Keynote
An entirely new approach to reading, understanding, and enjoying Native American fiction
Book Title
Native American Fiction
Subtitle
A User's Manual
Cover Image
- “[David Treuer] is mounting a challenge to the whole idea of Indian identity as depicted by both Native and white writers.”—The New York Times
Body
This book has been written with the narrow conviction that if Native American literature is worth thinking about at all, it is worth thinking about as literature. The vast majority of thought that has been poured out onto Native American literature has puddled, for the most part, on how the texts are positioned in relation to history or culture.
In these thought-provoking essays David Treuer does nothing less than argue for an entirely new approach to reading, understanding, and enjoying Native American fiction. Rather than create a comprehensive cultural and historical geneaology for Native American literature, Treuer investigates a selection of the most important Native American novels and, with a novelist's eye and a critic's mind, examines the intricate process of understanding literature on it's own terms.
Native American Fiction: A User's Manual is speculative, witty, engaging and written for the inquisitive reader. These essays—on Erdrich, Silko, Welch, Cooper, Alexie and Carter—are rallying cries for the need to read literature as literature and, ultimately, reassert the importance and primacy of the word.
In these thought-provoking essays David Treuer does nothing less than argue for an entirely new approach to reading, understanding, and enjoying Native American fiction. Rather than create a comprehensive cultural and historical geneaology for Native American literature, Treuer investigates a selection of the most important Native American novels and, with a novelist's eye and a critic's mind, examines the intricate process of understanding literature on it's own terms.
Native American Fiction: A User's Manual is speculative, witty, engaging and written for the inquisitive reader. These essays—on Erdrich, Silko, Welch, Cooper, Alexie and Carter—are rallying cries for the need to read literature as literature and, ultimately, reassert the importance and primacy of the word.
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About the Author
Credit: Nisreen Breek
Praise
- "Treuer. . . executes a searing examination of such beloved authors as Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. His conclusion: 'Native American Fiction does not exist.' "—The Washington Post Book World
- “Treuer asks that novels by Native Americans be afforded their status as literature, not cultural artifacts, an argument bound to impact Native American literature programs.”—Library Journal
- “His challenge to his readers is to judge Native American writers by the literary quality of their effort, their originality, and the power of their language, not by their origins or by any attempt to discover authenticity.”—Magill’s Literary Annual
