Post by Okwes on Sept 23, 2006 11:35:43 GMT -5
David Treuer: Burning Wooden Indians
Sunday, September 17, 2006; Page BW04
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR200609\
1401230.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/books
David Treuer is sick and tired of dancing with wolves, throwing tea in
the bay, hiding in the cupboard or weeping a single tear at the sight of
a littered highway. In conjunction with his new novel, the 35-year-old
Ojibwe writer has published a provocative collection of essays that
denounce the way Native Americans are imagined in this country. Ugly
stereotypes that fed the genocidal campaigns of the 18th and 19th
century are mostly a thing of the past. The problem nowadays, he claims,
is the precious way that Indians are portrayed in even the most
well-meaning books and movies.
"We function the way ghosts function in ghost stories," Treuer says from
his home on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota. "We sort of hover
around to admonish people about what they should be doing, what they're
doing wrong, how they're destroying nature. We're always there, but
chained to our own deaths, not really alive and active and engaged."
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Born in Washington, D.C., Treuer moved when he was 7 to the Ojibwe
reservation in Minnesota, where his mother is an Ojibwe tribal judge. He
attended Princeton and now teaches English at the University of
Minnesota. A friendly, quick-witted man, he's still a little stunned by
all the attention he's received recently. His insightful cultural
observations alone wouldn't have generated much controversy, but in
Native American Fiction: A User's Manual (Graywolf, $15), Treuer also
executes a searing examination of the novels of such beloved authors as
Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. His conclusion: "Native American
fiction does not exist."
Alexie's work hews to narrow stereotypes about Indian life, he claims.
"In the case of Louise Erdrich, her books use fairly tried and true
Western storytelling techniques to convincingly create an Indian world.
But if you know the Ojibwe language, what she does is not without
problems. Her books, as all books are, are fantasies, an idea of
culture, a longing for it, but they are not derived from Native American
storytelling."
Treuer insists he's not condemning anyone's novels. Indeed, he says
several times that Erdrich, in particular, is a marvelous writer. But he
urges us to look past the identity of these authors so that we can
examine what's really on the page:
"After enduring 500 years of genocide, it may seem in poor taste to call
a Native American writer out for being incautious, but for literature to
remain healthy, we've got to have these serious critical discussions."
Whites and Indians alike "treat Native American fiction as a kind of
cultural wish fulfillment," he says, "a continuation of cultures that
are gone or imperiled. But the idea that ethnic literature in general is
supposed to perform some sort of cultural good doesn't really let the
imagination do much. In Native American literature, we're trained to
recognize a very limited set of things as believable or pleasurable or
compelling. Literature has the potential to train our minds to work
better. That's what novels lose when we're saddled with this moral or
educational mission."
-- Ron Charles
Sunday, September 17, 2006; Page BW04
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/14/AR200609\
1401230.html?nav=rss_artsandliving/books
David Treuer is sick and tired of dancing with wolves, throwing tea in
the bay, hiding in the cupboard or weeping a single tear at the sight of
a littered highway. In conjunction with his new novel, the 35-year-old
Ojibwe writer has published a provocative collection of essays that
denounce the way Native Americans are imagined in this country. Ugly
stereotypes that fed the genocidal campaigns of the 18th and 19th
century are mostly a thing of the past. The problem nowadays, he claims,
is the precious way that Indians are portrayed in even the most
well-meaning books and movies.
"We function the way ghosts function in ghost stories," Treuer says from
his home on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota. "We sort of hover
around to admonish people about what they should be doing, what they're
doing wrong, how they're destroying nature. We're always there, but
chained to our own deaths, not really alive and active and engaged."
Save & Share
* Tag This Article
Saving options 1. Save to description:
Headline (required)
2. Save to notes (255 character max):
Blurb
3. Tag This Article <http://del.icio.us/>
Born in Washington, D.C., Treuer moved when he was 7 to the Ojibwe
reservation in Minnesota, where his mother is an Ojibwe tribal judge. He
attended Princeton and now teaches English at the University of
Minnesota. A friendly, quick-witted man, he's still a little stunned by
all the attention he's received recently. His insightful cultural
observations alone wouldn't have generated much controversy, but in
Native American Fiction: A User's Manual (Graywolf, $15), Treuer also
executes a searing examination of the novels of such beloved authors as
Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie. His conclusion: "Native American
fiction does not exist."
Alexie's work hews to narrow stereotypes about Indian life, he claims.
"In the case of Louise Erdrich, her books use fairly tried and true
Western storytelling techniques to convincingly create an Indian world.
But if you know the Ojibwe language, what she does is not without
problems. Her books, as all books are, are fantasies, an idea of
culture, a longing for it, but they are not derived from Native American
storytelling."
Treuer insists he's not condemning anyone's novels. Indeed, he says
several times that Erdrich, in particular, is a marvelous writer. But he
urges us to look past the identity of these authors so that we can
examine what's really on the page:
"After enduring 500 years of genocide, it may seem in poor taste to call
a Native American writer out for being incautious, but for literature to
remain healthy, we've got to have these serious critical discussions."
Whites and Indians alike "treat Native American fiction as a kind of
cultural wish fulfillment," he says, "a continuation of cultures that
are gone or imperiled. But the idea that ethnic literature in general is
supposed to perform some sort of cultural good doesn't really let the
imagination do much. In Native American literature, we're trained to
recognize a very limited set of things as believable or pleasurable or
compelling. Literature has the potential to train our minds to work
better. That's what novels lose when we're saddled with this moral or
educational mission."
-- Ron Charles