Category Archives: Native-American literature

Reflections on the Conference

Posted on May 10, 2013 by wcd2

It’s now just shy of three weeks past April 19 and I’m still lingering on the papers presented and conversations had at the first American Literature in the World graduate student conference. “Linger” seems appropriate to my mode of contemplation … Continue reading →

Posted in Educational institutions, Europe, macro politics, museums, Native-American literature, Nineteenth-century literature, World history | Tagged "Conjectures on World Literature", "Spiritual Marshall Plan for Europe", Ahab, Ben Bascom, Franco Moretti, Hadji Bakara, Herman Melville, Ishmael, John Ames Mitchell, Las Meninas, Moby-Dick, Native Americans, New Left Review, Oliver Baker, Red Army Faktion, Robert M. Hutchins, The Last American, Weatherman, Wynema | 1 Comment

Linda Hogan, Herman Melville: People of the Whale

Posted on April 10, 2013 by wcd2

April 10, 2013 The Native Americans have always been there, of course. The very name of the ship brings up their ghostly presence, for “Pequod, you will no doubt remember, was the name of a celebrated tribe of Massachusetts … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Asia, collaboration, Contemporary novel, Ethnicity, Native-American literature, Nineteenth-century literature, oceans, Race, WAr | Tagged A’atsika people, biracialism, Gay Head, Herman Melville, Linda Hogan, Moby-Dick, People of the Whale, Pequod, Tashtego, Vietnam | 2 Comments

The Global North: Alexander, Boo, Erdrich, Ferry

Posted on February 13, 2013 by wcd2

February 13, 2013 The blizzard this past weekend made me think of Argus, North Dakota. Louise Erdrich’s country. Love Medicine opens with a blizzard: “The snow feel deeper that Easter than it had for forty years, but June walked over … Continue reading →

Posted in Cities, Comparative literature, Contemporary novel, contemporary poetry, India, Native-American literature, Translation | Tagged Beyond the Beautiful Forevers, Boston, David Ferry, Global North, Goblin Secrets, Katherine Boo, KIng's College London, Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine, Minneapolis, Mumbai, National Book Award, North Dakota, Sunil Khilnani, The Beet Queen, William Alexander | Leave a comment

Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, Leslie Silko: The Chinese Connection

Posted on February 6, 2013 by wcd2

February 6, 2012 In 1985 Toni Morrison, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Leslie Silko traveled together to China, going up the Li River in a boat. Kingston and Silko have now come out with new books — Kingston, I Love a … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, Afro-Asian alliances, Animals, Asia, Autobiography, China, Chinese art, collaboration, Comparative literature, Ethnicity, Native American language, Native-American literature, Twentieth century literature, Visual arts, world literature | Tagged 92nd Street Y, Chaco Canyon, China, I Love a Broad Margin to my Life, Leslie Silko, Li River, Maxine Hong Kingston, Mesa Verde, The Turquoise Ledge, Toni Morrison, Tucson | Leave a comment

Louise Erdrich, Kurt Vonnegut: Germany’s Wars

Posted on November 21, 2012 by wcd2

November 21, 2012 There is a longer title to Kurt Vonnegut’s famous novel: “Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death, by Kurt Vonnegut, a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod [and Smoking Too … Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantic, Cities, Contemporary novel, Ethnicity, French language, German language, mixed races, Native American language, Native-American literature, Race, Vernacular dialects, Wars, World history | Tagged Cape Cod, Chippewa, Dresden Germany, Elbe, fire-bombing, Florence, Georges Clemenceau, Hiroshima, Kurt Vonnegut, Louise Erdrich, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Master Butchers Singing Club, Woodrow Wilson., World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

Sherman Alexie, Walt Whitman: Hoop Dreams

Posted on November 14, 2012 by wcd2

November 14, 2012 When Stephen Colbert pointed out with incredulity that he had come out with yet another book, Sherman Alexie said, “That’s what happens when you’re literate.” Yes, from reading to writing: it’s as easy as that, as inevitable. … Continue reading →

Posted in Autobiography, collaboration, contemporary poetry, Ethnicity, Genre, Media, mixed races, Modernist poetry, Native-American literature, Nineteenth-century literature, peripheral networks, print medium, Remediation, Remix, Sports, Television, Twentieth century literature, YouTube videos | Tagged "Defending Walt Whitman", basketball, boxing, First Indian on the Moon, Native Americans, Sherman Alexie, Song of Myself, Stephen Colbert, Walt Whitman. Muhammed Ali | Leave a comment

African-Native-American: Langston Hughes, Toni Morrison

Posted on February 15, 2012 by wcd2

February 15, 2012 Langston Hughes. African-American, of course. Yet a not insignificant fact about his biography is that his both his maternal grandparents, Mary Patterson and Charles Henry Langston, were of mixed races: African-American, Native American, and European. Hughes did … Continue reading →

Posted in African-American literature, contemporary poetry, mixed races, Native-American literature, slavery, Twentieth century literature | Tagged A Mercy, African American history, Ardelia Wilis, Charles Henry Hughes, John Solomon Willis, Langston Hughes, Mary Patterson Hughes, Native American history, Simon Ortiz, Song of Solomon, Tiya Miles, Toni Morrison | 65 Comments