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Critical
Studies:
Adamson,
Joni. American
Indian literature, environmental justice, and ecocriticism : the middle place.
Tucson: U of Arizona P,
2001.
This volume explores, as its cover claims, the work
of Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Leslie Marmon Silko,
and others, including Edward Abbey. The
essays treat an emerging movement in literary criticism:
ecocriticism. This work is heavily indebted to Silko’s Ceremony
and Almanac of the Dead, as well as to the critical influence of Annette
Kolodny and Scott Slovic. Includes
extensive bibliography and index.
Allen, Paula Gunn, ed. Studies in American Indian Literature: Critical Essays and Course Designs. New York: Modern Language Association, 1983. Davis PS153.I52 S8 1983
This collection
is organized around thematic units, including topics such as "Oral
Literature," "American Indian Women's Literature," and "The
Indian in American Literature." Resources at the end include
"American Indian Literatures: A Guide to Anthologies, Texts, and
Research," "Selected Periodicals," "Special Issues of
Periodicals," "Selected Presses," and "Works
Cited." Indexed also.
Bloom,
Harold, ed. Native American
Women Writers. Women Writers of
English and Their Works. Philadelphia:
Chelsea House, 1998. Davis
PS153.I52 N38 1998
In one slim volume, this well-known critic has gathered eleven of the most famous Native women writers, including Allen, Erdrich, Harjo, Hogan, and Silko. Each entry is introduced by a brief biography and ended by a selected list of titles of that author’s works, but the meat of the entry is selections of critical interpretation. This is a good resource for getting an understanding of critical reception for these writers.
Bruchac,
Joseph, ed. Survival This Way:
Interviews with American Indian Poets.
Suntracks vol. 15. Tucson,
AZ: U of Arizona P, 1987.
These twenty-one interviews include four of the six women writers treated above in this webpage: Allen, Hogan, Harjo, and Tapahonso. Silko and Erdrich aren’t included, although several other women are. Includes bibliography.
Coltelli,
Laura. Winged Words:
American Indian Writers Speak. Lincoln,
NE: U of Nebraska P, 1990. Davis
PS153.I52 C57
Coltelli has here reproduced the text of her interviews with eleven different writers, including Allen, Erdrich, Harjo, Hogan, and Silko. She specifies in her preface that the majority of her questions challenges these writers to self-definition, particularly within a post-colonial context. A selected bibliography provides primary writings by the interviewed authors.
Krupat,
Arnold. Ethnocriticism:
Ethnography, History, Literature.
Berkeley: U of California P,
1992. Davis GN345 .K78 1992.
This somewhat difficult treatise is a promising step in taking native
literature on its own terms, rather than a critical framework designed for
another canon. Krupat describes
this process as a “recognition and legitimation of heterogeneity” and a
sense of cosmopolitanism that will lead to what he calls a “polyvocal
polity.”
See also: Krupat, Arnold. The Turn to the Native: Studies in Criticism and Culture. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1996. Davis PS153 .I52 K77 1996. And Krupat, Arnold. The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon. Berkeley: U of California P, 1989. Davis PS153 .I52 K78 1989
Larson,
Charles R. American Indian
Fiction. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico P, 1978.
Davis PS153.I52 L3
This early (for the Renaissance) work of criticism is
most useful for its context—laying out the first fields of inquiry for Native
American criticism. These first
fields include the topics emergence, assimilation, rejection, and survival of
Native literature/culture. Many
current writers aren’t present, but the original “big three” Momaday,
Silko, and Welch are, along with 19th and early 20th
century writers.
Lincoln,
Kenneth. Native American
Renaissance. Berkeley and Los
Angeles: U of California P, 1983.
Davis PS153.I52 L6 1983
Perhaps the most important early work of criticism for the Native American Renaissance—indeed, giving name to the phenomenon—this book exerts itself in much the same fields of inquiry as Larson’s American Indian Fiction, above, but with greater attention to trickster literature (which Vizenor uses extensively) and more consideration of newer poets for the period.
Lincoln,
Kenneth. Sing with the Heart of
a Bear: Fusions of Native and
American Poetry 1890-1999. Berkeley:
U of California P, 2000. Davis
PS310.I52 L56 2000
Lincoln’s premise is the co-development of Native and Anglo poetics through the last century. To that end, he traces what he terms “cultural fusions” through the intersections of many different writers. This work is, of course, informed by postcolonial theory, as it seeks to reconceive a truly American poetics landscape. The bibliography is extensive.
Ortiz,
Simon, ed. Speaking for the
Generations: Native Writers on
Writing. Tucson:
U of Arizona P, c1998. Suntracks
v. 35. Davis PS501.S85 vol. 35
These ten essays bring together mostly established writers, like Ortiz, Silko, Roberta Hill, and Gloria Bird, with a few newer voices in Ortiz’s effort to link literature with ethnicity and place.
Swann,
Brian, ed. Smoothing the Ground:
Essays on Native American Oral Literature.
Berkeley and Los Angeles: U
of California P, 1983. Davis
PM156.S6 1983.
This collection, focusing on oral literature primarily from the Southwest and Far West, includes twenty essays grouped into areas. These areas include Context and Overview, The Question of Translation, a Focus on Stories, Native American Culture and the ‘Dominant’ Culture, and Reasoning Together. Most of the essays are here republished, with notes and bibliographies.
Swann,
Brian, and Arnold Krupat, eds. Recovering
the Word: Essays on Native American
Literature. Berkeley:
U of California P, c1987. Davis
PS153 .I52 R43 1987
This collection of essays treats mythographic representation, both theory and practice, and the interpretation of oral and written literature. The editors included one essay of their own, each, and there is also an essay by Paula Gunn Allen. Includes index.