Early Native American Writing: New Critical Essays (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture, Series Number 102)

This collection of critical essays discusses the works of American Indian authors who wrote between 1630 and 1940 and produced some of the earliest literature in North American history. The first collection of critical essays to concentrate on this body of writing, the book highlights the writings of the American Indian authors considered, many of whom only recently rediscovered, as important contributions to American letters. American Indians writing in English offer a permanent record of the dramatic and often tragic confrontation between native culture and the communities of settlers arriving in the New World over four centuries. As white settlers arrived, bringing with them disease, technology, and Christianity, they also brought the English language - a tool which native Americans, accustomed to an oral tradition, would adopt in an effort to cross the barriers of cultural difference. Serving in their own time as a means of addressing a heedless oppressor, native American writings have since become a vital record of an experience whose history, as written by the mainstream, is incomplete. The essays collected here seek to recuperate that history, while bringing new attention to the texts themselves. Honoratissimi Benefactores : Native American Students And Two Seventeenth-century Texts In The University Tradition / Wolfgang Hochbruck And Beatrix Dudensing-reichel -- Pray Sir, Consider A Little : Rituals Of Subordination And Strategies Of Resistance In The Letters Of Hezekiah Calvin And David Fowler To Eleazar Wheelock / Laura J. Murray -- (i Speak Like A Fool But I Am Constrained) : Samson Occom's Short Narrative And Economies Of The Racial Self / Dana D. Nelson -- Where, Then, Shall We Place The Hero Of The Wilderness? : William Apess's Eulogy On King Philip And Doctrines Of Racial Destiny / Anne Marie Dannenberg. They Ought To Enjoy The Home Of Their Fathers : The Treaty Of 1838, Seneca Intellectuals, And Literary Genesis / Daniel F. Littlefield -- I Am Joaquin! : Space And Freedom In Yellow Bird's The Life And Adventures Of Joaquin Murieta, The Celebrated California Bandit / John Lowe -- This Voluminous Unwritten Book Of Ours : Early Native American Writers And The Oral Tradition / William M. Clements -- A Desirable Citizen, A Practical Business Man : G.w. Grayson : Creeek Mixed Blood, Nationalist, And Autobiographer / Robert F. Sayre. An Indian... An American : Ethnicity, Assimilation, And Balance In Charles Eastman's From The Deep Woods To Civilization / Erik Peterson -- Overcoming All Obstacles : The Assimilation Debate In Native American Women's Journalism Of The Dawes Era / Carol Bakter -- My People... My Kind : Mourning Dove's Cogewea, The Half-blood, As A Narrative Of Mixed Descent / Martha L. Viehmann -- Because I Understand The Storytelling Art : The Evolution Of D'arcy Mcnickle's The Surrounded / Birgit Hans. Edited By Helen Jaskoski. Includes Bibliographical References. Early Native American Writing is a collection of critical essays discussing the works of American Indian authors who wrote between 1630 and 1940 and produced some of the earliest literature in North American history. The first collection of critical essays that concentrates on this body of writing, this book highlights the writings of the American Indian authors considered, many only recently rediscovered, as important contributions to American letters. Early Native American Writing discusses the works of American Indian authors who wrote between 1630 and 1940 and produced some of the earliest literature in North America. The first collection of critical essays that concentrates on this body of writing, this book highlights the writings of these authors, many of whom have only recently been rediscovered, as important contributions to American letters. Some of the earliest literary texts written in European languages by Native American authors were written in the seventeenth century by students at Harvard's Indian College.