Deep waters : the textual continuum in American Indian literature / Christopher B. Teuton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Teuton, Christopher B.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

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

American literature.

Indians in literature.

Oral tradition in literature.

Vision in literature.

Indian philosophy--United States.

Indian philosophy.

Indians of North America--Intellectual life.

Indians of North America.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (270 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Weaving connections between indigenous modes of oral storytelling, visual depiction, and contemporary American Indian literature, Deep Waters demonstrates the continuing relationship between traditional and contemporary Native American systems of creative representation and signification. Christopher B. Teuton begins with a study of Mesoamerican writings, Dine sand paintings, and Haudenosaunee wampum belts. He proposes a theory of how and why indigenous oral and graphic means of recording thought are interdependent, their functions and purposes determined by social, political, and cultural contexts. The center of this book examines four key works of contemporary American Indian literature by N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, Ray A. Young Bear, and Robert J. Conley. Through a textually grounded exploration of what Teuton calls the oral impulse, the graphic impulse, and the critical impulse, we see how and why various types of contemporary Native literary production are interrelated and draw upon long-standing indigenous methods of creative representation. Teuton breaks down the disabling binary of orality and literacy, offering readers a cogent, historically informed theory of indigenous textuality that allows for deeper readings of Native American cultural and literary expression.

Contents:

Introduction: diving into deep waters

The oral impulse, the graphic impulse, and the critical impulse: reframing signification in American Indian literary studies

N. Scott Momaday's The way to Rainy Mountain: vision, textuality, and history

Trickster leads the way: a reading of Gerald Vizenor's Bearheart: the heirship chronicles

Transforming "eventuality": the aesthetics of a tribal "word-collector" in Ray A. Young Bear's Black eagle child and Remnants of the first earth

Interpreting our world: authority and the written word in Robert J. Conley's Real people series

Epilogue: building ground in American Indian textual studies.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786613051028

9781496211118

1496211111

9781283051026

1283051028

9780803234369

0803234368

OCLC:

690660289