A celebration of Anishinaabe intellectual tradition.
Enduring Critical Poses examines the stories, poems, plays, and histories centered in the Great Lakes region of North America, where the Anishinaabeg live in a space Basil Johnston referred to as “Maazikamikwe,” a maternal earth. The Anishinaabeg are a confederacy of many communities, including the Odawa, Saulteaux, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Oji-Cree, and Algonquin peoples, who share cultural practices and related languages. Bringing together senior scholars and new voices on the Anishinaabe intellectual landscape, this volume specifically explores Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi culture, language, and literary heritage. Through a tribal-centric framework, the contributors connect various branches of Native American literary studies and celebrate Anishinaabe narrative diversity to offer a single, overarching story of Anishinaabe survival and endurance.
Gordon Henry Jr. is an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinaabe Nation in Minnesota and Professor of American Indian Literature, Creative Writing, and American Indian Studies at Michigan State University. His books include Afterlives of Indigenous Archives: Essays in Honor of the Occom Circle (coedited with Ivy Schweitzer) and The Light People. Margaret Noodin is Professor of English and American Indian Studies and Director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Her books include Bawaajimo: A Dialect of Dreams in Anishinaabe Language and Literature. David Stirrup is Professor of American Literature and Indigenous Studies at the University of Kent, United Kingdom. His books include Picturing Worlds: Visuality and Visual Sovereignty in Contemporary Anishinaabe Literature.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction Gordon Henry Jr., Margaret Noodin, and David Stirrup
Part I: Majikawiz
1. Louise Erdrich’s Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country: Writing, Being, Healing, Place Chris LaLonde
2. The Old World Display and the New World Displaced Nichole Biber
3. An Indian’s Journey and Tribal Memory: David Treuer’s Rez Life Padraig Kirwan
Part II: Bakaawiz
4. The Anishinaabe Eco-Poetics of Language, Life, and Place in the Poetry of Schoolcraft, Noodin, Blaeser, and Henry Susan Berry Brill de Ramírez
5. Ambiguity and Empathy in the Poetry of Gordon Henry Jr. Stuart Rieke
6. Justice in absentia: The Re-stor(y)ing of Native Legal Presence through Narratives of Survivance in Gerald Vizenor’s “Genocide Tribunals” Sharon Holm
Part III: Jiibayaaboozo
7. The Exceptional Power of the Dead in Heid E. Erdrich’s National Monuments Deborah L. Madsen
8. Anishinaabe Being and the Fallen God of Sun-Worshiping Victorians Carter Meland
Part IV: Nanabozho
9. Beyond the Borders of Blood: An Anishinaaabe Tribalography of Identity Jill Doerfler
10. Enduring Critical Poses, Beyond Nation and History: The Legacy and Life of Anishinaabeg Literature and Letters Margaret Noodin
11. Enduring Cultural Poses: Memory, Resistance, and Symbolic Sculpture David Stirrup
