DOCSLIB.ORG

The Search for Identity in Native American Literature Brianna Kosmer | English and American Indian Studies | Faculty Mentor: Dr

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Search for Identity in Native American Literature Brianna Kosmer | English and American Indian Studies | Faculty Mentor: Dr The Search for Identity in Native American Literature Brianna Kosmer | English and American Indian Studies | Faculty Mentor: Dr. Heather Moody Introduction The Characters and the Works The topic of identity is central not only to literature, but also to • Tayo from Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko human existence, for everyone has a unique identity that is • Abel from House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday formed in different ways. My research follows the journey of • Arnold Spirit, Jr. (a.k.a. Junior) from The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- identity for the main characters in four Native American literary Time Indian by Sherman Alexie works of fiction and identifies a four-step process of identity • Linda Hogan as herself from “The Truth Is” through these characters’ journeys that can speak to the topic of Native American identity today. Crossing of Tension Between Self-Loathing Return to Roots Worlds Worlds & Traditions • Occurs when a character • Occurs when the characters • Occurs when a character’s • Occurs when a character leaves his or her home world experience difficulties in the confusion and isolation returns to his or her home to experience the non-native foreign, non-native world. manifest into negative feelings. world and finds healing to world. • Characters begin to feel the • These negative feelings include form an identity. • The home world: the world effects of the crossing of the or are a combination of self- • Characters turn to the rich with traditions and stories home world and non-native loathing, self-blame, and guilt. traditions and stories of their that the character was raised world because they are at a • Characters turn inward to home worlds to find healing. in and eventually returns to in loss with how to carry on in reflect on the uncertainties • Characters apply aspects of order to form his or her both worlds after experiencing they feel about their places in their home worlds to their identity; the character’s the non-native world. their two worlds. current struggles to find comfort zone. • Characters have no knowledge • Characters do not yet know answers, healing, and thus • The non-native world: the of the “rules” to play by in the how to ease these tensions their identities. world outside of the home non-native world. and establish their identities, world in which each character • Characters carry these new and they feel frustration and ventures into and has new and foreign experiences with transition into hanging in a experiences in; no established them without knowing what to negative limbo and turn comfort zone. make of them. against themselves, questioning who they are now and how to heal. Characters face difficulties after their Characters find healing in their home Characters leave their comfort zones, Characters turn against themselves new experiences and struggle to find worlds through traditions and stories and their current identities are because they are at a loss with what to their place in the home world and and are able to form their identities challenged. make of the tensions they face. non-native world . based on these factors. Example: Hogan conveys a sense of self- Example: Tayo experiences a crossing of Example: Junior experiences tension Example: Abel returns to his roots and between his worlds when his lack of loathing when she reassures readers worldsExample: one in of thehis ways dreams in which Tayo when experiences he ahears crossing of the worlds Example: one of the ways in which Tayo experiences a crossing of worlds Example: one of the ways in which Tayo experiences a crossing of worlds Example:traditions one of the waysand in findswhich Tayo healing experiences when a crossing heof worlds is in his dreams when he hears the voices of the people from his home isknowledge in his dreams when about he hears the the voices “rules” of the people of from fighting his home isthat in his dreams her whenright he hearshand, the voices belonging of the people tofrom her his home is in his dreams when he hears the voices of the people from his home voicesworld mixing of with the the voicespeople of the warfrom his home world world mixing with the voices of the war world mixing with the voices of the war worldparticipates mixing with the voices in theof the warannual race of his white heritage, is her own, and not mixing with the voices of the war (WWII) in the non-native world of Reardan High home world, the Race of the Dead. School further isolate him. “some thief’s.” Conclusions Citations A character’s identity is challenged when he or she enters an unfamiliar world, the non-native world. Photos: Characters are forced to find inner peace and acceptance through an understanding of their new Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko book cover: experiences in this world and how they have changed from them. Characters’ identities become https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Leslie_marmon_silko_-_ceremony.jpg heavily rooted in the home world, the world of traditions, because they find peace and form their House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momady book cover: https://www.amazon.com/House- identities in this world. The Native American identity makes itself apparent though this final step. Made-Dawn-Scott-Momaday/dp/0061859974 Because these are works by Native American authors and because Native American people today The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie book cover: similarly must traverse between two worlds with different cultures and histories, the final step in the https://yalitgourley.wikispaces.com/ journey of identity for these characters parallels that of the real world. Through these works of Linda Hogan: http://english2350project.wikispaces.com/Linda+Hogan fiction, a truth is heard; a voice is given to the Native American identities that have historically been silenced. This study was supported by the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Fellowship Program which is jointly funded by Differential Tuition and The Foundation. We thank the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs for supporting this research, and Learning and Technology Services for printing this poster..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Native American Literature: Remembrance, Renewal
    U.S. Society and Values, "Contemporary U.S. Literature: Multicultura...partment of State, International Information Programs, February 2000 NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE: REMEMBRANCE, RENEWAL By Geary Hobson In 1969, the fiction committee for the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes in literature awarded its annual honor to N. Scott Momaday, a young professor of English at Stanford University in California, for a book entitled House Made of Dawn. The fact that Momaday's novel dealt almost entirely with Native Americans did not escape the attention of the news media or of readers and scholars of contemporary literature. Neither did the author's Kiowa Indian background. As news articles pointed out, not since Oliver LaFarge received the same honor for Laughing Boy, exactly 40 years earlier, had a so-called "Indian" novel been so honored. But whereas LaFarge was a white man writing about Indians, Momaday was an Indian -- the first Native American Pulitzer laureate. That same year, 1969, another young writer, a Sioux attorney named Vine Deloria, Jr., published Custer Died For Your Sins, subtitled "an Indian Manifesto." It examined, incisively, U.S. attitudes at the time towards Native American matters, and appeared almost simultaneously with The American Indian Speaks, an anthology of writings by various promising young American Indians -- among them Simon J. Ortiz, James Welch, Phil George, Janet Campbell and Grey Cohoe, all of whom had been only fitfully published at that point. These developments that spurred renewed -- or new -- interest in contemporary Native American writing were accompanied by the appearance around that time of two works of general scholarship on the subject, Peter Farb's Man's Rise to Civilization (1968) and Dee Brown's Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (1970).
    [Show full text]
  • NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE a Brief Introduction and Anthology
    NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE A Brief Introduction and Anthology Gerald Vizenor University of California Berkeley The HarperCollins Literary Mosaic Series Ishmael Reed General Editor University of California Berkeley HARPERCOLUNSCOLLEGEPUBLISHERS Contents Foreword by Ishmael Reed Introduction AUTOBIOGRAPHY William Apess (1798-?) A Son of the Forest Preface 20 Chapter I 20 Chapter II 24 Chapter III 28 Luther Standing Bear (1868-1939) My People the Sioux Preface 33 First Days at Carlisle 33 John Rogers (1890-?) Return to White Earth 46 N Scott Momaday (b 1934) The Way to Rainy Mountain [Introduction] 60 The Names 65 Gerald VTzenor(b 1934) Measuring My Blood 69 Maria Campbell (b 1940) The Little People 76 Louis Owens (b 1948) Motion of Fire and Form 83 Wendy Rose (b 1948) Neon Scars 95 FICTION John Joseph Mathews (1894-1979) The Birth of Challenge 106 iv Native American Literature D Arcy McNickle (1904-1977) A Different World Elizabeth Cook Lynn (b 1930) A Good Chance N Scott Momaday (b 1934) The Rise of the Song Gerald Vizenor (b 1934) Hearthnes Paula Gunn Allen (b 1939) Someday Soon James Welch (b 1940) The Earthboy Place Thomas King (b 1943) Maydean Joe Leslie Marmon Silko (b 1948) Call That Story Back Louis Owens (b 1948) The Last Stand Betty Louise Bell (b 1949) In the Hour of the Wolf Le Anne Howe (b 1951) Moccasins Don t Have High Heels Evelina Zuni Lucero (b 1953) Deer Dance Louise Erdnch (b 1954) Lipsha Mornssey Kimberly Blaeser (b 1955) A Matter of Proportion Gordon Henry Jr (b 1955) Arthur Boozhoo on the Nature of Magic POETRY Mary
    [Show full text]
  • Solar Storms
    The Discourse of Madness and Environmental Justice in Linda Hogan’s Novel Solar Storms Yonka Krasteva Shumen University We have stripped all things of their mystery and numinosity; nothing is holy any longer. Carl Jung The last few decades in American literature have seen the emergence of discourses that actively engage with environmental issues implying the need for a return to a spiritually informed way of life which restores the forgotten relations between human beings and the natural world. While these discourses of eco-criticism share a basic concern for environmental degradation and the ways to effect damage control and a healing of nature, they also differ in their evaluations of the relationship between the human and the natural world and in the ways goals and strategies are perceived. A number of US literary works written since 1980, such as John Cheever’s Oh What A Paradise It Seems, John DeLillo’s White Noise, and John Updike’s Rabbit At Rest articulate mainstream concerns and ideas about the environment and reflect what Cynthia Dietering terms a “toxic consciousness,” which sees the US as “post-natural” wasteland. (Adamson 56) A more politically oriented discourse which probes the connection between environ- mental degradation and class and race distinctions has emerged with what Joni Adamson calls “literature of environmental justice,” defined by the works of writers such as Leslie Mormon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Simon Ortiz, Linda Hogan, Alice Walker, and Ana Castillo, to mention just a few. These writers examine experiences of environmental racism, a term that gained currency in the debates on the environment in 1987 when the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Radical Justice published a report that found race to be the main factor in the location of toxic waste facilities (Adamson 129).
    [Show full text]
  • American Book Awards 2004
    BEFORE COLUMBUS FOUNDATION PRESENTS THE AMERICAN BOOK AWARDS 2004 America was intended to be a place where freedom from discrimination was the means by which equality was achieved. Today, American culture THE is the most diverse ever on the face of this earth. Recognizing literary excel- lence demands a panoramic perspective. A narrow view strictly to the mainstream ignores all the tributaries that feed it. American literature is AMERICAN not one tradition but all traditions. From those who have been here for thousands of years to the most recent immigrants, we are all contributing to American culture. We are all being translated into a new language. BOOK Everyone should know by now that Columbus did not “discover” America. Rather, we are all still discovering America—and we must continue to do AWARDS so. The Before Columbus Foundation was founded in 1976 as a nonprofit educational and service organization dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature. The goals of BCF are to provide recognition and a wider audience for the wealth of cultural and ethnic diversity that constitutes American writing. BCF has always employed the term “multicultural” not as a description of an aspect of American literature, but as a definition of all American litera- ture. BCF believes that the ingredients of America’s so-called “melting pot” are not only distinct, but integral to the unique constitution of American Culture—the whole comprises the parts. In 1978, the Board of Directors of BCF (authors, editors, and publishers representing the multicultural diversity of American Literature) decided that one of its programs should be a book award that would, for the first time, respect and honor excellence in American literature without restric- tion or bias with regard to race, sex, creed, cultural origin, size of press or ad budget, or even genre.
    [Show full text]
  • Voice in the Poetry of Selected Native American
    SPEAKING THROUGH THE SILENCE: VOICE IN THE POETRY OF SELECTED NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN POETS by D’JUANA ANN MONTGOMERY Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Arlington in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON MAY 2009 Copyright © by D’Juana Ann Montgomery 2009 All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Knowing where to actually begin in acknowledging all of those who have helped make completing this process possible is daunting—there are so many who have contributed in so many ways. Dr. Kenneth Roemer, my dissertation chair, has been an invaluable source of guidance and encouragement throughout the course of my doctoral work. Dr. Tim Morris and Dr. Laurin Porter have also been invaluable in helping me complete the final drafts of this project. I must also acknowledge my English Department colleagues Diane Lewis, Dessita Rury, and Dr. Amy Alexander at Southwestern Assemblies of God University. These wonderful friends have been a continual source of strength and encouragement and have seemingly never tired of listening to me talk about the ups and downs of my project. My heartfelt thanks also goes to Kathy Hilbert, my good friend and colleague from Hill College who has read the drafts of my chapters almost as many times as I have. Finally, and perhaps, most importantly, I must acknowledge the support and sacrifices of my family. My husband Max has always been my biggest supporter; he has never failed to encourage and support me in any way possible.
    [Show full text]
  • He Uses of Humor in Native American and Chicano/A Cultures: an Alternative Study Of
    The Uses of Humor in Native American and Chicano/a Cultures: An Alternative Study of Their Literature, Cinema, and Video Games Autora: Tamara Barreiro Neira Tese de doutoramento/ Tesis doctoral/ Doctoral Thesis UDC 2018 Directora e titora: Carolina Núñez Puente Programa de doutoramento en Estudos Ingleses Avanzados: Lingüística, Literatura e Cultura Table of contents Resumo .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Resumen ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 6 Sinopsis ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 21 1. Humor and ethnic groups: nonviolent resistance ................................................................ 29 1.1. Exiles in their own land: Chicanos/as and Native Americans ..................................... 29 1.2. Humor: a weapon of mass creation ............................................................................. 37 1.3. Inter-Ethnic Studies: combining forces ......................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Open Dissertation Etd Format.Pdf
    The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts FROM MISREPRESENTATION TO MISAPPREHENSION: DISCURSIVE RESISTANCE AND THE POLITICS OF DISPLACEMENT IN NATIVE AMERICA A Thesis in Comparative Literature by Quentin E. Youngberg © 2006 Quentin E. Youngberg Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2006 The thesis of Quentin E. Youngberg was reviewed and approved* by the following: Djelal Kadir Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Comparative Literature Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee Sophia A. McClennen Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Spanish, and Women’s Studies Aldon L. Nielsen Kelly Professor of American Literature Matthew B. Restall Professor of Latin American History, Anthropology, and Women’s Studies, Director of Graduate Studies in History, and Director of Latin American Studies Caroline D. Eckhardt Professor of English and Comparative Literature Head of the Department of Comparative Literature * Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. iii ABSTRACT The very real social and political problems on reservations (like poverty, alcoholism, and suicide) will never be solved so long as these issues are elided by essentialist discussions of culture. Romanticized conceptions of Native cultures elide the facts of racism, bureaucratic inefficiency, and purposefully systematized erosions of Native sovereignty. In the process of these elisions, blame for social problems is laid on the culturally “atavistic” and “inept” (savage) victims for problems that stem, in reality, from an ongoing colonial relationship. By taking on various popular myths about Native cultures (the myth of the Vanishing Indian, the idea of the Nature-Indian, or the myth of the White-Indian), and by setting Native voices in opposition to those myths, this dissertation attempts to de- mystify the politics that lie behind public discourses on and by Native peoples.
    [Show full text]
  • Important: Any Student Who Feels S/He May Need an Accommodation Based on the Impact of a Disability Should Contact Me Privately to Discuss Your Needs
    Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies 2215 Reading Women Writers: Women of Color Literature and Social/Political Movements Stillman Hall 240 WeFr 9:35-10:55 Autumn 2012 Instructor: Deema Kaedbey Email: [email protected] or [email protected] (Email is the best way to contact me) Office and Office Hours: University Hall 337 B Wednesdays and Fridays 11:05 -12:05 or by appointment Mailbox: Women’s Studies Department. University Hall, 2nd Floor Important: Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss your needs. Students with disabilities that have been certified by the Office for Disability Services will be appropriately accommodated, and should inform the instructor as soon as possible of their needs. The Office for Disability Services is located in 150 Pomerene Hall, 1760 Neil Avenue; telephone 292-3307, TDD 292-0901; OSU Office for disability Services Web Site: http://www.ods.ohio-state.edu/ This office coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. Course Description: This course examines a selection of writings by women of color in the U.S, both fiction and non-fiction. We will study how the literature of women of color is influenced by social and political movements, and how their writings in turn help shape these movements. We will be critically examining issues such as immigration, media images and stereotypes, belonging, loss, oppression and resistance. And throughout, we will always be paying special attention to the way gender, race, class and sexuality play out in the texts.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing America
    A MILLENNIUM ARTS PROJECT REVISED EDITION NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS Contents Chairman’s Message 3 NEA Literature Fellows by State 4 Editor’s Note 5 The Writer’s Place by E.L. Doctorow 7 Biographies and Excerpts 8 2 CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE WRITERS record the triumphs and tragedies of the human spirit and so perform an important role in our society. They allow us—in the words of the poet William Blake—“to see a world in a grain of sand,” elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary and finding signifi- cance in the seemingly insignificant. Creative writers in our own country deserve our support and encouragement. After all, America’s writers record America. They tell America’s story to its citizens and to the world. The American people have made an important investment in our nation’s writers through the National Endowment for the Arts’ Literature Fellowships. Since the program was established 35 years ago, $35 million has enhanced the creative careers of more than 2,200 writers. Since 1990, 34 of the 42 recipients of poetry and fiction awards through the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award have been recipients of Arts Endowment fellowships early in their careers. Beyond statistics, however, these writers have given a lasting legacy to American literature by their work. This revised edition of WRITINGAMERICA features the work of 50 Literature Fel- lowship winners—one from each state—who paint a vivid portrait of the United States in the last decades of the twentieth century. Collectively, they evoke the magnificent spectrum of people, places, and experiences that define America.
    [Show full text]
  • Native American Mystery, Crime, and Detective Fiction
    Native American Mystery, Crime, and Detective Fiction Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Stoecklein, Mary Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 18:52:42 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/624574 NATIVE AMERICAN MYSTERY, CRIME, AND DETECTIVE FICTION by Mary Stoecklein __________________________ Copyright © Mary Stoecklein 2017 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the GRADUATE INTERDISCIPLINARY PROGRAM IN AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2017 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Dissertation Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by Mary Stoecklein, titled Native American Mystery, Crime, and Detective Fiction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________________________________________________________________ Date: April 7, 2017 Franci Washburn _______________________________________________________________________ Date: April 7, 2017 Amy Fatzinger _______________________________________________________________________ Date: April 7, 2017 Daniel Cooper Alarcón _______________________________________________ Date: April 7, 2017 Billy J. Stratton Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate’s submission of the final copies of the dissertation to the Graduate College. I hereby certify that I have read this dissertation prepared under my direction and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement.
    [Show full text]
  • Third Space in Linda Hogan's People of the Whale
    Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Theses Department of English Spring 5-10-2019 Emergence Elsewhere: Third Space in Linda Hogan's People of the Whale Joan M. Banez Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses Recommended Citation Banez, Joan M., "Emergence Elsewhere: Third Space in Linda Hogan's People of the Whale." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2019. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_theses/242 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EMERGENCE ELSEWHERE: THIRD SPACE IN LINDA HOGAN’S PEOPLE OF THE WHALE by JOAN BANEZ Under the Direction of Gina Caison, PhD ABSTRACT This project examines the relationship between transnational Indigeneity and effectuate trauma in Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale (2008). The novel’s protagonist, Thomas Just, endures trauma that emerges from a transnational adoption narrative, which complicates notions of race- and place-based conceptions of selfhood. To analyze Thomas’s production of identity, I look to Kevin Bruyneel’s The Third Space of Sovereignty: The Postcolonial Politics of U.S.–Indigenous Relations (2007) and Mark Jerng’s Claiming Others: Transracial Adoption and National Belonging (2010). Through these lenses, I interrogate the onto-epistemological boundaries that complicate Thomas’s ability to exist in more than one culture and topological community at once. Thomas’s identity exists in and of a metaphysical and sociopolitical “elsewhere” that, although is of two places, is not confined in these physical places and further prevents him from wholly re-integrating into the two communities in which he was once a part.
    [Show full text]
  • Motherhood in the Novels of Native American Writers Louise Erdrich and Linda Hogan
    Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects Honors Program 5-2009 Grounding to Place and Past: Motherhood in the Novels of Native American Writers Louise Erdrich and Linda Hogan Elise Doney Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Doney, Elise, "Grounding to Place and Past: Motherhood in the Novels of Native American Writers Louise Erdrich and Linda Hogan" (2009). Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects. 4. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/honors/4 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors Program at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Grounding to Place and Past: Motherhood in the Novels of Native American Writers Louise Erdrich and Linda Hogan by Elise Doney Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DEPARTMENTAL HONORS in Literary Studies in the Department of English Approved: Thesis/Project Advisor Departmental Honors Advisor Dr. Jan Roush Dr. Joyce Kinkead Director of Honors Program Dr. Christie Fox UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, UT Spring 2009 Doney Grounding to Place and Past: Motherhood in the Novels of Native American Writers Louise Erdrich and Linda Hogan Elise Doney, Undergraduate Researcher Jan Roush, Faculty Mentor Department ofEnglish, College of Humanities Arts and Social Sciences "Grounded Indian literature is tribal; its fulcrum is a sense ofrelatedness" - Kenneth Lincoln Abstract: The interconnectedness in both form and content ofNative American literature originates from the complex relationship between cultural and personal identity as inextricably intertwined with spiritual and natural realms.
    [Show full text]