"This is the way that I am" : Early Indigenous American Women's Literature (original) (raw)
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Complutense Journal of English Studies, 2017
's edition of The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature is an expansive and comprehensive introduction to the different and multiple contexts essential to reading the literatures of the Indigenous peoples in the United States. The volume, which is intended for any reader interested in the development of Native American literature, is instrumental in providing literary, historical, cultural, political, religious, anthropological and ethnographic context to approach and understand the different manifestations of Native American literature. This collection of more than forty essays is based on extensive research carried out by leading and international scholars and covers a wide range of topics related to identity, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, sovereignties, traditions and languages, while also exploring new perspectives and new directions for the development of the field. Madsen starts out this collection by writing an "Introduction" in which she explains what the aim of the book is, provides some background information about Native American literature and the harmful consequences of the dominant colonialist views, whilst expounding clearly and conscientiously on the complex nature of the terms used in the title of the book: "Native", "American" and "Literature". The explanations that Madsen offers for each term are certainly useful and well-grounded as she provides accurate definitions and descriptions for each word, while also drawing upon proper cultural, historical and literary contexts that help readers understand the concept and category of Native American literature. After this introductory section, the main corpus of the book is constituted by five different sections: "Identities", "Key Moments", "Sovereignties", "Traditions" and "Literary Forms". The first section of the volume covers the topic of Indigenous identity by focusing on different complex aspects and Native American literary works. To start with, the first three chapters in "Identities" are strong in dealing with the importance of developing a transnational orientation in Native American literary studies, an aspect that many scholars have recently been exploring and calling for (Madsen 2010, Barrenechea and Moertl 2013, Fitz 2013, Cox and Justice 2014). The section opens with Earl E. Fitz's "Indigenous American Literature: The Inter-American Hemispheric Perspective", a riveting essay that stresses the importance of reading Indigenous American literature comparatively and from a hemispheric perspective. Fitz's analysis of different Indigenous cultures and literary works from the Canadian Arctic to Argentina is
The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature
The Journal of American Culture, 2006
Invisible, marginal, expected-these words trace the path of recognition for American Indian literature written in English since the late eighteenth century. This Companion chronicles and celebrates that trajectory by defining relevant institutional, historical, cultural, and gender contexts, by outlining the variety of genres written since the 1770s, and also by focusing on significant authors who established a place for Native literature in literary canons in the 1970s (Momaday, Silko, Welch, Ortiz, Vizenor), achieved international recognition in the 1980s (Erdrich), and performance-celebrity status in the 1990s (Harjo and Alexie). In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts-Native and non-Native; American, British, and European scholars, the Companion includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American literature and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural, and historical events. An essential overview of this powerful literature.
The Old Lady Trill, The Victory Yell: The Power of Women in Native American Literature (review)
Studies in American Indian Literatures, 2005
women who began, during the 1960s and 1970s, to explore topics about Native American women's lives, their literary, political, cultural, and historical legacies. In the 1980s, Wesley Thomas and Sue-Ellen Jacobs, among others, extended the discussion considerably with their focus on sexualities and gender formation-their recognition of the multiple genders within tribal societies and the lives today of people who have come to be called two-spirits. Patrice E. M. Hollrah's book The Old Lady Trill, The Victory Yell, fits well into the scholarly conversations of the past three or so decades on Native American gender issues but more in the strand that re-envisions the roles of women in tribal roles as mothers, partners, and community activists than in the strand that examines sexuality. Hollrah focuses her study on depictions of Native American women as characters in contemporary Native American literature with the assertion that "the political ramifications of gender complementarity
Literary Activism and Violence against Native North American Women
Wasafiri
The novels examined in the essay divide between those that illustrate and force recognition of the occurrence of violence against Native North American women (Mosionier), and those that also seek to find ways to dismantle the systems that create the conditions in which such violence can thrive and exist. Highway's novel Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998) links sexualized violence against indigenous women and children to contemporary and historical colonialism. Erdrich's The Round House includes a political proposal to reinstate tribal thinking into Native American societal structures concerning women.For Simpson, as for Highway and Erdrich, this engagement with indigenous thinking significantly counters the colonial, patriarchal attitudes that have allowed so much violence against indigenous women to go unchallenged and provides a way to begin an indigenous resurgence that includes and protects Native North American women and children.
The Grove - Working Papers on English Studies, 2015
The role of Native American women has been extensively debated. Much has been said about their relationship with men and their relevance within the tribe. One of the most important tasks they had was that of storytellers. Storytelling is one of the pillars of Native American culture since it helped to transmit their values and folklore and keep them alive and that is why women's role as storytellers is fundamental for the survival of the tribe. Although this role has often been shared with men, it seems that the relationship of women with storytelling is more complex, valuable and relevant than that of men. This is shown in their characterization in traditional Native American myths or in the fact that old traditional Native American women and storytellers became the source of inspiration of many contemporary writers, such as Silko, Erdrich or Allen, who took them as models for their novels. Silko exemplifies with her novels Almanac of the Dead and Ceremony this fundamental role of Native Women and the influence they had on her life and writing.