Writing Home

by Wilson, Michael D.

• ISBN13: 9780870138188
• ISBN10: 0870138189
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Michigan State Univ Pr

Summary

Indigenous authors struggle to create authentic cultural representations.In Writing Home, Michael Wilson demonstrates that the use of acceptable Western literary forms by indigenous peoples, while sometimes effective, has frequently distorted essential truths about their cultures. Sermons, for instance, have provided some indigenous authors with a means to criticize colonialism; but ultimately this institutional form, by its very nature, expresses a hierarchical relationship between Christian religions and indigenous beliefs and practices.

Author Biography

Michael D. Wilson is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Indigenous Resistance Fiction	p. ix
Assimilation or Appropriation? The Idea of the Center in N. Scott Momaday's Way to Rainy Mountain and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony	p. 1
"Authenticity" and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony	p. 21
The Ethical Use of Indigenous Traditions in Contemporary Literature	p. 43
Writing a Friendship Dance: Orality in Mourning Dove's Cogewea	p. 69
Bearheart: Gerald Vizenor's Compassionate Novel	p. 87
Muted Traditions and Dialogic Affirmation in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine	p. 111
Perpetual Metamorphosis: Transformational Journeys in Ray Young Bear's Black Eagle Child	p. 131
Conclusion: Writing the Indigenous Nation	p. 151
Notes	p. 163
Works Cited	p. 173
Index	p. 183
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