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Invention of Native American Literature

Invention of Native American Literature

No customer reviews yet ISBN 9780801488047 Cornell University Press

In an original, widely researched, and accessibly written book, Robert Dale Parker helps redefine the study of Native American literature by focusing on issues of gender and literary form. Among the writers Parker highlights are Thomas King, John Joseph Mathews, D'Arcy McNickle, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Ray A. Young Bear, some of whom have previously received little scholarly attention.Parker proposes a new history of Native American literature by reinterpreting its concerns with poetry, orality, and Indian notions of authority. He also addresses representations of Indian masculinity, uncovering Native literature's recurring fascination with restless young men who have nothing to do, or who suspect or feel pressured to believe that they have nothing to do. The Invention of Native American Literature reads Native writing through a wide variety of shifting historical contexts. In its commitment to historicizing Native writing and identity, Parker's work parallels developments in scholarship on other minority literatures and is sure to provoke controversy.

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BrandCornell University Press
Pub dateDec 9, 2002
ISBN-100801488044
ISBN-139780801488047
Paperback264.0 pages
LanguageEnglish
Dimensions9 × 0.75 × 6 in
Weight1 lb
Last updated 2026-04-25 20:23
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