultural traditions. Her Life among the Piutes, Their Wrongs and Claims (1883) is the fi rst autobiographical account written by a Native woman and reveals valuable information regarding this history and confl ict. However, her autobiography focuses less on her life and more on the trials and tribulations of her tribe’s relationship with the United States. Born around 1844, Winnemucca learned to read and write English while a domestic worker for a white woman after expulsion from a convent school for being Indian. Furthermore, her birth coincided with the politiciza-
Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo/Mexican/European) is one of the foremost contemporary Native A... more Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo/Mexican/European) is one of the foremost contemporary Native American authors and considered a leading Native American literary renaissance author. Silko's body of work includes poetry, novels, short stories, a memoir, correspondence, and essays. Much of her work tends to issues of identity, justice, oppression, culture, and the land. Ceremony is her most widely read, analyzed, and taught novel. Keywords: Almanac of the Dead ; American borderlands; American literature; ceremony; colonialism; ethnicity; Native American
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2013
Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial... more Canada. For instance, their central claim that newspapers have served as a hegemonic and imperial force in the formation of Canadian identity would be bolstered with additional information regarding distribution, circulation, and reception; more attention given to layout and paratext; and a consideration of how copyediting and deadlines, as well as the absence of factchecking in newspapers, affect coverage and stereotypes. Furthermore, a gesture toward other print media would have been desirable and would have felt more pertinent than a reliance on Fanon and somewhat dated theoretical posturing. To not at least mention magazine culture— especially Saturday Night— is a significant shortcoming considering the prominent role magazines played in twentiethcentury Canada. That the authors do find room to reference television and Hollywood movies puts this shortcoming into sharper relief. Seeing Red does rightly challenge conventional thinking about Canada– First Nations relations and the ...
OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of ... more OF DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy English The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2009
Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2000
American Indian Quarterly, Oct 2012
Studies in American Indian Literatures, Jan 1, 2010
An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors att... more An Indigenous feminist approach to Native literature reveals the ways in which Native authors attempt to build balanced relationships and conversations across cultures, nations, and histories. I explore ways that Native authors depict gender violence and male characters ...