Contemporary native American fiction (1968-2001) : subject-ivity and identity

Abstract

This study is a literary critical analysis of post-1960s Native American fiction and its engagement in the concepts of subject-ivity and identity in relation to both tribal- and Euroamerican -generated socio-cultural discourses and paradigms. This study adds to the critical enquiry of previous studies in relation to subject-ivity and identity in several ways. Firstly, it aims to present and maintain throughout its extended analysis a clear theoretical delineation of subject-ivity and identity and the analytic paradigms most appropriate for each focus. The “subject” will be discussed specifically within the theoretical contexts that are mostly involved in the scrutiny of its positioning and the consequences thereof - (post)structuralism, (post)modernism, and (post)colonialism. The concept of “identity” originated within the domains of sociology and psychology and will be explored in the texts that will be discussed with respect to the formation and navigation of individual social identities, specifically in relation to group recognition and the acceptance of the individual, the effect of trauma on a tribal collective identity, and the performance of gendered identities. Furthermore, this study addresses certain Native subject-ivity and identity contexts which remain as yet under-explored by scholars; specifically the integration of aspects of Christianity into tribal worldviews, the impact of the re-assertion and performance of non-heterosexual genders within tribal communities, as well as the subject-ivity and identity issues of concern to and relating to Native children in Native–authored children’s literature, as briefly explored in the concluding section