Modernism's ventriloquist texts: American poetry, gender, and Indian identity Item Type text; Dissertation-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Salzer, Maureen Shannon, 1959- 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 24/09/2021 13:18:18 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/282683 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfihn master. UMI films the text directly firom the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reprodoction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Infonnadon Company 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 MODERNISM'S VENTRILOQUIST TEXTS: AMERICAN POETRY, GENDER, AND INDIAN IDENTITY by Maiireen Shannon Salzer Copyright "© Maureen SheUinon Salzer 1998 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 9 8 XJMI Nxunber: 9831927 Copyright 1998 by Salzer, Maureen Sheuinon All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9831927 Copyright 1998, by UMI Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 2 THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA ® GRADUATE COLLEGE As members of the Final Examination Committee, we certify that we have read the dissertation prepared by_ Maureen Shannon Salzer entitled Modernism's Ventriloquist Texts: American Poetry, Gender, and Indian Identity and recommend that it be accepted as fulfilling the dissertation requirement^ for the ^Degree of- Doctor of Philosophy Judyu^Noljre Nol/e Ten^leTem61e 7/ Date Law. e J. Evers//^Date Barbara A. Babcock ^ ^ Date Date Final approval and acceptance of this dissertation is contingent upon the candidate's submission of the final copy 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. D^^erration Director' Date jdy Nolte Temple 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This disser-tation has been siibmitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for am advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that accxirate acknowledgement of source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder. SIGNED: 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first offer my appreciation to the members of my committee, whose influence is evident throughout. Leorry Bvers provided constant encouragement, mamy crucial materials, emd invaluable advice at all stages. Barbeura Babcock eneOsled me to apply a cultiiral studies analysis and was always there when I needed her. My director, Judy Temple, kept me going with her wonderful sense of humor, her expert guidance, and her belief in my work and in the project's value. Thanks to them all for letting me meJce my own mistakes and for helping me to correct them. The final stages of the project were shaped emd energized by my work at the 1997 Berkeley S\immer Reseeurch Seminaurs led by Dean MacCannell and Gerald Vizenor. Fiinding for this research month was provided by the College of Humanities, the Graduate College, and the English Department at the University of Arizona. The Poetry Room at the State University of New York at Buffalo graciously allowed me access to their collection during the summer of 1996. Funding for this reseeurch ceuae from the Graduate College and College of Humanities at the University of Arizona. Many thanks to my professors Joan Dayan, Michelle Grijalva, N. Scott Momaday, and Tenney Nathanson of the University of Arizona English Depeurtment. For their conversation, friendship, and guidance I thank Chadwick Allen and Jill McCartney. Timely advice and support ceune from Meg Lota Brown, Janice Gould, Barbara Heifferon, Mairy Killary, Marcia Marma, Thomas P. Miller, and Tilly Warnock. Many thanks to Norah Lincoff and David Cohen for their hospitality at Waverly Beach and their friendship. Louis Sidell made chapter four, among other things, possible. Joanna Hearne helped in more ways than she knows. Collette and Jerry Shannon, Kathleen Shannon, and Nancy and Richeord Salzer provided inestimable help ajid support throughout. Matthew Salzer listened to nearly everything that went into this work, patiently and steadily helped me clarify my thinking, and made it possible for me to close the study door. He has remained my best friend and best critic at all times, even the tough ones. To him, my deepest thanks. 5 DEDICATION This work is dedicated to Matt, Tim, and Alison. I could not have done it without your love and support. Thank you for yoxir patience and for your belief in me. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 8 CHAPTER ONE WRITING AMERICAN OTHERS: NATIVE AMERICANS AS MODERNIST PRIMITIVES 10 MeJce it 01d/M8Jce Lt New: Connections to Modernist Experimentation 39 Conmodifying Modernist Texts: Fiddling With the Primitive While the Unreal City Burns 54 CHAPTER TWO INSCRIBING INDIAN VOICES IN SONG: NATALIE CURTIS AND THE PRESERVATION OF ORAL TRADITIONS 61 Eeurly Piiblications: Views of Pueblo Worlds 81 Recording and Representing "Vanishing" Voices: Cxirtis as "the Pencil in the Hand of the Indian" 97 Aesthetic Encounters: Ethnomusicologists Define the Primitive 123 The Indians^ Book's Piiblication History 138 CHAPTER THREE MARY AUSTIN'S PRIMITIVES AND THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN POETRY 150 Austin and the Modernist Innovators: A Close Reading of Her Re-Expressions 164 Cultural Representations in The American Rhythm 174 Expressing the American Rhythm 190 CHAPTER FOUR PRESENTING THE TEXTS OF MODERNISM: HARRIET MONROE'S NOSTALGIC PRIMITIVES 198 Harriet Monroe as Midwesterner-Tourist: Encountering the Wild West 201 Poetry Magazine and Monroe's Search for an Authentic American Modernism: The First "Aboriginal" Number....216 7 TABLE OF COHTENTS—continued Reading Two Anthologies: 1917's The New Poetry emd 1918's The Path on the Rainbotr 255 CHAPTER FIVE LAYING CLAIM TO CONQUEST: WENDY ROSE'S STYLISTICS OF CULTURAL SURVIVAL 277 Defining the Problematics of "Tribal**: Moving from Natlve/Prlmltlve to Indigenous/Tribal 293 NOTES 319 WORKS CITED 337 8 ABSTRACT This dissertation analyzes the intersections of modern Americem poetry, Native American literatiire, American anthropology, modernist movements in literature and art, and American social and political history between 1890 and 1930. These seemingly disparate phenomena, taUcen together, constitute a revolution in American literary and cultural history. To connect the subject areas, the initial chapter develops a theoretical framework based upon postmodern, feminist, postcolonial, and cultural studies theories which analyze power relationships eunong groups. Issues germane to the discussion include: the politics of representation, particularly of marginalized groups such as Native Americans; the marketing of experimental, modernist literature; the translation of texts from oral cultviral traditions into printed English; the factor of gender as it relates to dominemt culture appropriations of non-dominant- cult;ire texts and materials; and the commodification of the landscape and native cultures of the Western and Southwestern United States. Each of the next three chapters focuses on a non-Indian woman who, in some fashion, placed what ceuae to be known as Indian literary art before the non-Indian reading public: Natalie C\irtis, Mary Austin, and Heurriet Monroe. While two of these women considered themselves advocates of Indian 9 rights, all contributed, in various ways, to the stereotyping of Indian peoples and cultures prevalent between 1890 and 1930 and continuing today. Each chapter demonstrates a move forward in time and further from the Native American contexts in which the texts originated. Ethnomusicologist Natalie