Reading Native American Literature

The growing and popular body of Native American Literature that is read and studied today crosses divides between public and private cultures, ethnicities and experience. In this volume, Joseph Coulombe argues that Native American writers use diverse narrative strategies to engage with readers and are 'writing for connection' with both Native and non-Native audiences.Beginning with a historical overview of Native American Literature, this book presents focused readings of key texts including:'¢ N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn'¢ Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony'¢ Gerald Vizenor's Bearheart'¢ James Welch's Fool's Crow'¢ Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fight in Heaven'¢ Linda Hogan's Power .Suggesting new ways towards a sensitive engagement with tribal cultures, this book provides not only a comprehensive introduction to Native American Literature but also a critical framework through which it may be read.

Joseph L. Coulombe is Associate Professor of English at Rowan University, USA. He is the author of Mark Twain and the American West (2003) and has published articles on Mark Twain, Edith Wharton, Walt Whitman, Sherman Alexie, James Welch, and Emerson Bennett.

Acknowledgements	p. x
Permissions	p. xi
Introduction: Native American literary outreach and the Non-native reader	p. 1
Engaging community	p. 3
Textual parameters for readers	p. 6
Reading to learn (not to profess)	p. 8
Individual methods and shared goals	p. 10
Critical methodology	p. 13
The power of fiction	p. 15
Following the tracks: history and context of Native writing	p. 18
Invasion and loss	p. 19
Adapting to change, writing for change	p. 21
Trail of broken treaties	p. 22
New policies, old problems	p. 25
Recovering from loss, and continuing the oral tradition	p. 29
Fiction, poetry, and self-definition	p. 31
A snapshot of contemporary Native America	p. 34
Nothing but words: from confrontation to connection in N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn	p. 36
Observation versus experience	p. 37
Angela and Abel: connection and disconnection	p. 40
Abel's progress and Angela's revelation	p. 42
Words, language, and meaning	p. 46
Violence, whiteness, and evil	p. 48
Confrontation and affirmation	p. 51
A timeless challenge and the reader	p. 52
Eternity, nothing, and shared truths	p. 55
Revitalizing the original clan: participant readers in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony	p. 57
Clan stories and the reader	p. 58
The performative power of language	p. 61
Connection and context	p. 63
Racial politics	p. 66
Fighting fragmentation and hatred	p. 70
Re-uniting the people	p. 72
Individual success and human promise	p. 75
Individualism vs. separation: imagining the self to foster unity via Gerald Vizenor's Bearheart	p. 77
Text and reader	p. 78
The dangers of language	p. 80
The power of imagination	p. 82
Collaboration and individual interpretation	p. 84
Connection, non-conformity, and transcendence	p. 86
Dependence and self-destruction	p. 89
Tribalism versus individualism	p. 92
Writing for connection: cross-cultural understanding in James Welch's historical fiction	p. 96
Writing history as resistance	p. 97
Translating the unfamiliar	p. 100
Teaching readers with cultural connections	p. 102
Ambiguity and interpretation	p. 106
The normal and the negative	p. 109
Humor as connection	p. 112
Community versus individual	p. 113
The approximate size of his favorite humor: Sherman Alexie's comic connections arid disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven	p. 116
Theorizing the frontier of humor	p. 117
Story-telling and its equivocal potential	p. 120
Humor as protection	p. 122
Humor as self-destructive avoidance	p. 124
Tradition, change, and context	p. 127
Humor as intra-community connection	p. 129
Humor as cross-cultural outreach	p. 132
Anger and joy	p. 135
Stitching the gap: believing vs. knowing in Linda Hogan's Power	p. 139
Narrative and interpretive processes	p. 140
Tradition and renewal	p. 142
Storm as metaphor	p. 144
Knowledge versus belief	p. 145
Witness	p. 147
Trial and error	p. 149
Future connection and community	p. 151
Effort and achievement	p. 152
The healing power of words	p. 155
Notes	p. 157
Bibliography	p. 169
Index	p. 183
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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Reading Native American Literature

Summary

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Table of Contents

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Reading Native American Literature

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

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