Native American Literature - Literary Criticism, Native North American Peoples - Authors & Literature

The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature

Name: The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature
Author: Joy Porter
ISBN: 9780521529792

by Joy Porter (Editor), Kenneth M. Roemer

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Overview

This Companion provides an informative and wide-ranging overview of a relatively new field of literary-cultural studies: literature of many genres in English by American Indians from the 1770s to the present day. In addition to the seventeen chapters written by respected experts--Native and non-Native; American, British and European scholars--it includes bio-bibliographies of forty authors, maps, suggestions for further reading, and a timeline which details major works of Native American and mainstream American literature, as well as significant social, cultural and historical events.

Synopsis

An informative and wide-ranging overview of Native American literature from the 1770s to present day.

About the Author, Joy Porter

Joy Porter is a lecturer in the Department of American Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea, where she teaches a range of courses on American and Native American history and literature. She is the author of To Be Indian: The Life of Seneca-Iroquois Arthur Caswell Parker, 1881-1955 (2002). Her work on Indian themes can be found in a variety of journals and books such as New York History and The State of US History (Berg 2002). Previously she was Senior Lecturer in American History at Anglia Polytechnic University, Cambridge, where she established a range of courses on Indian and American history. Her next book is Native American Freemasonry, the research for which was supported by a Leverhulme Research Fellowship.

Kenneth M. Roemer, an Academy of Distinguished Teachers Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, has received four NEH grants to direct Summer seminars and has been a Visiting Professor in Japan, a guest lecturer at Harvard, and lectured in Vienna, Lisbon, Brazil, and Turkey. His articles have appeared in journals such as American Literature, American Literary History, and Modern Fiction Studies. His Approaches to Teaching Momaday's The Way to Rainy Mountain (ed.) was published by the MLA; his Native American Writers of the United States (ed.) won a Writer of Year Award from Wordcraft Circle. He has written four books on utopian literature, including The Obsolete Necessity and Utopian Audiences. His collection of personal narratives, verse, and photography about Japan is entitled Michibata de Deatta Nippon (A Sidewalker's Japan).

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Editorials

Library Journal

A part of the highly esteemed Cambridge "Companion" series, this immensely rewarding volume is geared toward the serious student of Native American literature and explores genres written since the 1770s. Scholarly essays-in academic prose for the most part perfectly intelligible to the careful reader-are organized by editors Porter (American & Native American history & literature, Univ. of Wales, Swansea, U.K.; To Be Indian) and Roemer (English, Univ. of Texas at Arlington; The Obsolete Necessity) by historical and cultural context, by genre, and according to individual authors. Particularly insightful and informative are the tightly written essays on the eight currently best-known Indian writers. Also included are maps, a time line, suggested readings, and a brief series of 40 biobibliographies of notable Native American writers. Like other companions in the series, this one recognizes the particularly close ties between American Indian literature and recent American social movements and trends. Readers of this volume should probably already have a working knowledge of the main figures in this increasingly important and respected segment of American literature. Highly recommended for all collections, whether academic or public, of Native American literature.-Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

From the Publisher

"The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature is comprehensive and extensive. It is a serious, insightful, and in-depth resource guide that's actually more than an overview. Without a doubt, it is purposeful in providing scholars and lay readers a direction toward a full appreciation, understanding, and comprehension of the range and depth of powerful literature by Native Americans." Simon J. Ortiz

"An impressive collection of essays! Porter and Roemer have nicely framed a conversation by scholars on what Native literature was, is, and will become in the 21st century. Readers will find diversity in this volume--and by that I mean essays on poetry, fiction, history, and theater, and culture. The survey by these authors will no doubt evoke new inquiries into this thing we Indians call Story." LeAnne Howe, author of Shell Shaker

"I have read The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature manuscript with interest and care. It is a distinguished work, clear in its writing, fortunate in its selections, thoroughly available to a wide audience, and expertly researched. Here is an invaluable resource, not only for students and teachers of Native American literature, but for anyone who has an interest in the subject. It is at once an excellent guide and the best of companions." N. Scott Momaday

"A part of the highly esteemed Cambridge "Companion" series, this immensely rewarding volume is geared toward the serious student of Native American literature and explores genres written since the 1770s." --Library Journal