Jonathan Chandler

Jonathan Chandler Eng. 630 Dr. McAllister Feb. 3, 2009 Gerald Vizenor Bibliography Ballinger, Franchot and Gerald Vizenor. “Sacred Reversals: Trickster in Gerald Vizenor’s Earthdivers: Tribal Narratives on Mixed Descent.” American Indian Quarterly 9.1 (1985): 55-59. JSTOR. 3 Feb. 2009 . In this article, Ballinger focuses on Vizenor’s Earthdivers and the role of the trickster in this book. Specifically, Ballinger argues that, despite the contemporary setting, the trickster is still very much rooted in native oral tradition. Haseltine, Patricia. “The Voices of Gerald Vizenor: Survival Through Transformation.” American Indian Quarterly 9.1 (1985): 31-47. JSTOR. 3 Feb. 2009 . Haseltine looks at a variety of Vizenor’s work, examining the role of the trickster, satire, and transformation in his writings. Hawley, Steven. “Making Metaphor Happen: Space, Time and Trickster Sign.” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory. 64.2 (2008): 95-122. Project Muse. 3 Feb. 2009 . This is an interesting article that deals with the history of the trickster tale and its growing popularity among literary critics. Of course, Hawley discusses Vizenor’s use of the trickster narrator. Hume, Kathryn. “Gerald Vizenor’s Metaphysics.” Contemporary Literature 48.4 (2007): 580-612. Project Muse. 3 Feb. 2009.

This heady article deals with Vizenor’s literature and its incongruity with “Anglo norms” (Hume 580). The author suggests that Vizenor’s literature is representative of a new literary consciousness. Ruoff, A. Lavonne Brown. “Gerald Vizenor: Compassionate Trickster.” American Indian Quarterly 9.1 (1985): 67-73. JSTOR. 3 Feb. 2009 . In this article, Ruoff examines Vizenor’s early work and the main themes within his stories. The author discusses the way Vizenor connects native tribal narratives and non-native literature. Ruoff, A. Lavonne Brown and Gerald Vizenor. “Woodland Word Warrior: An Introduction to the Works of Gerald Vizenor.” MELUS 13.1/2 (1986): 13-43. JSTOR. 3 Feb. 2009 . This article provides an overview of many of Vizenor’s works and looks at common themes found in his writings. Velie, Alan R. “Gerald Vizenor’s Indian Gothic.” MELUS 17.1 (1991): 75-85. JSTOR. 3 Feb. 2009 . Velie’s article concentrates on Vizenor’s Darkness in Saint Louis Bearheart. In the article, Velie discusses the genre of “frontier gothic” and how Vizenor’s novel reverses the story line of the typical frontier gothic novel. Vizenor, Gerald. Interview. Winged Words: American Indian Writers Speak. By Laura Cotelli. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990. 155-184. This book contains an interview with Gerald Vizenor conducted by Laura Cotelli. In the interview, Vizenor discusses his books, characters in his stories, and his idea of storytelling. Vizenor, Gerald. Interview. Momaday, Vizenor, Armstrong: Conversations on American Indian Writing. By Hartwig Isernhagen. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999. 77-134. In this interview, Vizenor talks about Native American culture and theoretical approaches to Native American literature.

Jonathan Chandler Eng. 630 Dr. McAllister Feb. 4, 2009 “The Voices of Gerald Vizenor: Survival Through Transformation” In this article, Patricia Haseltine offers an overview of much of Gerald Vizenor’s work. As she moves from piece to piece, Haseltine focuses on Vizenor’s use of the trickster narrator and the theme of satire. According to Haseltine, it is through these two elements that Vizenor is able to unite tribal narrative form and non-native literary constructs. Describing this idea, Haseltine notes, “…Vizenor brings the trickster into a literary context to stimulate dialogue on a multiplicity of issues which concern native American life today” (31). To illustrate her point, Haseltine spends the remainder of this article discussing the significance of the trickster and how Vizenor uses the trickster character to educate his audience about the current state of the Native American. In Vizenor’s work, the trickster is usually based on one of three characters. Included in this group is, “…a clown named MacChurbbs, a crow-woman, and a figure representing the compiler of the first Anishinaabe dictionary, Frederick Baraga” (Haseltine 34). Using these trickster characters as narrators not only serves to link Vizenor’s work to tribal tradition, but it is also through these characters that Vizenor finds his authorial voice. According to Haseltine, MacChurbbs is “…the most significant persona of the author…” (38). Haseltine’s suggestion is that, speaking through MacChurbbs, Vizenor seeks to educate his audience through satire. Incorporated in this trickster theme is the element of satire, which is something Haseltine reinforces throughout the article. Haseltine asserts that it is through the satirical trickster tale that Vizenor is able to open a dialogue between native and non-native cultures. We find this satire at work in Ishi and the Wood Ducks, where Ishi’s indianness is put on trial. As seen both in this article and in Ishi, Vizenor uses satire to highlight the difficulties that face Native Americans. Another important part of Haseltine’s article deals with the significance of transformation and reincarnation in Vizenor’s writings. Within his work, characters frequently change shape, take on different roles, and represent different themes. According to Haseltine, this idea of transformation is interpreted as “…a dominant mode of survival” (41). In this respect, the transformation of characters could be considered “simulations of survivance,” which Vizenor speaks of in Manifest Manners. Although she seems to jump around quite often, Haseltine’s article offered insight and helped to broaden my personal understanding of the Vizenor pieces we have read. The ideas Vizenor proposes in Manifest Manners are elaborated upon in this article and put into a context that makes them easier to grasp. While I still do not completely understand everything at work in Ishi and the Wood Ducks, Haseltine has helped explain the persistence of tradition and the creativity at work in Vizenor’s literature and in contemporary Native American literature as a whole. “Gerald Vizenor: Compassionate Trickster” This article is useful for its comprehensive look at a variety of texts by Gerald Vizenor. In the article, Ruoff examines Vizenor’s prose, poetry, and drama to illustrate the significant themes that run throughout his work. As Ruoff mentions, “The major thrust of Vizenor’s work—whether poetry, prose, or drama—is the examination of the interrelationships between the tribal and nontribal worlds” (67). From this starting point, Ruoff spends the remainder of the article reviewing Vizenor’s work, examining how this idea of “interrelationships” plays out in the texts. Ruoff begins by discussing the books that focus on the Ojibwe, which is the tribe to which Vizenor is a member. Speaking of these books, Ruoff notes that they depict the struggles facing tribal people and also introduce “…several myths Vizenor incorporates into his own creative work” (67). As Ruoff goes on to explain, elements of these traditional Ojibwe myths can be found throughout much of Vizenor’s later work.

Much of Vizenor’s work, according to Ruoff, emphasizes the difficulty Native Americans face trying to balance between traditional tribal heritage and contemporary American culture. This is the theme Ruoff finds in Vizenor’s The Everlasting Sky, Tribal Scenes and Ceremonies, Wordarrows, and Earthdivers. While she does not discuss it in this article, the sense of conflict or incongruity found in these books is also a prominent theme in Vizenor’s Manifest Manners. The “word wars” Ruoff mentions resemble the postindian warriors and the literature of survivance that Vizenor describes in Manifest Manners. More specifically, Vizenor seems to suggest that the simulations of survivance are carried out through literature, and it is through this literature that the postindian responds to and overcomes the simulations of dominance. Over the remainder of the article, Ruoff continues through her discussion of Vizenor’s other major works. Although this discussion is enlightening and provides insight to the work of Vizenor, it is in the concluding paragraph that she makes a statement that succinctly describes the idea within Manifest Manners. In this paragraph, Ruoff notes, “In Vizenor’s view, whites invented ‘Indian’ as a new identity for tribal people in order to separate them from their ancient tribal traditions” (73). In Manifest Manners, Vizenor responds to this notion of “Indian” with the “postindian.” For Vizenor, the postindian, in part, functions to reconcile the Native American with their tribal traditions. Rather than the definition of Indian that has persisted through the centuries, one function of the postindian is to overpower the notion of “indian,” and replace it with a Native American identity grounded in tradition and truth.