Negotiating History and Culture Transculturation in Contemporary Native American Fiction |
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Author:
| Fitz, Karsten |
Series title: | Regensburger Arbeiten zur Anglistik und Amerikanistik Ser. |
ISBN: | 978-3-631-37151-0 |
Publication Date: | Apr 2001 |
Publisher: | Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | AUD $121.95 |
Book Description:
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Native American cultures have always succeeded to varying degrees in negotiating a balance between their tribal cultural heritage and the 'dominant culture.' In the present study, the meeting between these cultures is not interpreted as a clash, but as a cultural encounter in a contact zone. The concept of transculturation serves as a theoretical model to analyze how history and culture are fictionally constructed in contemporary American Indian literature. Developing a dynamic,...
More DescriptionNative American cultures have always succeeded to varying degrees in negotiating a balance between their tribal cultural heritage and the 'dominant culture.' In the present study, the meeting between these cultures is not interpreted as a clash, but as a cultural encounter in a contact zone. The concept of transculturation serves as a theoretical model to analyze how history and culture are fictionally constructed in contemporary American Indian literature. Developing a dynamic, dialogic, and reciprocal relationship between their native worldviews and literary techniques, on the one hand, and those of the larger society, on the other, the writers examined in this study - Anna Lee Walters, Diane Glancy, James Welch, Linda Hogan, Thomas King, and Gerald Vizenor - stress the processual nature of culture. These writers demonstrate that transculturation functions as a major strategy of survival for Native Americans in the past and in the present.