Contemporary Native Fiction Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance Narrative Theory and Culture Series

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.

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

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.