The Poetry and Poetics of Gerald Vizenor

by Deborah L. Madsen (Editor)

Overview

The first book devoted exclusively to the poetry and literary aesthetics of one of Native America’s most accomplished writers, this collection of essays brings together detailed critical analyses of single texts and individual poetry collections from diverse theoretical perspectives, along with comparative discussions of Vizenor’s related works. Contributors discuss Vizenor’s philosophy of poetic expression, his innovations in diverse poetic genres, and the dynamic interrelationships between Vizenor’s poetry and his prose writings.

Throughout his poetic career Vizenor has returned to common tropes, themes, and structures. Indeed, it is difficult to distinguish clearly his work in poetry from his prose, fiction, and drama. The essays gathered in this collection offer powerful evidence of the continuing influence of Anishinaabe dream songs and the haiku form in Vizenor’s novels, stories, and theoretical essays; this influence is most obvious at the level of grammatical structure and imagistic composition but can also be discerned in terms of themes and issues to which Vizenor continues to return.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826352491
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	12/31/2012
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Deborah L. Madsen is professor of American literature and culture at the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Among her earlier books is Gerald Vizenor: Texts and Contexts (University of New Mexico Press).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: The Tribal Trajectory of Vizenor's Poetic Career Deborah L. Madsen ix

Chapter 1 The Language of Borders, the Borders of Language in Gerald Vizenor's Poetry Kimberly M. Blaeser 1

Chapter 2 "It may be revolutionary in character": The Progress, a New Tribal Hermeneutics, and the Literary Re-expression of the Anishinaabe Oral Tradition in Summer in the Spring Adam Spry 23

Chapter 3 Flying Gerald Vizenor Home in Words and Myths: Or, How to Translate His Poetry into Catalan Carme Manuel 43

Chapter 4 Almost California: Returning to Elemental Vizenor Susan Bernardin 63

Chapter 5 Vizenor's Life Studies: Revisioning Survivance in Almost Ashore Linda Lizut Helstern 80

Chapter 6 Gaps, Immediacy, and the Deconstruction of Epistemological Categories: The Impact of Gerald Vizenor's Poetry on His Prose Katja Sarkowsky 98

Chapter 7 Enriching Prose with Haiku Poetics Christina Hein 113

Chapter 8 Reinventing the Nature of Language: The Poetics of Gerald Vizenor's Prose David L. Moore 135

Chapter 9 "Compassion is learned": Of Squirrels and Men in Vizenor's Poetry and Prose Michael Snyder 164

Chapter 10 Vizenor's Elegies on a Red Squirrel Arnold Krupat 184

Chapter 11 There's a Hole in the Day: The Third Infantry and Vizenor's Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point Jace Weaver 196

Chapter 12 Being Embedded: Gerald Vizenor's Bear island: The War at Sugar Point Chris LaLonde 205

Chapter 13 The Question of Nationalism: Sovereign Aesthetics in Bear Island Lisa Tatonetti 223

Contributors 242

Index 247