Lanterna Rally

Author: Stephanie Ann Sellers

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 118

ISBN-13: 9780496967070

This work addresses the questions of what criteria make a Native American autobiography culturally authentic and what does "communal narrative" mean. Sellers completed extensive research on the literary genre Native American Autobiography, as well as an overall study of literary criticism of Native American writing. the research was balanced with an additional focused study on traditional Iroquois women's rituals, sociopolitical roles, and history. A significant portion of the research focused on analyzing the Native American literary criticism of Dr. Arnold Krupat, which has been definitive in the field, and writing a new approach for defining and understanding Native American Autobiography. While Krupat has focused on the works written by Europeans in the name of Native Americans, Hertha Wong, who has also made significant contributions in this genre, has shown how attention to Native culture provides a far more nuanced reading of the possibilities of autobiography. Her study argues that early indigenous pictographs and artwork are as autobiographical as written words on paper. Using Native North American Eastern Woodlands culture, the work shows how a "modern" text can be appropriately read as the autobiography of a long-dead woman, specifically Mohawk diplomat Tekonwatonti (circa 1736--1796). This demonstrates communal narrative and is a traditional component of Eastern Woodlands culture. the differences in Iroquois and EuroAmerican cultures in their perceptions of women and literature were highlighted. A case study was completed on the life of Tekonwatonti and integrates both the research components. the researcher's study illustrates a successful, culturally-accurate work of Native American autobiography; the matrifocal power structure of the Iroquois; Native American methodology in literary analysis; and the historic relationship between Native Americans and EuroAmericans during colonization. A chapter by chapter literary analysis of a Mohawk communal work by poet Maurice Kenny entitled Tekonwatonti (Molly Brant): Poems of War was used for the case study. the analysis of Kelly's work demonstrates the researcher's newly created rubric for the study of works about Native Americans, and works co-written with EuroAmericans pre-1900s before Natives began primarily writing their own works in English. This study has implications for all literary analysis of Native American literature, and of Native American Autobiography in particular. the study also raises important questions about the efficacy of works about Native American women, noting that the vastly different cultural perceptions of women in Native and western culture are a significant barrier to accuracy in both biographical and critical literary works.