The Routledge Introduction To Native American Literature 1st Edition Drew Lopenzina by Drew Lopenzina 9781138291256, 9781138630246, 9781315209722, 1138291250, 1138630241, 1315209721 instant download after payment.

This Introduction makes available for student, instructor, and aficionado a refined set
of tools for decolonizing our approaches prior to entering the unfamiliar landscape of
Native American literatures. This book will introduce indigenous perspectives and
traditions as articulated by indigenous authors whose voices have been a vital, if often
overlooked, component of the American dialogue for more than 400 years. Paramount
to this consideration of Native-centered reading is the understanding that
literature was not something bestowed upon Native peoples by the settler culture,
either through benevolent interventions or violent programs of forced assimilation.
Native literature precedes colonization, and Native stories and traditions have their
roots in both the precolonized and the decolonizing worlds. As this far-reaching
survey of Native literary contributions will demonstrate, almost without fail, when
indigenous writers elected to enter into the world of western letters, they did so with
the intention of maintaining indigenous culture and community. Writing was and
always remains a strategy for survival.