I Hear the Train: Reflections, Inventions, Refractions

Louis Owens

University of Oklahoma Press, 2001 - Literary Collections - 265 pages

In this innovative collection, Louis Owens blends autobiography, short fiction, and literary criticism to reflect on his experiences as a mixedblood Indian in America.

In sophisticated prose, Owens reveals the many timbres of his voice--humor, humility,love, joy, struggle, confusion, and clarity. We join him in the fields, farms, and ranches of California. We follow his search for a lost brother and contemplate along with him old family photographs from Indian Territory and early Oklahoma. In a final section, Owens reflects on the work and theories of other writers, including Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Gerald Vizenor, Michael Dorris, and Louise Erdrich.

Volume 40 in the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series

 

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I hear the train: reflections, inventions, refractions

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In each section of this excellent collection, Owens's carefully crafted writing captures the reader with exceptional descriptions of place and people, the mix of native blood in America, and the ...

Contents

• Finding Gene: 3
• Bracero Summer: 16
• Mushroom Nights: 28
• The Hunters Dance: 40
• In the Service of Forests: 51
• Ringtail Moon: 64
• My Criminal Youth: 77
• How Roland Barthes Saved Me from the indians: 90
• Clowns and Indians Poodles and DrumsDiscoveries in France: 105
• Roman Fervor or Travels in Hypercarnevale: 117
• Coyote Story or the Birth of a Critic 149 1459: 145
• Yazoo Dusk: 160
• The Dancing Poodle of Arles: 176
• Winter Rain: 182
• Shelter: 189
• Native Sovenance and Survivance: 227
• A Story of a Talk My Own Private India: 244
• Notes: 257
• Index: 263

About the author

Louis Owens, who is of Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish descent, is Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He is the author of several books, including Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel and the novels The Sharpest Sight and Bone Game, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.

Bibliographic information

• Title: I Hear the Train: Reflections, Inventions, Refractions; Volume 40 of American Indian literature and critical studies series
• Author: Louis Owens
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001
• ISBN: 0806133546, 9780806133546
• Length: 265 pages
• Subjects: Literary Collections / American / General; Literary Collections / Essays