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Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series) |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > American Indian History > Item 178
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Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)
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by Louis Owens
Sales Rank: 850040
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List Price: $19.95
$19.95
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on 6-18-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 304 pages
Published by: University of Oklahoma Press; New Ed edition September 1994
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0806126736
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0806126739
Book Dimensions:
8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
Weighs: 12 ounces
From Library Journal
A Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish novelist and professor of literature, Owens provides an important insider's perspective on ten Native American novelists. Beginning with the Cherokee author John Rollin Ridge, whose 1854 novel, The Life and Times of Joaquin Murieta, was the first American Indian novel to be published, and moving on to contemporary authors such as Louise Erdrich and Gerald Vizenor, Owens identifies a common theme among these writers. All ten are mixed-blood Indians exploring their search for identity in two worlds, where "the individual who would 'be' Indian rather than 'play' Indian is faced with an overwhelming challenge." Owens shows how each author dealt with this marginalization through his or her characters, moving from Ridge's angry masquerade as a Mexican American bandit to Vizenor's celebration of "crossbloods" as shape-shifting tricksters mediating between two worlds. Drawing heavily on Russian critic Mikhail Bakhtin's theories, Owens presents a well-written, jargon-free book on an often-ignored genre of American literature.
- Lisa A. Mitten, Univ. of Pittsburgh Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
I've been struggling with this book since it was first published. I've seen it influence dozens of other scholars who, for the most part, rave about its merits. When I read this book for the first time I was deeply immersed in study of many of the books Owens writes about. My initial experince in reading the book was quite mixed. I would find myself saying "right on" in one paragraph, followed by "nonsense" in the next. Louis Owens writes well and communicates a perspective regarding the creative work of Native American Indian writers that is widely shared by many who study these writers professionally. His own novels are worth reading, and he seemed like a warm and friendly person when I've met him at conferences. With all these positive attributes, why does this book deserve three stars? I disagree with Owens critical emphasis; his argument has been influential. He claims that "identity" is the central theme of Native writing. He argues that all Native writers must come to terms with their own mixedblood identity, and with consequent marginalization in two worlds. There is no question that identity is an important issue, but it is far from the central one. For many Native writers it is insignificant. For some, it is central. For others, it is an issue subordinated under other more significant issues. Identity is part of a complex of issues (land, resources, spirituality, images, and stereotypes) that are ultimately concerned with issues of self-control by individuals and communities. For tribal peoples in the United States the central issue, if there is one, is sovereignty. Because of the results of histories of denationalization (a word employed by Cherokee writers in the 1830s) many Native American Indian people are trying to find their way home (as some writers have put it). But, many others have never left home and have never suffered a crisis of self-identity. The academy, by and large, finds issues of identity a quite palatable way to accept literatures of difference because doing so does not require recognizing systemic problems in some of the fundamental assumptions of American colonization.
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Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel (American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series)
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Price: $19.95
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