"An Introduction to Complexity Pedagogy: Using Critical Theory, Critical Pedagogy and Complexity in Performance and Literature" offers readers an introduction to the basic concepts of complexity science and how they might be applied in the teaching of composition, creative writing, performance, and literature. The book builds on Critical…

Much of the limited scholarship dedicated to Sor Juana's "autos sacramentales" tends to separate them from the "loas" that were meant to introduce them. Critics often exalt the "loas" for the sympathy that they express for indigenous beliefs, while neglecting the "autos" or viewing them as masterful…

This paper uses Philip Deloria's "Indians in Unexpected Places" as a lens by which to understand the expectations and reviews of Navajo author Blackhorse Mitchell's "Miracle Hill." Written in Navajo English, the book, from an introduction by T. D. Allen to a number of reviews of the book in the popular press, consistently misrecognized the…

This essay describes my design and implementation of a composition course focused on the Native American rhetorical device of survivance at work in debates on Indian removal and U.S.-Indian relations in general. Using a contact zone approach, I found that the course improved writing and thinking skills by pushing students out of their ideological…

This article analyzes in the novel Balun Canan by Rosario Castellanos the pain caused by the persistence of neocolonialism in the Comitan region of Chiapas during President Cardenas's land reforms of the 1930s. In this work, the author lays bare personal wounds through the discourse of the variously gendered characters of a culturally mixed…

This book is an introduction to the literature and art of American writer N. Scott Momaday, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and member of the Kiowa American Indian Tribe. The book describes the impact of Momaday's family, Kiowa heritage, Pueblo cultural experiences, and academic preparation on his worldview, poetry, novels, essays, children's…

Discusses the Native American literary renaissance that began in 1968, and introduces a survey of 175 books published since then by American Indians and Eskimos. Clarifies usage of "American Indian,""American Indian literature," and "Native American." Examines literary criticism of contemporary Native American…

The author of this article provides a critical assessment of Simon J. Ortiz's collection of poetry, "Out There Somewhere," to see how this literature of resistance continues through cultural connections. The resistance one finds in the poems--against mainstream political, social, and economic forces--results in continuance of Ortiz's…

In 1969, American Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island dramatized Native demands for self-determination, tribal lands, and tribal identities. Meanwhile, a blossoming American Indian literary movement began awakening America to Indians' continued existence and providing texts of "lived experience" that created a new kind of Indian leadership and…

Some modern scholars feel that Washington Irving vacillated between romanticism and realism in his literary treatment of the American Indian. However, a study of all his works dealing with Indians, placed in context with his non-Indian works, reveals that his attitude towards Indians was intelligent and enlightened for his time. (CM)

This volume is a serious effort to provide a guide to the range of creative and scholarly work in the four major American ethnic literatures. The burst in creative energy among Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans has made it difficult for teachers to keep up with the primary literature, let alone the…

This paper presents a cultural/historical interpretation of "The Education of Little Tree," a children's book by the late Forrest Carter. The 1976 book, which sold over 700,000 copies and was widely used in classrooms to present Native American values and lifestyles, is the story of an orphaned boy named Little Tree, raised by his…

This book is a comparative interpretation of the works of Vine Deloria, Jr., (Standing Rock Sioux) and John Joseph Mathews (Osage), two American Indian intellectuals of this century. In bringing these two thinkers together, the book lays the groundwork for a discussion of several crucial issues in contemporary American Indian critical studies: (1)…

Walter D. Edmunds created convincing characters of the Iroquois without pretending to know them. Carl Carmer was less interested in digging for the truth about Indians than in writing a story. Edmund Wilson perceived the Iroquois world view intuitively in his writing, overcoming any obstacle to get at the truth. (Author/LC)

The author found "This Bridge Called My Back" at the local public library when she was, at age thirty-three, finally beginning to write again, and write honestly. There were Indian voices in "Bridge"--a few poems or personal narratives that moved her, but which barely began to represent the range of the writers or the…