Art as performance, story as criticism : reflections on native literary aesthetics / Craig Womack.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Womack, Craig S.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Indian authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

American literature--Indian authors.

Indians of North America--Intellectual life.

Indians of North America.

Indians in literature.

Indian authors--Aesthetics.

Indian authors.

Aesthetics.

Physical Description:

406 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2009]

Summary:

Pick up a work of typical literary criticism and you know what to expect: prose that is dry, pedantic, well-meaning but tedious--slow-going and essentially humorless. But why should that be so? Why can't more literary criticism have a political edge and be engaging and fast-paced? Why can't it include drama, personal narrative, and even humor? Why can't criticism become an artistic performance, rather than just a discussion of art? -- Art as Performance, Story as Criticism is Craig Womack's answer to these questions. Inventive and often outrageous, the book turns traditional literary criticism on its head, rejecting distanced, purely theoretical argumentation for intimate engagement with literary works. Focusing on Native American literature, Womack mixes forms and styles. He is unafraid to combine meticulous research and carefully considered historical perspectives with personal reactions and reflections. The book opens with a short story, "The Song of Roe Náld," in which a Native filmmaker loses control of his movie project, in part because of his homoerotic attraction to its star. The following chapters, or "mus(e)ings," include original dramas, while others more closely resemble traditional literary criticism, such as essays discussing the lesser-known plays of Lynn Riggs and the stories of Durango Mendoza. Still other chapters defy easy categorization, such as the piece "Caught in the Current, Clinging to a Twig," in which Womack interweaves historical analysis of the state of the Creek Nation in 1908 with a vivid recreation of the last day on earth of Creek poet Alexander Posey. Throughout the book, the author offers his take on such controversial issues as the Cherokee freedmen issue and the ban on gay marriage. In being different, Womack seeks to breathe new life into literary analysis and in-troduce criticism to a wider audience. Radical, groundbreaking, and refreshing, Art as Performance, Story as Criticism reinvents literary criticism for the twenty-first century.

Contents:

First Mus(e)ing The Song of Roe Nl̀d 3

Second Mus(e)ing Art, Death, Desire 37

Third Mus(e)ing Christine among the Winonas: Some Thoughts on E. Pauline? Johnson's Prose Writing 54

Fourth Mus(e)ing "In Cold Type": Style and Criticism 70

Fifth Mus(e)ing Caught in the Current, Clinging to a Twig 78

Sixth Mus(e)ing Aestheicizing a Political Debate: Can the Confederacy Be Sung Back Together? 95

Seventh Mus(e)ing Lynn Rigg's Other Indian Plays 115

Eighth Mus(e)ing Uncle Jimmey's Personal Emissary 186

Ninth Mus(e)ing Lightning, A Play in Two Acts 236

Tenth Mus(e)ing Baptists and Witches: Multiple Jurisdictions in a Muskogee Creek Story 297

Eleventh Mus(e)ing Resisting the Easy Connection 316

Twelfth Mus(e)ing Take Me Back to Turkey, Texas, I'm Too Young to Bury: The Riot Explained 326

Thirteenth Mus(e)ing Indian Decadence: I Want the Texas Playboys at My Private Party, and I Want to Sit In with the Band 339

Fourteenth Mus(e)ing Beth Brant and the Aesthetics of Sex 366

Fifteenth Mus(e)ing Sappho's Round Dance 387.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780806140643

080614064X

9780806140650

0806140658

OCLC:

311074760