Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays

This provocative collection of essays reveals the passionate voice of a Native American feminist intellectual. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a poet and literary scholar, grapples with issues she encountered as a Native American in academia. She asks questions of critical importance to tribal people: who is t...

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Hlavní autor: Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
Médium: Online
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: The University of Wisconsin Press 2025
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On-line přístup:ONIX_20250808T103036_9780299151492_2
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author Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
author_browse Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
author_facet Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
author_sort Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This provocative collection of essays reveals the passionate voice of a Native American feminist intellectual. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a poet and literary scholar, grapples with issues she encountered as a Native American in academia. She asks questions of critical importance to tribal people: who is telling their stories, where does cultural authority lie, and most important, how is it possible to develop an authentic tribal literary voice within the academic community? In the title essay, "Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner," Cook-Lynn objects to Stegner's portrayal of the American West in his fiction, contending that no other author has been more successful in serving the interests of the nation's fantasy about itself. When Stegner writes that "Western history sort of stopped at 1890," and when he claims the American West as his native land, Cook-Lynn argues, he negates the whole past, present, and future of the native peoples of the continent. Her other essays include discussion of such Native American writers as Michael Dorris, Ray Young Bear, and N. Scott Momaday; the importance of a tribal voice in academia, the risks to American Indian women in current law practices, the future of Indian Nationalism, and the defense of the land. Cook-Lynn emphasizes that her essays move beyond the narrowly autobiographical, not just about gender and power, not just focused on multiculturalism and diversity, but are about intellectual and political issues that engage readers and writers in Native American studies. Studying the "Indian," Cook-Lynn reminds us, is not just an academic exercise but a matter of survival for the lifeways of tribal peoples. Her goal in these essays is to open conversations that can make tribal life and academic life more responsive to one another.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1647982025-08-09T05:00:49Z Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth Indigenous North Americans thema EDItEUR::5 Interest qualifiers::5P Relating to specific groups and cultures or social and cultural interests::5PB Relating to peoples: ethnic groups, indigenous peoples, cultures and other groupings of people::5PBA Relating to Indigenous peoples This provocative collection of essays reveals the passionate voice of a Native American feminist intellectual. Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a poet and literary scholar, grapples with issues she encountered as a Native American in academia. She asks questions of critical importance to tribal people: who is telling their stories, where does cultural authority lie, and most important, how is it possible to develop an authentic tribal literary voice within the academic community? In the title essay, "Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner," Cook-Lynn objects to Stegner's portrayal of the American West in his fiction, contending that no other author has been more successful in serving the interests of the nation's fantasy about itself. When Stegner writes that "Western history sort of stopped at 1890," and when he claims the American West as his native land, Cook-Lynn argues, he negates the whole past, present, and future of the native peoples of the continent. Her other essays include discussion of such Native American writers as Michael Dorris, Ray Young Bear, and N. Scott Momaday; the importance of a tribal voice in academia, the risks to American Indian women in current law practices, the future of Indian Nationalism, and the defense of the land. Cook-Lynn emphasizes that her essays move beyond the narrowly autobiographical, not just about gender and power, not just focused on multiculturalism and diversity, but are about intellectual and political issues that engage readers and writers in Native American studies. Studying the "Indian," Cook-Lynn reminds us, is not just an academic exercise but a matter of survival for the lifeways of tribal peoples. Her goal in these essays is to open conversations that can make tribal life and academic life more responsive to one another. 2025-08-09T05:00:48Z 2025-08-09T05:00:48Z 2025-08-08T08:32:09Z 1996 book ONIX_20250808T103036_9780299151492_2 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/105155 9780299151492 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/164798 eng open access The University of Wisconsin Press 10.3368/151447 10.3368/151447 0903fbdc-d1cf-46d4-b7a2-4f5a4f15db4f 712d15aa-43d2-450a-8c7d-c17cc8b223da b5941080-3f20-4864-95c6-753acff7c9f4 9780299151492 Big Ten Open Books Madison [...] Big Collection Initiative Big Ten Academic Alliance Committee on Institutional Cooperation 10.13039/100026234 open access
spellingShingle Indigenous North Americans
thema EDItEUR::5 Interest qualifiers::5P Relating to specific groups and cultures or social and cultural interests::5PB Relating to peoples: ethnic groups, indigenous peoples, cultures and other groupings of people::5PBA Relating to Indigenous peoples
Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth
Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays
title Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays
title_full Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays
title_fullStr Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays
title_full_unstemmed Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays
title_short Why I Can't Read Wallace Stegner, and Other Essays
title_sort why i can t read wallace stegner and other essays
topic Indigenous North Americans
thema EDItEUR::5 Interest qualifiers::5P Relating to specific groups and cultures or social and cultural interests::5PB Relating to peoples: ethnic groups, indigenous peoples, cultures and other groupings of people::5PBA Relating to Indigenous peoples
topic_facet Indigenous North Americans
thema EDItEUR::5 Interest qualifiers::5P Relating to specific groups and cultures or social and cultural interests::5PB Relating to peoples: ethnic groups, indigenous peoples, cultures and other groupings of people::5PBA Relating to Indigenous peoples
url ONIX_20250808T103036_9780299151492_2
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