Library Research Guides: American Literature: Native American Literature Resources

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Native American Literature Resources

eBooks are accessible online, and many are available for download or 2 week check out.

The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United States Since 1945 by Eric Cheyfitz The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United States Since 1945 is the first major volume of its kind to focus on Native literatures in a postcolonial context. Written by a team of noted Native and non-Native scholars, these essays consider the complex social and political influences that have shaped American Indian literatures in the second half of the twentieth century, with particular emphasis on core themes of identity, sovereignty, and land. In his essay comprising part I of the volume, Eric Cheyfitz argues persuasively for the necessary conjunction of Indian literatures and federal Indian law from Apess to Alexie. Part II is a comprehensive survey of five genres of literature: fiction (Arnold Krupat and Michael Elliott), poetry (Kimberly Blaeser), drama (Shari Huhndorf), nonfiction (David Murray), and autobiography (Kendall Johnson), and discusses the work of Vine Deloria Jr., N. Scott Momaday, Joy Harjo, Simon Ortiz, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, Jimmy Santiago Baca, and Sherman Alexie, among many others. Drawing on historical and theoretical frameworks, the contributors examine how American Indian writers and critics have responded to major developments in American Indian life and how recent trends in Native writing build upon and integrate traditional modes of storytelling. Sure to be considered a groundbreaking contribution to the field, The Columbia Guide to American Indian Literatures of the United States Since 1945 offers both a rich critique of history and a wealth of new information and insight.
ISBN: 9780231117647
Publication Date: 2006
Dreams of Fiery Stars : The Transformations of Native American Fiction by Catherine Rainwater Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Book for 1999 Since the 1968 publication of N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn, a new generation of Native American storytellers has chosen writing over oral traditions. While their works have found an audience by observing many of the conventions of the mainstream novel, Native American written narrative has emerged as something distinct from the postmodern novel with which it is often compared. In Dreams of Fiery Stars, Catherine Rainwater examines the novels of writers such as Momaday, Linda Hogan, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, and Louise Erdrich and contends that the very act of writing narrative imposes constraints upon these authors that are foreign to Native American tradition. Their works amount to a break with--and a transformation of--American Indian storytelling. The book focuses on the agenda of social and cultural regeneration encoded in contemporary Native American narrative, and addresses key questions about how these works achieve their overtly stated political and revisionary aims. Rainwater explores the ways in which the writers "create" readers who understand the connection between storytelling and personal and social transformation; considers how contemporary Native American narrative rewrites Western notions of space and time; examines the existence of intertextual connections between Native American works; and looks at the vital role of Native American literature in mainstream society today.
ISBN: 9780812216820
Publication Date: 1999
Native American Novelists by Carl Rollyson; Salem Press Editors This volume combines critical analysis and detailed biographical information on the most influential Native American novelists throughout history, including Sherman Alexie, James Fenimore Cooper, Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingslover, Frank Waters and Larry Woiwode.
ISBN: 9781429836968
Publication Date: 2012
Native American Women Writers by Harold Bloom (Editor) This collective biography contains biographical material & literary criticism on such Native American poets & novelists as Paula Gunn Allen, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, E. Pauline Johnson, & Mourning Dove.
ISBN: 9780791044797
Publication Date: 1998
Native Authenticity: Transnational Perspectives on Native American Literary Studies by Deborah L. Madsen A survey of current critical perspectives on how North American indigenous peoples are viewed and represented transnationally.
ISBN: 9781438431673
Publication Date: 2010
Reading Native American Literature by Joseph L. Coulombe Native American literature explores 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 Fistfight 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.
ISBN: 9780415579421
Publication Date: 2011
Sky Loom: Native American Myth, Story, and Song by Brian Swann (Editor) Sky Loom offers a dazzling introduction to Native American myths, stories, and songs drawn from previous collections by acclaimed translator and poet Brian Swann. With a general introduction by Swann, Sky Loom is a stunning collection that provides a glimpse into the intricacies and beauties of story and myth, placing them in their cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts. Each of the twenty-six selections is translated and introduced by a well-known expert on Native oral literatures and offers entry into the cultures and traditions of several different tribes and bands, including the Yupiit and the Tlingits of the polar North; the Coast Salish and the Kwakwaka'wakw of the Pacific Northwest; the Navajos, the Pimas, and the Yaquis of the Southwest; the Lakota Sioux and the Plains Crees of the Great Plains; the Ojibwes of the Great Lakes; the Naskapis and the Eastern Crees of the Hudson Bay area in Canada; and the Munsees of the Northeast. Sky Loom takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through literary traditions older than the "discovery" of the New World.
ISBN: 9780803246157
Publication Date: 2014

Streaming videos are viewable online. Search for more using the Films on Demand Database or AVON: Academic Video Online.

Native American Novelists Series
In this series of intimate portraits of four outstanding Native American novelists, N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Leslie M. Silko, and Gerald Vizenor seek to define themselves and their culture and to explain both the past and the present of their people.
Native Voices—American Passages: A Literary Survey
Native Americans had established a rich and highly developed tradition of oral literature long before the writings of the European colonists. This program explores that richness by introducing Native American oral traditions through the work of three contemporary authors: Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo), Simon Ortiz (Acoma Pueblo), and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo).

Circulating books may be checked out in 3 week intervals.

Native-American Writers by Harold Bloom (Editor) -- Brings together the best criticism on the most widely read poets, novelists, and playwrights -- Presents complex critical portraits of the most influential writers in the English-speaking world -- from the English medievalists to contemporary writers
Call Number: PS153.I52 N387 1998
ISBN: 0791047857
Publication Date: 1998
Native American Fiction: A User's Manual by David Treuer An entirely new approach to reading, understanding, and enjoying Native American fiction This book has been written with the narrow conviction that if Native American literature is worth thinking about at all, it is worth thinking about as literature. The vast majority of thought that has been poured out onto Native American literature has puddled, for the most part, on how the texts are positioned in relation to history or culture. Rather than create a comprehensive cultural and historical genealogy for Native American literature, David Treuer investigates a selection of the most important Native American novels and, with a novelist's eye and a critic's mind, examines the intricate process of understanding literature on its own terms. Native American Fiction: A User's Manualis speculative, witty, engaging, and written for the inquisitive reader. These essays--on Sherman Alexie, Forrest Carter, James Fenimore Cooper, Louise Erdrich, Leslie Marmon Silko, and James Welch--are rallying cries for the need to read literature as literature and, ultimately, reassert the importance and primacy of the word.
Call Number: PS153.I52 T74 2006
ISBN: 9781555974527
Publication Date: 2006
Native American Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Sean Teuton North American Indigenous literature began over thirty thousand years ago when Indigenous people began telling stories of emergence and creation, journey and quest, and heroism and trickery. By setting Indigenous literature in historical moments, Sean Teuton skillfully traces its evolutionfrom the ancient role of bringing rain and healing the body, to its later purpose in resisting European invasion and colonization, into its current place as a world literature that confronts dominance while celebrating the imagination and resilience of Indigenous lives.By the time Europeans arrived in North America Indigenous people already understood the power of written language and the need to transmit philosophy, history, and literature across generations and peoples. Seeking out multiple literary forms such as sermon, poetry, and novel to serve differingworldviews Indigenous authors have shaped their writing into North American Indigenous literature as we recognize it today. In this lucid narrative, Sean Teuton leads readers into Indigenous worlds. He describes the invention of a written Indigenous language, the first Indigenous language newspaper,and the literary occupation of Alcatraz Island. Along the way readers encounter the diversity of Indigenous peoples who, owing to their differing lands, livelihoods, and customs, molded literature to a nation's specific needs. As Teuton shows, Indigenous literature is one of the best places forunderstanding Indigenous views about land and society and the role of humanity in the cosmos. In turning to celebrated contemporary authors such as Thomas King, Leslie Silko, Sherman Alexie, Louise Erdrich, and James Welch, Teuton demonstrates that, like Indigenous people, Indigenous literaturecontinues to survive because it adapts, both honoring the past and reaching for the future.ABOUT THE SERIES:The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to makeinteresting and challenging topics highly readable.
Call Number: PS153.I52 T465 2018
ISBN: 9780199944521
Publication Date: 2018
Native American Literatures: An Introduction by Suzanne Lunquist; Suzanne Evertsen Lundquist Following the structure of other titles in the Continuum Introductions to Literary Genres series, Native American Literatures includes: A broad definition of the genre and its essential elements. A timeline of developments within the genre. Critical concerns to bear in mind while reading in the genre. Detailed readings of a range of widely taught texts. In-depth analysis of major themes and issues. Signposts for further study within the genre. A summary of the most important criticism in the field. A glossary of terms. An annotated, critical reading list. This book offers students, writers, and serious fans a window into some of the most popular topics, styles and periods in this subject. Authors studied in Native American Literatures include: N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, James Welch, Linda Hogan, Gerald Vizenor, Sherman Alexie, Louis Owens, Thomas King, Michael Dorris, Simon Ortiz, Cater Revard and Daine Glancy
Call Number: PS153.I52 L86 2004
ISBN: 9780826415998
Publication Date: 2004
The Nature of Native American Poetry by Norma C. Wilson The beginning of the twenty-first century marks the maturation of the voices of indigenous poets in the United States. Norma Wilson's appealing and accessible collection of essays is both an introduction to and an enthusiastic celebration of the poetic vistas inhabited by modern Native American writers. Wilson's scope is both broad and specific as she draws from contemporary criticism, tribal histories and folklore, interviews with writers, and, of course, from the poetry itself. Her study is firmly grounded in the oral traditions and personal and tribal histories of the eight poets on whom she focuses--Carter Revard, N. Scott Momaday, Simon Ortiz, Lance Henson, Roberta Hill, Linda Hogan, Wendy Rose, and Joy Harjo. A final chapter on the "new generation" considers younger poets such as Sherman Alexie, Cheryl Savageau, Tiffany Midge, and Elizabeth Woody, among others. At the same time, Wilson's broad understanding of the literary heritage of East, West, and First nations allows her to place Native American poetry in global and historical context. Wilson points out Native American writers have been influenced by such well-known Western "canon" poets as Blake, Whitman, and Ginsberg. Her study further elucidates the clear mark that Native American literature, culture, and oral-poetic traditions have left on five centuries of British and American literature. The Nature of Native American Poetry is a guidebook mapping the modern rhythms of our ancient literary landscape.
Call Number: PS153.I52 W55 2001
ISBN: 082632259X
Publication Date: 2001
Sovereign Bones: New Native American Writing, Volume II by Eric Gansworth Sovereign Bones is an exploration of indigenous peoples and how they have managed to maintain separate identities, in spite of their assimilation into the broader American culture. Edited by Eric Gansworth, this collection of original writing focuses on the key role that writers and visual artists have played in the struggle of native peoples to retain their individual identities. In personal essays, memoir, and historical reflections, each writer explores the ways in which they arrived attheir work and how they have retained a traditional way of life in that work. Taken as a whole, Sovereign Bones is a testimony to the resilience of indigenous cultures and the integral contributions artists make to that survival. Featured authors include: Marijo Moore, Louise Erdrich, Alex Jacobs, Heid Erdrich, Maurice Kenny, Diane Glancy, Jeanette Weaskus, Simon Ortiz.
Call Number: E98.E85 S66 2007
ISBN: 9781568583570
Publication Date: 2007
Speak Like Singing: Classics of Native American Literature by Kenneth Lincoln Speak Like Singing focuses on select Native American writers showcasing the distinct voices and tribal diversities of living Indians. Through the pan-tribal medium of English, a second language for some and now a mother tongue for most, many of these Native writers begin as poets and go on to write novels. Pulitzer novelist and Kiowa poet N. Scott Momaday says, "I believe that a good many Indian writers rely upon a kind of poetic expression out of necessity, a necessary homage to the native tradition." Black Elk remembers the wanékia or "make-live" prophet of his Lakota Ghost Dance vision "spoke like singing." The leaves, grasses, waters, leggéds, wingéds, and crawling beings all listened and danced. "They were better able now to see the greenness of the world," Black Elk says, after heyoka curing songs, "the wideness of the sacred day, the colors of the earth, and to set these in their minds." This book honors that talk-song vision for all relatives. "Scholar, novelist, and essayist Ken Lincoln blends his fierce cultural commitments and propulsive, lyrical prose in page after page of this passionate yet reference-rich book, persuading us that native dream songs, ritual liturgies, trickster narratives, and modern novels deserve to sit at every table of American literature."--Peter Nabokov, author of Native American Testimony and Where Lightning Strikes "Lincoln is that rarity among literary critics, a paragon of empathy and generosity; he immerses himself, he rejoices in it. The proof lies in the burn and torsion of his prose that heartens his intelligence and extraordinary learning."--Cal Bedient, author of Eight Contemporary Poets American Indian authors included: Sherman Alexie Sherwin Bitsui Louise Erdrich Joy Harjo Linda Hogan N. Scott Momaday Greg Sarris Leslie Silko Luci apahonso James Welch
Call Number: PS153.I52 L55 2007
ISBN: 9780826341693
Publication Date: 2007

Books from the reference section are available for in library use, or are available for online viewing.

Dictionary of Native American Literature by Andrew Wiget (Editor) This dictionary, produced by the Association for the Study of American Indian Literature, contains 40 critical-biographical essays on various writers spanning two time periods: the historical emergence of Native American writers (to 1800) and the Native American Renaissance (1967-). In addition to the biographical essays, there are more than 20 essays covering historical, literary, and cultural aspects such as the dream song and narrative. This organization of informational and biographical essays within major time periods will aid the user in understanding the context of an individual's writing.
Call Number: PM155 .D53 1994
ISBN: 0815315600
Publication Date: 1994