The Old Lady Trill, the Victory Yell: The Power of Women in Native American Literature / Edition 1

by Patrice Hollrah

Overview

From warrior women to female deities who control the cycle of life, female characters in Native American literature exhibit a social and spiritual empowerment that is quite different from the average Pocahontas we are used to seeing in mainstream literature. This work argues that a tribal construct of gender relations, where the relationship between male and female roles is complementary rather than hierarchical, accounts for the existence of these empowered female characters in Native American literature. Focusing on the work of four of the twentieth century's most famous Native American authors, Zitkala-Sa, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie, Hollrah suggests that it is important to evaluate Native American literary female characters in a cultural paradigm that is less Euro-American and more compatible to the complementarity of Native American culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415946971
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/12/2003
Series:	Native Americans: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Patrice Hollrah

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Writing is Different from Tribe to Tribe: Cultural and Historical Contexts 2. The Old Lady Trill, the Victory Yell: Why Feminist Theory Does Not Apply to Native American Literature 3. We Must Be Masters of Our Circumstances: Rhetorical Sovereignty in the Life and Works of Zitkala-Sa 4. The Men in the Bar Feared Her: The Power of Ayah in Leslie Marmon Silko's Lullaby 5. Women Are Strong, Strong, Terribly Strong: Female Intellectual Sovereignty in the Works of Louise Erdrich 6. 'I'm Talking Like a [. . .] Twenty-First-Century Woman': Contemporary Female Warriors in the Works of Sherman Alexie 7. Conclusion: Indian Women Were and Are Powerful: Intellectual Sovereignty, and the Strength of Female Warriors