Contemporary Native Fiction: Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance(Narrative Theory and Culture)

Contemporary Native Fiction: Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance analyzes paradigmatic works of contemporary Native American/First Nations literary fiction using the tools of narrative theory. Each chapter is read through the lens of a narrative theory – structuralist narratology, feminist narratology, rhetorical narratology, and unnatural narratology – in order to demonstrate how the formal structure of these narratives engage the political issues raised in the text. Additionally, each chapter shows how the inclusion of Native American/First Nations-authored narratives productively advance the theoretical work project of those narrative theories. This book offers a broad survey of possible means by which narrative theory and critical race theories can productively work together and is key reading for students and researchers working in this area.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Notes Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance Chapter 1: Focalizing Survivance; Racializing Narratology Chapter 2: Gendered Survivance and Intersectional Narratology Chapter 3: Rhetorical Narrative and Racially Charged Disclosure Chapter 4: Naturalizing Unnatural Native Narrative Coda: Where Do We Go from Here? Bibliography

About the Author :
James J. Donahue is Associate Professor of English & Communication at SUNY Potsdam. He is the author of Failed Frontiersmen: White Men and Myth in the Post-Sixties American Historical Romance as well as co-editor of Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States and Post-Soul Satire: Black Identity after Civil Rights.

Review :
Contemporary Native Fiction: Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance illustrates and amplifies the productive strength of using an archive (American Indian literature/Indigenous literary scholarship) and a set of tools (Narratology) that strengthens the epistemology of both Indigenous literary studies and Narrative Theory. By focusing on survivance, Donahue illuminates the vibrancy of contemporary American Indian writers and counters the stereotypes of American Indians as figures of a dead past or victims of history. This work proves why survivance is such a vital trope to consider in reading Native American literature and why Narratology is the most productive theoretical lens to use for a truly nuanced understanding of the vitality of contemporary American Indian literature. --Jennifer Ho, Professor, Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill