Red Matters: Native American Studies

Front Cover
University of Pennsylvania Press, Aug 3, 2010 - Social Science - 184 pages

Arnold Krupat, one of the most original and respected critics working in Native American studies today, offers a clear and compelling set of reasons why red—Native American culture, history, and literature—should matter to Americans more than it has to date. Although there exists a growing body of criticism demonstrating the importance of Native American literature in its own right and in relation to other ethnic and minority literatures, Native materials still have not been accorded the full attention they require. Krupat argues that it is simply not possible to understand the ethical and intellectual heritage of the West without engaging America's treatment of its indigenous peoples and their extraordinary and resilient responses.

Criticism of Native literature in its current development, Krupat suggests, operates from one of three critical perspectives against colonialism that he calls nationalism, indigenism, and cosmopolitanism. Nationalist critics are foremost concerned with tribal sovereignty, indigenist critics focus on non-Western modes of knowledge, and cosmopolitan critics wish to look elsewhere for comparative possibilities. Krupat persuasively contends that all three critical perspectives can work in a complementary rather than an oppositional fashion.

A work marked by theoretical sophistication, wide learning, and social passion, Red Matters is a major contribution to the imperative effort of understanding the indigenous presence on the American continents.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Three Perspectives on Native American Literatures
1
A Theorized History
24
3 Americas Histories
48
Cogewea and the Discourse of Indian Blood
76
Contextualizing Sherman Alexies Indian Killer
98
Notes
123
Bibliography
143
Index
161
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Red Matters: Native American Studies
Arnold Krupat
Limited preview - 2002
Red Matters: Native American Studies
Arnold Krupat
No preview available - 2002

Common terms and phrases

African American Alexie Ameri American Indian anger anthropology anticolonial Appiah Bahr Bird Blish called century Chapter Cherokee Cheyenne cite claim Cogewea colonialism cosmopolitan cosmopolitan critic Coyote cultural deer person discourse Eastman essay Euramerican European example expression fact factual fiction Franz Boas Gerald Vizenor Hopi hybrid Hymes Indian blood Indian identity Indian Killer indigenist indigenous insists Iroquois John Smith killed Custer knowledge Lakota language literal literary Louis Owens Lyotard maiso Marie matter means mixedblood Mourning Dove Mourning Dove's murder narrative narrator nationalist Native American literatures Native American Renaissance négritude Negro nonetheless noted offer oral Parker particular perspective Polatkin political qaò yaè race racial racism rage Reggie ruwerera sense Sequoyah Silko's social sort sovereignty speak story Swann Tedlock tion Translation of Native tribal tribes truth understand University Vine Deloria Vizenor warriors White Hawk winter count Womack worldview writing Zitkala Sa

About the author (2010)

Arnold Krupat is Professor of Literature in the Global Studies Faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. Among his many books are Ethnocriticism: Ethnography, History, Literature; The Turn to the Native: Studies in Criticism and Culture; and For Those Who Come After: A Study of Native American Autobiography.

Bibliographic information

TitleRed Matters: Native American Studies
Rethinking the Americas
AuthorArnold Krupat
PublisherUniversity of Pennsylvania Press, 2010
ISBN0812200683, 9780812200683
Length184 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Native American Studies
  
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