The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature
Edited by James H. Cox and Daniel Heath Justice
Abstract
This book explores Indigenous American literature and the development of an inter- and trans-Indigenous orientation in Native American and Indigenous literary studies. Drawing on the perspectives of scholars in the field, it seeks to reconcile tribal nation specificity, Indigenous literary nationalism, and trans-Indigenous methodologies as necessary components of post-Renaissance Native American and Indigenous literary studies. It looks at the work of Renaissance writers, including Louise Erdrich’s Tracks (1988) and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Sacred Water (1993), along with novels by S. Alice Callahan and John Milton Oskison. It also discusses Indigenous poetics and Salt Publishing’s Earthworks series, focusing on poets of the Renaissance in conversation with emerging writers. Furthermore, it introduces contemporary readers to many American Indian writers from the seventeenth to the first half of the nineteenth century, from Captain Joseph Johnson and Ben Uncas to Samson Occom, Samuel Ashpo, Henry Quaquaquid, Joseph Brant, Hendrick Aupaumut, Sarah Simon, Mary Occom, and Elijah Wimpey. The book examines Inuit literature in Inuktitut, bilingual Mexicanoh and Spanish poetry, and literature in Indian Territory, Nunavut, the Huasteca, Yucatán, and the Great Lakes region. It considers Indigenous literatures north of the Medicine Line, particularly francophone writing by Indigenous authors in Quebec. Other issues tackled by the book include racial and blood identities that continue to divide Indigenous nations and communities, as well as the role of colleges and universities in the development of Indigenous literary studies.
Keywords:
Indigenous American literature,
literary studies,
tribal nation,
literary nationalism,
Renaissance writers,
Louise Erdrich,
Leslie Marmon Silko,
poetry,
Inuit literature,
Nunavut
Bibliographic Information
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date:
- Sep 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199914036
- Published online:
- Nov 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199914036.001.0001
Editors
James H. Cox,
editor
James H. Cox is an associate professor of English and co-founder and associate director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Muting White Noise: Native American and European American Novel Traditions (2006) and The Red Land to the South: American Indian Writers and Indigenous Mexico (2012) and the former co-editor of Studies in American Indian Literatures.
Daniel Heath Justice,
editor
Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee Nation) is Canada Research Chair of Indigenous Literatures and Expressive Culture and Associate Professor of First Nations Studies and English at the University of British Columbia, which is located on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Musqueam people. In addition to numerous critical essays in Indigenous literary studies, his works include Our Fire Survives the Storm: A Cherokee Literary History, the Indigenous epic fantasy The Way of Thorn and Thunder: The Kynship Chronicles, and the award-winning co-edited anthologies Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature and Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collectives. He is the former submissions editor of Studies in American Indian Literatures.
