Literary Research: Indigenous Literary Studies

Literary Theory and Criticism

What is Indigenous/Native American Literary Studies?

"Diverse and distinct analytic traditions, theories, and methods exist across the field of Indigenous literary studies—corollary to the diverse and distinct Peoples existing across the vast territories of the United States and Canada. As a starting place, this overview of the field offers a synthesis of four key principles drawn from Indigenous literary scholarship and practice. Each of these four principles conveys key concepts in this field of study: (a) that Indigenous literary studies is centered in Indigeneity, (b) that critical work in Indigenous literary studies requires relational ways of being, (c) that Indigenous literary studies requires critics to engage beyond the text, and, (d) that engaging in Indigenous literary studies means engaging with Indigenous storyways, or ways of knowing, being, and doing with and through story."

Brief Overviews:

Indigenous Studies in the United States and Canada (Oxford Research Encyclopedias)
Native and Indigenous Studies (Literary Theory Handbook)
Native Theory and Criticism: 1. United States and Native Theory and Criticism: 2. Canada (Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism)

Notable Scholars:

Arnold Krupat

Krupat, Arnold. Ethnocriticism: Ethnography, History, Literature. University of California Press, 1992.

Krupat, Arnold. Red Matters: Native American Studies. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.

Krupat, Arnold. The Voice in the Margin: Native American Literature and the Canon. University of California Press, 1989.

Simon J. Ortiz

Ortiz, Simon J. “Foreword: Speaking-Writing Indigenous Literary Sovereignty.” In American Indian Literary Nationalism. Edited by Jace Weaver, Craig S. Womack, and Robert Warrior, vii–xiv. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

Ortiz, Simon J. “Towards a National Indian Literature: Cultural Authenticity in Nationalism.” MELUS, vol. 8, no. 2, 1981, pp. 7–12.

Gerald Vizenor

Vizenor, Gerald Robert. Fugitive Poses: Native American Indian Scenes of Absence and Presence. University of Nebraska Press, 1998.

Vizenor, Gerald Robert. Manifest Manners: Postindian Warriors of Survivance. Wesleyan University Press, 1994.

Vizenor, Gerald Robert. Native Liberty Natural Reason and Cultural Survivance. University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
Vizenor, Gerald Robert. Native Provenance: The Betrayal of Cultural Creativity. University of Nebraska Press, 2019.

Craig S. Womack

Womack, Craig S. Art as Performance, Story as Criticism: Reflections on Native Literary Aesthetics. University of Oklahoma Press, 2009.

Womack, Craig S. Red on Red: Native American Literary Separatism. University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Introductions & Anthologies

The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature
Invisible, marginal, expected - these words trace the path of recognition for American Indian literature written in English since the late eighteenth century. This Companion chronicles and celebrates that trajectory by defining relevant institutional, historical, cultural, and gender contexts, by outlining the variety of genres written since the 1770s, and also by focusing on significant authors who established a place for Native literature in literary canon.
Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures
This is a collection of classic and newly commissioned essays about the study of Indigenous literatures in North America... The volume is organized into five subject areas: Position, the necessity of considering where you come from and who you are; Imagining Beyond Images and Myths, a history and critique of circulating images of Indigenousness; Debating Indigenous Literary Approaches; Contemporary Concerns, a consideration of relevant issues; and finally Classroom Considerations, pedagogical concerns particular to the field.
The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature
Over the course of the last twenty years, Native American and Indigenous American literary studies has experienced a dramatic shift from a critical focus on identity and authenticity to the intellectual, cultural, political, historical, and tribal nation contexts from which these Indigenous literatures emerge. The Oxford Handbook of Indigenous American Literature reflects on these changes and provides a complete overview of the current state of the field.
Reasoning Together: The Native Critics Collective
This collectively authored volume celebrates a group of Native critics performing community in a lively, rigorous, sometimes contentious dialogue that challenges the aesthetics of individual literary representation... Reasoning Together proposes nothing less than a paradigm shift in American Indian literary criticism, closing the gap between theory and activism by situating Native literature in real-life experiences and tribal histories.
Toward a Native American Critical Theory
Toward a Native American Critical Theory articulates the foundations and boundaries of a distinctive Native American critical theory in this postcolonial era. In the first book-length study devoted to this subject, Elvira Pulitano offers a survey of the theoretical underpinnings of works by noted Native writers Paula Gunn Allen, Robert Warrior, Craig Womack, Greg Sarris, Louis Owens, and Gerald Vizenor.

Also see other recent eBooks discussing Indigenous or Native American literature and theory and scholar-recommended sources on Native American Oral Literatures, Simon Ortiz and Gerald Vizenor via Oxford Bibliographies.

Hanson, Aubrey Jean, and Sam McKegney. "Indigenous Studies in the United States and Canada." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature.