1st Edition
Twenty-First Century Perspectives on Indigenous Studies Native North America in (Trans)Motion
In recent years, the interdisciplinary fields of Native North American and Indigenous Studies have reflected, at times even foreshadowed and initiated, many of the influential theoretical discussions in the humanities after the "transnational turn." Global trends of identity politics, performativity, cultural performance and ethics, comparative and revisionist historiography, ecological responsibility and education, as well as issues of social justice have shaped and been shaped by discussions in Native American and Indigenous Studies. This volume brings together distinguished perspectives on these topics by the Native scholars and writers Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe), Diane Glancy (Cherokee), and Tomson Highway (Cree), as well as non-Native authorities, such as Chadwick Allen, Hartmut Lutz, and Helmbrecht Breinig. Contributions look at various moments in the cultural history of Native North America—from earthmounds via the Catholic appropriation of a Mohawk saint to the debates about Makah whaling rights—as well as at a diverse spectrum of literary, performative, and visual works of art by John Ross, John Ridge, Elias Boudinot, Emily Pauline Johnson, Leslie Marmon Silko, Emma Lee Warrior, Louise Erdrich, N. Scott Momaday, Stephen Graham Jones, and Gerald Vizenor, among others. In doing so, the selected contributions identify new and recurrent methodological challenges, outline future paths for scholarly inquiry, and explore the intersections between Indigenous Studies and contemporary Literary and Cultural Studies at large.
Introduction Birgit Däwes, Karsten Fitz and Sabine N. Meyer Part I: Native Studies for the Twenty-First Century: Theoretical Trajectories and Critical Approaches 1. Literary Transmotion: Survivance and Totemic Motion in Native American Indian Art and Literature Gerald Vizenor 2. Native Dramatic Theory in a Bird House Diane Glancy 3. First Nations Writing: A Personal History Tomson Highway Part II: Native Stories and Storiers 4. Reading Through Peoplehood: Towards a Culturally Responsive Approach to Native American Literary Discourse Billy J. Stratton 5. Evil and Sacrifice in Native North American Literature: Johnson, Momaday, Vizenor, Erdrich Helmbrecht Breinig 6. Games Indians Play: Reflections on Sports as Cultural Practice and Historical Template in Contemporary Native American Literature and Film Hans Bak Part III: Land, Law, and Indigenous Ecologies 7. Re-scripting Indigenous America: Earthworks in Native Art, Literature, Community Chadwick Allen 8. In the Shadow of the Marshall Court: Nineteenth-Century Cherokee Conceptualizations of the Law Sabine N. Meyer 9. A "Whale" of a Problem: Indigenous Tradition vs. Ecological Taboo Maria Moss Part IV: History and Transnationalism 10. Globalizing Indigenous Histories: Comparison, Connectedness, and New Contexts for Native American History Sami Lakomäki 11. Catherine Tekakwitha: The Construction of a Saint Michael Draxlbauer 12. Memory, Community, and Historicity in Joseph Bruchac’s The Journal of Jesse Smoke, a Cherokee Boy, The Trail of Tears, 1838 Hsinya Huang 13. "Indianthusiasts" and "Mythbusters": (De-)Constructing Transatlantic Others Hartmut Lutz
Biography
Birgit Däwes is Professor and Chair of American Studies at the University of Vienna.
Karsten Fitz is Professor of American Studies/Culture and Media Studies at the University of Passau.
Sabine N. Meyer is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the Institute for British and American Studies at the University of Osnabrück.
"Written by indigenous and non-indigenous scholars from North America, Europe, and Asia, these diverse essays examine aspects of contemporary indigenous studies...This interesting collection highlights the broad range of indigenous studies and the transnational scholarship that has proliferated in recent decades. Summing Up: Recommended."— J. A. Reyhner, Northern Arizona University, CHOICE Reviews
"The book defines and questions theoretical ideas drawn from Indigenous epistemologies as well as Western critical theory, using these with multiple examples of texts and artworks to demonstrate the vitality
of Indigenous survivance in the face of overwhelming odds. The four parts make a coherent whole, a web of ideas that intersect and speak to each other throughout the volume. Native North America in (Trans)motion merits reading and re-reading for its sophisticated insights not only into Native American studies, but also into how globalized, transnational Indigenous Studies can help to shape and lead the humanities in the future. This work will be invaluable to scholars, artists and students in disciplines far beyond the arbitrary borders that have ghettoized Indigenous Studies in the past." - David O’Donnell, Victoria University of Wellington, Recherche littéraire/Literary Research (vol. 32, summer 2016)
