Table Of ContentAMERICAN INDIANS / LITERATURE
N
Madsen Gerald ovelist, autobiographer, poet,
“ Gerald Vizenor is high among the dozen American writers I read faithfully. His TEXTS AND CONTEXTS
dramatist, essayist, and cultural
Deborah L. Madsen is professor of work demonstrates a tremendous ingenuity and fire, a survival through wit and Lee V
izenor critic of rare and radical bold-
American literature and culture at the grace. Vizenor is unique in the sense that he does not vaguely remind you of any-
one else nor does he share any of the common banal assumptions that disfigure ness, Gerald Vizenor has long stood at
University of Geneva. A. Robert Lee
modern letters.” the very forefront of Native writing. His
is professor of American literature at —Jim Harrison
challenges to received thinking, along with
Nihon University, Tokyo.
“ Don’t let the Ph.D.isms deter you. Gerald Vizenor belongs to the great tricksterese signature phrases like postindian, survivance,
tradition of American writing that spans from the African-American and Native storier, double-other, and terminal creed, have
American comic narratives to Will Rogers, Mark Twain, and Richard Pryor.”
G uniquely influenced the discourse of
—Ishmael Reed
Native life and art.
This essay collection offers an overview
“ Like Coyote and the other great trickster figures of the Native American nations, e
of Vizenor scholarship through close read-
Gerald Vizenor likes to stir things up. What he likes best to stir up are the hoary
notion that the Indian stands for something single and simple—savagery, tragedy, r ing of his texts and exploration of the intel-
or tribal wisdom—and the idea that life can be lived without amazing, painful (and a lectual contexts in which they are situated.
funny) contradictions every step of the way.
Vizenor’s achievements cannot be easily
l
“In book after book of poetry, essays, and fiction, Vizenor has expounded and
summarized; rather, this book gives due
played dazzling literary tricks with his Native heritage, showing Indian thought d
evidence of the complexity of his work
coalescing with, illuminating, and running nimbly ahead of contemporary literary
and the diverse critical responses to it.
and cultural theory. Out of the pain of Native history, he coins powerful cultural
V
terms like survivance—‘not just survival,’ he insists, The book comprises close textual
‘but a quality and condition of remaining imaginative readings of Vizenor’s own writing as well
under domination and getting on with things.’” i as comparative readings that place Vizenor’s
—Utne Reader z
achievement in various theoretical, cul-
tural, and historical environments as well
e
Gerald Vizenor, Distinguished Professor of Ameri-
as the context of fellow Native writers.
can Studies at the University of New Mexico, is the
The final section makes available the full
author of more than twenty books, among them Native n
histories, critical studies, poetry, and fiction, includ- text of the ratified Constitution of the
ing Father Meme (UNM Press). Vizenor has won the o White Earth Nation, of which Vizenor was
American Book Award from the American Booksellers
the lead writer, an essay by Vizenor about
Association/Before Columbus Foundation and the
r the significance and provenance of the
Lifetime Literary Achievement Award from the Native
Writers’ Circle of the Americas, among other honors. Constitution, and a new interview with
A. Robert Lee, bringing the collection
ISBN 978-0-8263-4915-6
ËxHSKIMGy349156zv*:+:!:+:! to Vizenor’s most recent writing and his
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS
thoughts about his future projects.
unmpress.com
Jacket illustration courtesy of Pierre Cayol Deborah L. Madsen A. Robert Lee
EDITED BY and
800•249•7737
Jacket design by Cheryl Carrington
Gerald Vizenor
Gerald Vizenor
texts and contexts
Edited by
Deborah L. Madsen
and
A. Robert Lee
University of New Mexico Press
Albuquerque
© 2010 by the University of New Mexico Press
All rights reserved. Published 2010
Printed in the United States of America
15 14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gerald Vizenor : texts and contexts / edited by Deborah L. Madsen
and A. Robert Lee.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8263-4915-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Vizenor, Gerald Robert, 1934—Criticism and interpretation.
I. Madsen, Deborah L.
II. Lee, A. Robert, 1941–
PS3572.I9Z765 2010
818'.5409—dc22
2010021765 n
Contents
Acknowledgments | vii
Introduction, Deborah L. Madsen and A. Robert Lee | 1
PART ONE
Texts
1. Storier: Gerald Vizenor’s Father Meme, A. Robert Lee | 12
2. Pacifists, Tricksters, Writers, and Victims in Hiroshima Bugi,
Alan R. Velie | 30
3. Gerald’s Game: Postindian Subjectivity in Vizenor’s Interior
Landscapes, Michael Snyder | 46
4. Wild Word Hunters: Tricky Language and Literary Allusion in
Harold of Orange, John Gamber | 67
5. Satirical Ambivalence and Vizenor’s Bearheart,
Helmbrecht Breinig | 86
6. Moon Vines Among the Ruins: Vizenor’s Poetics of Native
Presence, David L. Moore | 106
PART TWO
Contexts
7. Writing in the Fourth Person: A Lacanian Reading of Vizenor’s
Pronouns, Deborah L. Madsen | 130
8. “He Made a Teasing Whistle on the Wind”: Situating the Literary
Activism of Gerald Vizenor, Chris LaLonde | 152
9. Scenes of Picturing: Gerald Vizenor’s Phototext, Shamoon
Zamir | 166
10. Postindian Survivance: Gerald Vizenor and Kimberly Blaeser, Jill
Doerfler | 186
11. Shadow Casting: William Apess, Survivance, and the Problem of
Historical Recovery, Drew Lopenzina | 208
12. Museum Survivance: Vizenor Before and After Repatriation,
Linda Lizut Helstern | 231
13. The Trick of Grieving Well and the Grief of Tricking Well: The
Unspeakable Gerald Vizenor, Kathryn W. Shanley | 249
vi Contents
PART THREE
Vizenor Texts
14. Praise the Ravens: A Literary Interview, Gerald Vizenor and
A. Robert Lee | 268
15. Constitution of the White Earth Nation, Gerald Vizenor | 282
16. The Constitution of the White Earth Nation, Gerald Vizenor
and Others | 290
Notes on Contributors | 307
Index | 311
Acknowledgments
Commissioning and editing this essay collection have involved not a
little contact with Gerald Vizenor himself. We thank him greatly for
his willingness to field questions and for his friendship. Further thanks
are due to Luther Wilson, former director of the University of New
Mexico Press, who gave his enthusiastic support to the project from
the outset.
Deborah L. Madsen
A. Robert Lee
Introduction
Deborah L. Madsen and A. Robert Lee
The Book
Gerald Vizenor has long established himself at the very forefront of Na-
tive writing: novelist, autobiographer, poet, dramatist, and an essayist
and cultural critic of rare and radical boldness. His challenges to received
thinking—along with signature terms such as postindian, survivance, sto-
rier, double-other, and terminal creed—have repositioned the interpretation
of Native life and art.
At the turn of the new century, A. Robert Lee published the land-
mark volume of essays on the work of Gerald Vizenor Loosening the
Seams: Interpretations of Gerald Vizenor (2000). In the period since then,
Vizenor’s already impressive literary output has only increased in pace.
In addition to his essays and speeches, he has published two books of
poetry, Almost Ashore (2005) and Bear Island: The War at Sugar Point
(2006); the novels Chancers (2000), Hiroshima Bugi: Atomu 57 (2003), and
Father Meme (2008); the collections of essays The Everlasting Sky: Voices of
the Anishinabe People (rev. ed. 2001) and Literary Chance: Essays on Native
American Survivance (2007); the edited volume Survivance: Narratives of
Native Presence (2008); the anthology Native Storiers: Five Selections (2009);
and the important volume of interviews with A. Robert Lee, Postindian
Conversations (1999), which came out too late to influence the scholarly
essays in Loosening the Seams. This hugely substantial body of work, when
taken together with Vizenor’s prior oeuvre, has changed the landscape of
American literature in general, Native American literature in particular,
and Vizenor studies specifically. As a consequence, the time has come for
the latest evaluation of Vizenor’s achievements and contributions to con-
temporary cultural life.
This is not to ignore the previous scholarly attention paid to Vize-
nor’s work. Kimberly Blaeser’s monograph Gerald Vizenor: Writing in
the Oral Tradition (1996) remains the foundational reference point in
the field, complemented by the more recent book by Deborah Madsen,
Understanding Gerald Vizenor (2009), which appears in the University
of South Carolina Press series Understanding Contemporary American
Literature. The only other edited collection of essays on Vizenor’s work
to have appeared is Simone Pellerin’s Gerald Vizenor: Litterateur at Large
1
