The Cambridge History of Native American Literature

by Melanie Benson Taylor (Editor)

Overview

Native American literature has always been uniquely embattled. It is marked by divergent opinions about what constitutes authenticity, sovereignty, and even literature.  It announces a culture beset by paradox: simultaneously primordial and postmodern; oral and inscribed; outmoded and novel. Its texts are a site of political struggle, shifting to meet external and internal expectations. This Cambridge History endeavors to capture and question the contested character of Indigenous texts and the way they are evaluated. It delineates significant periods of literary and cultural development in four sections: “Traces & Removals” (pre-1870s); “Assimilation and Modernity” (1879-1967); “Native American Renaissance” (post-1960s); and “Visions & Revisions” (21st century). These rubrics highlight how Native literatures have evolved alongside major transitions in federal policy toward the Indian, and via contact with broader cultural phenomena such, as the American Civil Rights movement. There is a balance between a history of canonical authors and traditions, introducing less-studied works and themes, and foregrounding critical discussions, approaches, and controversies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781108482059
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	09/17/2020
Pages:	562
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Melanie Benson Taylor is Professor of Native American studies at Dartmouth College, where she teaches courses in American, US southern, and Indigenous literature and film. She is the author of Disturbing Calculations: The Economics of Identity in Postcolonial Southern Literature, 1912–2002 (2008), Reconstructing the Native South: American Indian Literature and the Lost Cause (2012), and a new monograph called The Indian in American Southern Literature (2020). She is Executive Editor of Native South, and serves on the advisory boards of south: a scholarly journal, The Faulkner Journal, and the Digital Yoknapatawpha project.

Table of Contents

Introduction What Was Native American Literature? Melanie Benson Taylor; Part I. Traces and Removals (Pre-1870S): 1. Indigenous Language and the Origins of American Literary History Sarah Rivett; 2. Unsettling Colonial Temporalities: Oral Traditions and Indigenous Literature Gesa Mackenthun; 3. Early Native American Literature and Hemispheric Studies Ralph Bauer; 4. Performative Cultures of Early America Laura Mielke; 5. Nineteenth-Century American Indian Newspapers and the Construction of Sovereignty Oliver Scheiding; 6. Indigenous Literacies in Early New England Hilary Wyss; Part II. Assimilation and Modernity (1879-1967): 7. The Multiplicity of Early American Indian Poetry Robert Dale Parker; 8. Native American Literature in the 1930s Benjamin Balthaser; 9. Black-Indian Literature under Jim Crow Keely Byars-Nichols; 10. Transatlantic Modernity and Native Performance Kate Flint; 11. American Indian Literature and Post-Revolutionary Mexico James Cox; 12. I Kū Mau Mau(Standing Together): Native Hawaiian Literary Politics Ku'ualoha Ho'omanawanui; 13. Native Women's Writing and Law Beth Piatote; Part III. Native American Renaissance (Post-1960s): 14. Rethinking the Native American Renaissance: Texts and Contexts A. Robert Lee; 15. Marginally Mainstream: Momaday, Silko, Erdrich, and Alexie Nancy Peterson; 16. Indigenous Lives, Visual Autobiographies Hertha Sweet Wong; 17. Indigenous Writing in Canada Sophie McCall; 18. Reservation Realities and Myths in American Literary History David Treuer; 19. Mapping the Future: Indigenous Feminism Shari Huhndorf; 20. Queer Sovereignty Lisa Tatonetti; 21. Contemporary Indigenous American Poetry Dean Rader; 22. Contemporary Native North American Drama Brigit Däwes; Part IV. Visions and Revisions: 21st Century Prospects: 21st Century Prospects: 23. Native American Horror, Fantasy, and Speculative Fiction Eric Gary Anderson; 24. Charting Comparative Indigenous Traditions Chadwick Allen; 25. The Global Correspondence of Native American Literatures Eric Cheyfitz; 26. Indigenizing the Internet Deborah Madsen; 27. Indigenous Futures beyond the Sovereignty Debate Jodi Byrd; 28. Can You See the Indian? Stephen Graham Jones; 29. The Leftovers Paul Chaat Smith.

Editorial Reviews

‘… effectively reminds the reader of the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the field. This volume serves as both a thoughtful survey of the state of the field and a bold pronouncement of where it is headed.’ J. J. Donahue, Choice

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