Native American Performance and Representation

by S. E. Wilmer (Editor)

Overview

Native performance is a multifaceted and changing art form as well as a swiftly growing field of research. Native American Performance and Representation provides a wider and more comprehensive study of Native performance, not only its past but also its present and future. Contributors use multiple perspectives to look at the varying nature of Native performance strategies. They consider the combination and balance of the traditional and modern techniques of performers in a multicultural world. This collection presents diverse viewpoints from both scholars and performers in this field, both Natives and non-Natives. Important and well-respected researchers and performers such as Bruce McConachie, Jorge Huerta, and Daystar/Rosalie Jones offer much-needed insight into this quickly expanding field of study.

This volume examines Native performance using a variety of lenses, such as feminism, literary and film theory, and postcolonial discourse. Through the many unique voices of the contributors, major themes are explored, such as indigenous self-representations in performance, representations by nonindigenous people, cultural authenticity in performance and representation, and cross-fertilization between cultures. Authors introduce important, though sometimes controversial, issues as they consider the effects of miscegenation on traditional customs, racial discrimination, Native women’s position in a multicultural society, and the relationship between authenticity and hybridity in Native performance.

An important addition to the new and growing field of Native performance, Wilmer’s book cuts across disciplines and areas of study in a way no other book in the field does. It will appeal not only to those interested in Native American studies but also to those concerned with women’s and gender studies, literary and film studies, and cultural studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816502400
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	11/01/2011
Edition description:	3rd ed.
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

S. E. Wilmer is an associate professor of drama and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and he has served as a visiting professor at Stanford University and UC Berkeley. He is the author of Theatre, Society, and the Nation: Staging American Identities. He is also a playwright and his plays have been produced in venues around the world including New York’s Lincoln Center.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Introduction 1

Part I Reframing Dance, Performance, and Traditional Stories for a Postmodern Era

1 Inventing Native Modern Dance: A Tough Trip through Paradise Daystar/Rosalie Jones 19

2 Old Spirits in a New World: Pacific Northwest Performance: Identity, Authenticity, Theatricality Sarah Bryant Bertail 40

3 Owners of the Past: Readbacks or Tradition in Mi'kmaq Narratives Anne-Christine Hornborg 61

4 The Pocahontas Myth and Its Deconstruction in Monique Mojica's Play Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots Maria Lyytinen 78

Part II The Native Body in Performance

5 Stories from the Body: Blood Memory and Organic Texts Monique Mojica 97

6 Acts of Transfer: The 1975 and 1976 Productions of Raven and Body Indian by Red Earth Performing Arts Company Julie Pearson-Little Thunder 110

7 Embodiment as a Healing Process: Native American Women and Performance Shelley Scott 123

8 The Hearts of Its Women: Rape, (Residential Schools), and Re-membering Ric Knowles 136

Part III Native Representation in Drama

9 "People with Strong Hearts": Staging Communitism in Hanay Geiogamah's Plays Body Indian and 49 Jaye T. Darby 155

10 Coming-of-Age on the Rez: William S. Yellow Robe's The Independence of Eddie Rose as Native American Bildungsdrama David Krasner 171

11 Feathers, Flutes, and Drums: Images of the Indigenous Americans in Chicano Drama Jorge Huerta 182

12 Metamora's Revenge Bruce McConachie 193

Part IV Challenging Stereotypes through Film

13 Performance and "Trickster Aesthetics" in the Work of Mohawk Filmmaker Shelley Niro Kristin L. Dowell 207

14 Speaking Lives, Filming Lives: George Burdeau and Victor Masayesva Annie Kirby-Singh 222

Notes 235

About the Contributors 271

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

"Provides fascinating insight into the rich arts and artistry of post-'60s Red Power theater, representation, and multimedia arts in Indigenous North America."—Great Plains Quarterly
 
“Wilmer’s book gives performance students and scholars a much-needed resource: a text that examines an array of performance traditions from an array of perspectives, initiating a dialogue across the disciplines of theater, music, dance, and visual art on the presentations and representations of and by indigenous peoples.”—Ann Haugo, co-editor of Querying Difference in Theatre History
 

From the Publisher