English 857
Spring 2007
Dr. Susanne George Bloomfield
Literature
of the American West:
Multicultural
Bibliography
James
Welch
Cook, Barbara. “A Tapestry of History and Reimagination:
Women’s Place in James Welch’s Fools
Crow.” American Indian Quarterly 24.3 (Summer
2000): 441-453.
Barbara Cook’s essay brings historical evaluations from history books and ethnographic materials of the changes in the Plains Indians’ societies to James Welch’s novel in order to demonstrate how Welch paints an accurate picture of the Blackfeet society, particularly with regard to the economic and social status of the tribe’s females. Between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, horses, guns, and the hide trade were introduced to the Plains Indians tribes. As a result, and here, Cook quotes research by Alan M. Klein and others, shifts in the individual/community balance and in gender roles occurred. An individual’s possessions become a measure of personal wealth in the nineteenth century, the focus no longer so heavily on the communal good. With guns and horses, hunting became the fairly solitary chore of young males and women no longer took part in the actual hunt (which had before been performed in large groups, herding buffalo off cliffs and etcetera). Women’s economic power and equality, then, diminished from what it had been, though this by no means diminished their importance. The new technology also accounts for an increase in polygamous practices as more hands were necessary to keep up the labor-intensive preparation of skins—greater ease in the hunt meant more work for women. Cook uses specific passages and incidents from Fools Crow to demonstrate how Welch’s depiction is historically accurate. The action of the novel takes place in 1870, and much mention is made of the females’ work and importance to the tribe.
Cook’s essay provides an excellent answer to one of the comments from class—the surprising focus on attaining individual wealth existing alongside the strong sense of community is really quite historically accurate. Though Cook rarely goes further in analyzing the novel than simply pointing out the historically accurate details, her essay provides an excellent foundation of historical knowledge with which one can begin to evaluate some of the more complex ideas of gender roles (for example, certain women are depicted as having an ease or boldness in their character that is much like a man’s that particularly confuses Fools Crow).
Foerstel, Hebert, Banned in the
The specific reference states
that Laurel, Montana School Superintendent Laurel Moore complained that the
book was "objectionable and inappropriate for my son to read" and
further refered to the book as "digusting and repulsive".
Gish, Robert F.
“Word Medicine: Storytelling and Magic Realism in James Welch’s ‘Fools
Crow.’” American
Indian Quarterly. 14 (1990):
349-354. JSTOR.
20 Jan 2007 <http://www.jstor.org>.
In this article, Gish looked at how Welch employed storytelling in his book. Fools Crow is a novel built around stories, and multiple layers of storytelling. Gish argues that Welch’s approach makes storytelling not only the “means and process,” but also the subject, of the novel. The interweaving of myth and storytelling reflects the oral narrative tradition even as it preserves the stories of the culture.
Specifically, Gish felt that Welch’s use of multiple plot lines in the text could allow it to be viewed as having different storytellers and working on multiple levels, which in Gish’s opinion was a risk of failure. Despite the risks that Welch took in employing this technique, Gish felt that this act was important and that “Fools Crow succeeds precisely because of its ambition and its daring, its multi-level narrative juxtapositions and interpolations” (350). Gish also talked about the names that Welch used in Fools Crow, saying that the names had “the intended effect of establishing an older…way of knowing” and that “[t]here is much poetry in such naming, much metaphor, many kennings” (351). It could be said that Welch’s literary techniques, including his incorporation of storytelling and his use of language, helped readers make connections to the time period in which the novel takes place and the traditions which were employed by the characters. In regards to magic realism, Gish discussed how dreams and myth were incorporated into the storytelling aspect of the text, which he felt allowed the storytelling to become “the very subject itself” of the text (350). In addition, Gish also talked about the idea that Fools Crow could be read as “a grand and mythic story of initiation and maturation, of dream and prophecy told and lived” (353) and how the text could be seen as “a promise of the triumph of the human spirit” (354). This article would be useful to those that are interested in looking at Welch’s use of language and his employment of storytelling in the text.
Gish also notes the repetition in Contemporary Native American Literature “of seemingly antiheroic, alienated, and benumbed protagonists, singers and speakers, at odds with their pasts and the times and places in which they find themselves” (349). He cites Fools Crow as “a masterwork of linguistic and narrative transporting” (350). Gish contends that storytelling is the subject of the novel not just simply the means and process of the novel. He points to the fragmentation and disunity of the novel as risks that Welch took. The layering of the novel allows Welch to confirm “the oral impulse of narrative” (350). He sees this as “Welch’s strivings to tell and tell again the stories of genealogy of the Blackfeet, the lives of his own ancestors—to be there with them again” (353).
Howard, Scott J. “Contemporary American
Indian Storytelling: An Outsider’s Perspective.” American Indian Quarterly 23 (1999): 45-53 <http:links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0095-182X%28199023%2914%3A4%3
C349%3AWMSAMR%3E2.0CO%B2-Z>.
A non-native scholar contrasts the Native-American storytelling traditions with the “mainstream American culture” (MAC) modes of communication: “MAC is more concerned with transmission or retrieval of information or data detached from its context.” Indian people, he says, tell and re-tell stories as a means of teaching and cultural transmission. While the author’s examples refer mostly to the Lakota, and to contemporary situations, his observations about oral narrative traditions seem sufficiently general to shed light on Fools Crow.
Huffstreiter, Edward. “Spirit Armies
and Ghost Dancers”. SAIL (Ser.
2) 14: 4. 2-19.
Huffstreiter argues that Native American oral texts are post-modern. By post-modern, Hoffstreiter takes the Laconian view that texts are used by people trying to orient what is going on around them. Huffstreiter believes that Native texts are particularly well suited for post-modern study because the tales often of “pure material significance”. Huffstreiter believes that Michael Baktein’s work, with texts, revealing an underlying political agenda is appropriate for study. The Native Americans only had two choices, to resist or to assimilate. Baktein believes that there are dualistic patterns in the resistance, but there are also “nexus” issues of cultural exchange found in the tales of the later period, which connects Native American and Caucasian culture. The works are multi-cultural, not always utopian. There is a dialogic pattern, but there is also resistance.
The paper is good at explaining the
origins and nature of Native American oral history. However, the paper does
have the weakness, regarding the text, in talking about other texts too much,
hardly concentrating on Welch, instead focusing on other writers like Silko. I actually believe that this particular article
might be a little stronger if used in connection to Silko’s
Ceremony, rather than the present
test. Another problem with this article is the vagueness of the term
“post-modernism”. This particular term is vague, so saying something is “post
modern” is a vague term. I cannot say it any better than one of philosophy
professor, at
McFarland, Ron. “The End in James Welch’s
Novels.” American
Indian Quarterly.
Volume 17:3. 1993: 319-327.
Ron McFarland seeks in this article to discuss the continuation of theme and plot in the mind of the reader, which may continue to evolve even after the endings of James Welch’s novels, Winter in the Blood, The Death of Jim Loney, and Fool’s Crow. Welch himself had once remarked that his first concern, upon embarking on the of writing a novel, is exactly how it will end. However, McFarland points out that what might seem like an ending of plotline in Welch’s literature might actually be a a jumping-off point in the mind of the reader: a mere suspension of events that allows for continuing reflection. At times the actions of the characters themselves point the observer toward this lack of resolution. Although Fools Crow, for example, participates in a festive spring dance with his tribe his own emotions betray a duality of feeling – “a peculiar kind of happiness that sleeps with sadness” – that leaves the reader speculating upon possible mixed outcomes. The idea of foreign encroachment upon cherished cultural traditions, author and reader both realize as the plot unfolds, is not an easily resolvable, let alone definable one. For example, although Fools Crow’s traditional beliefs are strong enough to enable him to glimpse the future during an amazing spiritual vision, that same vision lacks the power to alter the future misfortunes of his people. Feather Woman further suggests a mixed outcome (to put it mildly) when she advises Fools Crow not of how to avoid suffering and death, but rather of his responsibility to foster peace among his fellows in preparation for a happy sojourn in the Shadowlands. Welch’s techniques doubtless cannot be properly explained in any single article. McFarland does, however, discuss several devices used by the author to foreshadow ambiguous outcomes, suggesting a lack of ending to the essential ideas portrayed.
Stephenson, Barry. "Ritual Criticism of a Contemporary Rite of Passage."
Journal of
Ritual Studies 17. 1 (2003):32-42.
The past two decades have
witnessed growing interest in designing and experimenting with initiation rites
with an eye to addressing the difficulties faced by adolescents as they make
the transition to adulthood. This paper involves "ritual
criticism" of a contemporary initiation rite, the Vision Quest Program
founded by Steven Foster and Meredith Little. The author argues that the
heroic, mythopoetic basis of the Vision Quest Program may actually serve to
undermine the stated intentions of the program, and that ritualizing based upon
Native American practices faces questions of cultural appropriation.
Linda
Hogan
Blaeser, Kimberly. “Centering Words: Writing a
Sense of Place.” Wicazo Sa Review 14
(1999): 45-53 <http:links.jstor.org/sici?sici—07496427%28199923%
2914%3A2%3C92%3ACWWASO%3E2.0CO%3B2-R>.
“Nature Writing” – also variously called Literature of Place, Natural History, Landscape Writing, and Place Writing – is not a separate genre for most Native American writers, but rather a central element in stories and poetry, emphasizing the relationship between humans and the earth. This reciprocal relationship is both physical and spiritual, although early literature dwells on the people’s physical dependence on animals and the natural world. “Balance and mutual survival remain the goals of the system of reciprocity, but the contemporary threats to human balance and survival seem to be arising on different, less physical, more psychological and spiritual fronts.”
Brice, Jennifer. “Earth as Mother, Earth as Other in Novels
by Silko and Hogan.” Critique 39.2 (1998):
127-138.
Jennifer
Brice begins this article by noting the differences between white American
fiction and Native American fiction.
She notes that white Europeans were taught that man has dominion over
the earth, while Native Americans grow regarding the land as a part of
themselves. Brice asserts that this
difference in philosophy leads to white colonization and Native American
dispossession. Brice observes that the
“. . .Grayclouds’ sense of
oneness with the earth is undiminished by their dislocation from place”
(127). She compares Mean Spirit with Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony , which she says are
both about the forces of good and evil.
“That earth is a sentient being engaged in the struggle for her body and
soul is not, to a Native American, a pathetic fallacy but reality,” remarks
Brice (128). This reality and the
figurative language used by Hogan to describe the land Brice claims are part of
the magical realist aspects of the novel.
She points out “how dispossession leads to spiritual anorexia” in the
novel (128-129).
Brice, Jennifer. “Earth as Mother, Earth as Other in Novels by
Silko and Hogan.” CRITQUE:
Studies in Contemporary Fiction. 39
(1998): 127-138. Expanded Academic ASAP. 3 Feb 2007
<http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.
In this article, Brice looks at how the Earth is used in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Brice uses these two novels as points of discussion and comparison as to how the characters act in relation to the earth and how Earth itself is personified. In Mean Spirit, there are characters, such as Belle and Horse, that are connected to the earth. They protect the Earth, help things grow, and watch over those that inhabit the land. There are also characters, such as Hale, that are at odds with the earth, even destroying it. One of the things that the author of this article does is look at the names of the characters in Hogan’s work and shows how those names reflect the connections to the earth that the characters have. One thing in this line of discussion that she points out is that Jess Gold’s name presents the idea of another item that is taken from the ground. Brice also touches upon the idea that the characters that are without land would have been viewed as being “motherless” by the Native Americans, since the earth is considered to be Mother Earth. Another line of thought that Brice brings up is how Mother Earth proves to be a comfort and how Mother Earth suffers but can provide herself with protection, using the bees attacking Jess Gold as an example of Mother Earth defending herself. Brice places some emphasis on the character of Belle Graycloud, especially in the connection between “Mother Earth” and “Earthly Matriarch,” since Belle is connected to the earth and is the center of her family, just like the Earth is for the Native Americans. This article was easy to read and would prove useful to those that are interested in looking at how Earth was used in Mean Spirit, as well as how the characters are connected to the earth. It could also be used to aid a discussion of how Earth was used in Ceremony, or as a point of comparison between the two texts.
Cook, Barbara J., ed. From
the
This book was written by multiple authors who, within their respective chapters, all discuss the writing techniques and themes present in the works of Linda Hogan. Four chapters address issues relating to Mean Sprit. “Hogan’s Historical Narratives: Bringing to Visibility the Interrelationship of Humanity and the Natural World,” by Barbara Cook, the volume’s editor, is based on a statement of Ms. Hogan, that “the only possibility of survival has been resistance” (Solar Storms).
Gould, Janice. “American Indian Women’s
Poetry, Strategies of Rage and Hope.” Signs
Vol. 20, No. 4 (Summer, 1995). 797-817.
In her
article “American Indian Women’s Poetry: Strategies of Rage and Hope”, Janice
Gould proposes two issues relevant to the novel Mean Spirit. First, Gould proposes that American Indian women
writers have a lot of rage about events. The women are outraged about past
treatment of their people, and themselves as women. Thus, the women are dually
marginalized as members of an American Indian tribal tradition and as female
writers in a patriarchal society. The women also have anger issues due to the
status of many as “half breeds”. Being a half breed causes alienation inside American
Indian women because they do not know exactly who they are. Gould believes that
the most important thing that a writer can possess is a sense of identity,
which these women lack, due to their status as half breeds. Gould mentions
Hogan as a writer who is particularly susceptible to alienation, since she
hails from the state of
One might question how a work, concerning itself with poetry, could be connected with Linda Hogan’s prose work Mean Spirit. Any information about American Indian women’s writing is relevant when dealing with a work by an American Indian woman author. Moreover, since Hogan is also a poet, she is a bit less likely to separate the poetic tradition from prose quite as much as pure prose writers might. There is definitely a sense of anger and alienation, expressed by some of the characters. We see a story, in Mean Spirit, of a tribe that is starting to separate from the old ways, into a more modern existence. However, there are certainly characters, such as Michael Horse, that do not want to adopt the old ways. There are also many half breed characters. Those characters feel a sense of alienation. However, it is also clear, from the end of the novel, that there is a hopeful perspective that can be found in the novel as well. Mean Spirit essentially reads like a history, and is, in fact, a work of historical fiction. Things are very real in the novel, even in the scenes of “magical realism”. Those elements, from “magical realism”, compromise the work as a straight history. However, in the tradition that Hogan is writing in, the work is seen as very real. Thus, the tale might read more like an oral history or spiritual work, instead of just as a history of an event. Thus, the work on poetical works, of American Indian women writers is, in fact, relevant to the text of Mean Spirit.
Krasteva, Yonka Kroumova. “The Politics of the Border in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 11.4 (1999):
46-60.
Rooted in the terminology and theory of postcolonial criticism, Yonka Kroumova Krasteva analyzes the struggles, peoples, and places of Hogan’s novel by placing them in the “borderlands,” that place between the marginal areas and peoples (generally, in this novel, Native Americans) and the center (the established power and tradition of white, male America). Watona is a borderland, an area between worlds, in which neither the marginalized nor the central identities apply to the lives of the inhabitants. Using various critics such as Gloria Anzaldua, Frederic Jameson, and Rosaldo Renato, to name a few, Krasteva explores the search for identity on the part of nearly every character, citing the “marginals,” those who resists incorporation into the dominant culture, and the “liminars,” who ultimately join the larger group. Hale, hoping to make his fortune, and Jess Gold are liminars that pass through a rite of passage in order to graduate from the border world to the dominant culture. The Hills Indians, of course, are marginals that generally move toward fuller acceptance of their own, older culture. Krasteva also makes the observation that, in terms of the dominant culture, the Native American groups of the novel must remain marginalized because that is the only way that they can be acceptable to the white mindset. In this sense, Belle, Nola, Stink, even Stace, “have no cultural assurance of a final stable resolution of their ambiguity;” unlike Hale and Gold, they cannot be sure that they will come out all right, since the culture does not consider them as existent (56).
Krasteva’s essay is fairly thorough in explaining the problems between the white government and the Watona Indians, but it sometimes seems as if she ignores the subtle interactions between different Indian groups, sympathetic whites, and other minority cultures. She also largely ignores the role of Stace Red Hawk in the novel, particularly the second half. While it is quite true that Stace equally searches for his own identity, his eventual rejection of assimilation and his slight power in the government is not mentioned, a point which may very well have been helpful for Krasteva’s argument. Though there are certain omissions, I especially enjoy the section that I quoted from about that explain how the marginalized characters cannot rely on culture for a solution to their problem, an explanation that seems very helpful in understanding the abrupt, open ending of the novel.
Rainwater, Catherine, Intertextual Twins and
Their Relations: Linda Hogan's Mean Spirit and Solar Storms: Modern Fiction
Studies 45.1 (1999) 93-113.
Catherine Rainwater identifies the use of twins and duality in Hogan's two works. She argues that Mean Spirit and Solar Storms form a pair of balanced narratives. Mean Spirit takes uses the primary image of fire and accenuates an eschatological or apocolyptic world view wherein the native and white worlds cannot integrate and the only alternative is retreat and separation. In Mean Spirit the earth force is aggrieved and hostile. Red is the dominant image/color. Within Mean Spirit itself are a series of "twins" including literal twins Moses and Ruth, Sara and Molene as well as red store/blue store, etc. The article picks up on the use of red and blue as Carrie discussed in class. Solar Storms by contrast accentuates a blue world wherein water is the key element and integration between human and natural worlds seems more possible. It is not related to Mean Spirit but Rainwater has an interesting discussion of the ways Moby Dick influences Solar Storms.
Leslie
Silko
Arnold, Ellen, "An Ear for the Story,
an Eye for the Pattern: Rereading Ceremony", Modern Fiction Studies 45:1
(1999) 69-92.
This is a long and somewhat complicated article but it raised an interesting point which suggests why those rooted in a western literary tradition (especially comic books) might have a hard time seeing the Native American viewpoint which Ceremony relates. Silko is quoted as saying "Witchery is a metaphor for the destroyers . . .which counter vitality and birth. I tried to get away from talking about good and evil, and to return to an old, old way of looking at the world. . .the idea of balance, that the world was created with these opposing forces.
Whereas the western literary tradition plays upon good triumphing over evil, Silko's view is that good and evil are always inevitably present. The proper way of things is maintain the balance between the two. Things go bad when the balance is altered, which is what the white people are doing. Rather than the motif of order overcoming chaos, good over evil, black and white, and other western dichotomies and binary oppositions, Silko maintains that wholeness is not the opposite to binaries, but that dualities can be both opposed and interdependent and the same time. Boundaries may be false and destructive or crucial to the preservation of identity and life. As Josiah said, nothing is all good or all bad. It depends.
Arnold, Ellen L. “An Ear for the Story, an Eye for the
Pattern: Rereading Ceremony.” Modern Fiction Studies 45 (1999):
69-92. Project MUSE 10 Feb. 2007.
<http://www.muse.jhu.edu>.
In this
article about Leslie Marmon Silko’s
Ceremony, Ellen L. Arnold looks at Tayo’s
journey, the need for his ceremony, and its outcome. She discusses the complex cause of Tayo’s illness, including the fact that he did not fit
completely into the white world or the Native American world, since he was
educated in the white world and fought in their war, as well as being only part
Native American. She also comments on
the idea that language has become “deconstructed” (72) for Tayo,
as well as for the reader. This would
account for the various voices and languages that Tayo
was hearing. The ceremony that Tayo underwent is one that would bring the forces of good and
evil back into balance. Once Tayo started to see the patterns in nature, specifically
the stars, the balance is achieved. Arnold states that this realization “of the
relationship between order and chaos, creation and destruction, good and evil,
separation and participation” is what “enables balance within Tayo, his community, and the larger world between earth and
sky” (81).
Brown, Alana Kathleen. “Pulling Silko’s
Thread Through Time:
An Exploration of Storytelling.” American Indian Quarterly 19.2(1995):
171-179. JSTOR. 16 Feb. 2007 <www.jstor.org/search>.
In this article, Alana Kathleen Brown responds to Silko’s works from an educational perspective. She writes about how becoming a Native American scholar led her to acknowledge that she was “culture-bound” (171). She found that as her insights changed, her teaching changed as well. Brown became especially interested in “the relationship between spiders and meaning” in Silko’s texts (171). She quotes Silko on the web-like structure of expression in Pueblo culture and how the structure relies on the listener’s or the reader’s trust that the nonlinear structure will lead to meaning. Indeed Brown’s new understanding of Native American literature leads her to note, “Chaos and order become a part of a single process, intertwining rather than dividing, when we imagine the world unfolding like a spider’s web” (172). Brown recalls that she had to let go of the dualistic perception that her “training in sociohistorical literary analysis” fostered by the dichotomies of us/them, victim/victimizer (172). She asserts that Silko confronts “racism as an inner psycho/social, as well as an outer social/historical phenomenon” (173). Furthermore, Silko does not limit stories to one form, but includes “letters, anecdotes, gossip, jokes, poems, legends, family stories, crafted stories,” and even photographs (173). Brown remarks on the ability of “stories to initiate dialogue and reinforce the sense of community” (174). She finds that the teller/listener dynamic that is essential to the oral tradition and to community are largely missing from other forms of American literature because the literary canon is not inclusive enough. Brown says, “What the study of Native American literature has helped [her] to understand is concentric knowing, that is the relation between things, between others, that is of critical importance” (174). When Brown realized how these stories maintained community, she changed her approach to research, which had in the past been distanced from other aspects of her life. Now she regards her research as an act of participation in the community.
Evasdaughter, Elizabeth N. “Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony:
Healing Ethnic Hatred by Mixed-Breed Laughter.” MELUS 15 (Spring 1988): 83-95.
As the title of her essay suggests, Elizabeth Evasdaughter writes about the humor found in Ceremony, commenting specifically that that humor plays the healing role of pointing out the common mistaken conceptions of both whites and Indians. She begins the essay by listing a number of “humorous” elements, such as Silko’s role as a “sacred clown” who lightens the burden of evil, the animal clowning of the burro and the gray mule, and the human clowning that is often a little slapstick (for example, the bar fight over Helen Jean). Evasdaughter then moves into an explanation of one key element to analyzing the humor of Ceremony, and that element is European black humor. Black humor, as she describes it, involves putting blackness in opposition to whiteness or light. In this sense, Emo is the main comic; though his continual laughter and harsh joking may not seem traditionally “comedic,” his witticism and the way he attempts to make the others laugh with him is all based on darkness. First of all, he often juxtaposes the white world with the Indian, always apparently hating the white injustices, but, as Evasdaughter points out, valuing that world over his native culture. Secondly, his humor is often dark humor, a quest for laughter in pain, death, and humiliation. To see such unhumorous humor is to see how the white culture is not superior to the Indian culture and to show Indian readers how the white culture is not necessarily more evil than human evil.
Schweninger, Lee. “Writing Nature: Silko and Native Americans as Nature Writers.” MELUS 18 (1993): 47-60. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0163-755X%28199322%2918%3A2%3C47%3AWNSANA%3E2.0CO%3B2-B
Schweninger argues that “Native Americans are the land’s
unheralded nature writers,” and that it is time to accept “some typically
non-canonical literature” – including Ceremony
-- into the canon of nature writing. Using Thomas Lyon’s definition of nature
writing (set forth in the preface to
Silko, Leslie Marmon. “Landscape, History, and the
Silko describes the relationship between the
Todd, Jude. “Knotted Bellies and Fragile Webs: Untangling and Re-Spinning in Tayo’s Healing Journey.”
American Indian
Quarterly. 19:2. 1995. 155-171.
In this
article Jude Todd discusses three interrelated symbolic motifs in Silko’s Ceremony:
Tayo’s belly afflictions, human avatars of the
Earth Goddess, and the
Swan, Edith. “Laguna
Symbolic Geography and Silko’s ‘Ceremony’”. American Indian Quarterly.
Vol. 12 No. 3 (Summer, 1988). 229 – 249.
Edith Swan
proposes, in her article “Laguna Symbolic Geography and Silko’s
‘Ceremony’, a moving from the East to the West, with strong influence from the
South. The West and the North are supposed to be the place of optimal healing.
In order to heal, Tayo needs to move toward the
Swan, in
her article, presents strong evidence for a symbolic geography in Ceremony. Since Swan focuses most of her
attention on how symbolic geography effects the text,
her evidence comes straight from the text. Some might say that the directions
are incidental. After all, Mount
Rudolpho
Anaya
Black, Debra B. “Times of Conflict: Bless Me, Ultima as
a Novel of Acculturation.” Bilingual Review. 25:2. 2000.
146+
This article is a highly theoretical discussion of acculturation and how it does or does not affect the genders in Anaya’s work, Bless Me, Ultima. Black believes that Anaya places most males in the novel in an arena of shared Chicano and Anglo influences, mandating that they make decisions between these two forces. She maintains, however, that the female characters exist in almost a completely Chicana space, (outside the sphere of potential acculturation), denying them the chance to evolve along with their changing society. Black believes that it is this very immobility/stagnancy of the women of the story that give the men a base from which to conduct their forays into acculturation and endure the effects thereof. Black argues that Anaya deliberately ignores the female experience, discrediting him as a true “ethnic writer.”
Black’s article therefore primarily examines how acculturation plays out in the lives of Anaya’s male characters. Are they rendered happier by it? Is there a correlation between high levels of acculturation and increased “success”? For example, the brothers, Leon, Gene, and Andrew, nearly completely assimilate into the Anglo world, leaving a bit of family breakdown (and questionable personal satisfaction) in their wake. The brothers’ rejection of their father’s wishes is also a rejection of cultural patriarchal Chicano power, tradition, and the land. Antonio finds his own balance in a combination of the Anglo culture and the Chicano one. He becomes educated in both secular and non-secular areas, and also gradually becomes separate from the females of his family. His acculturation is partial, and becomes a new balance that it seems might be successfully maintained. Gabriel has left a life with his first love, the llano, in order to capitalize on the economic opportunities more readily available in town. This represents a partial acculturation. He also realizes that he has lost his older three boys to the Anglo way of life, and accepts their rejection of his dreams and traditional patriarchal power.
The women in this work, Black argues, serve as objects of sexual pleasure and nurturing figures for the men. She believes that even Ultima – who has a profound connection in her own right to the earth, and powers thereof – loses her abilities and knowledge as she “transfers” them gradually to Antonio. Antonio’s emergence into manhood occurs simultaneously with Ultima’s death. Therefore, the author maintains, Anaya’s analysis of the ethnic question at hand is incomplete at best, decreasing its value. She does not believe that he merits the title of “ethnic writer.”
Dasenbrock,
Dasenbrock’s essay focuses on “multicultural literature,” specifically multicultural literature written in English. He offers two possible definitions of multicultural literature, the first being works that are about multicultural societies and, the second, works that invites and anticipates its readers will be from cultures different than the culture(s) in the book. Dasenbrock prepares his argument by presenting two different criticisms of multicultural literature: that of the universalists, who often discount the authors of these texts for not creating reading environments in which “universal” comprehension is possible; and that of the “localists,” who claim only those absolutely familiar with the given culture can actually understand a multicultural text. Dasenbrock finds both approaches reductive and argues instead that intelligibility (identifying each object, symbol, word, etc) and meaningfulness (grasping a concept) are not equal ideas and that meaningfulness can be attained even when certain words or references are not intelligible. He uses a number of bicultural examples from other books, such as The Painter of Signs by R. K. Narayan, No Name Woman by Maxine Hong Kingston, and Tangi by Witi Ihimaera, but his use of Bless Me, Ultima deals specifically with bilingualism as an example of biculturalism and its effects on the readers. Because Rudolfo Anaya uses Spanish words without translating them all the time, readers can fall into one of at least two categories modeled on two categories of characters: bilingual readers or monolingual readers. As the characters in the novel, readers either easily understand concepts and words, or (like Miss Violet) they must search the context for clues to understanding. Dasenbrock comments that there is an expectation between readers and authors that, while reading, readers will work to grasp meanings and ideas within the context of the story. This work, when thorough, may be more deeply successful for the monocultural reader than a bicultural one, since their mutual understanding of two cultures does not force them to come to an initial understanding of a culture they are not a part of. The possibility for both mono- and bicultural readers to appreciate and draw meaning from multicultural literature enforces Dasenbrock’s point: that diminishing the valid readership of multicultural literature rejects an important goal—the expansion and deepening of appreciation for other cultures and how those cultures mesh with our own.
Gonzalez, Ray. "Introduction."
Muy Macho: Latino Men Confront Their
Manhood. Anchor: 1996: xiii-xx.
Gonzalez discuss the myth of aggressive yet emotionally private males in modern society and explains that differences in culture complicate expressions of manhood, such as strict, Catholic upbringing, language barriers, and the passivity of many Latino women. In Anaya's essays, he states, "We learn not only how to talk, act, respond, and think like men from the intimate clan of males in which we are raised, we also learn an attitude about life" (xx).
Kanoza, Theresa,
"The Golden Carp and Moby Dick: Rudolfo Anaya's
Multiculturalism", The Society for the Study of
the Multi-Ethnics Literature of the
In
this paper, Theresa Kanoza, Associate Professor of
English at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois, writes
"In Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya's method is his
message. The worldview which Antonio achieves by reconciling a host of
opposites is repeated in Anaya's own literary multiculturalism.
Influenced by Biblical and Indian mythology, Spanish lore, and the traditional
canon, Anaya reveals his pluralistic cultural consciousness . . . the thematic
and tonal links between Moby Dick and Bless Me, Ultima,
as well as their divergent outlooks and resolutions, attest to cross cultural
interconnections and rich heterogeneity." The article is a detailed examination
of the similarities and differences in Bless Me, Ultima
and Moby Dick.
Lamadrid, Enrique R. “Myth as the Cognitive Process of Popular
Culture in RudolfoAnaya’s Bless Me, Ultima: The Dialectics of
Knowledge.” Hispania. 68 (1985):496-501. JSTOR. 23 Feb. 2007 <http://www.jstor.org>.
In this article, Lamadrid looks at how myth is used in Anaya’s text, how it plays into the oppositions found in the pastoral and agricultural worlds, and how Ultima and Antonio mediate between those two cultures. In regards to myth, Lamadrid states that “[m]yth is here considered to be an ongoing process of interpreting and mediating the contradictions in the everyday historical experience of the people” (497). With this definition of myth in mind, the author goes on to explain why he feels that the roles that Ultima and Antonio take as mediators are the main focus of the text. He believes that these roles allow the characters to use their real powers, namely “the ability to recognize and resolve the internal contradictions of their culture” (498). Lamadrid feels that “[t]hese oppositions are clearly defined in both social and symbolic terms” (498). Lamadrid discusses how these oppositions are presented in the text, including the direct opposites that can be found when one compares the cultures of the Luna (agricultural) family and the Márez (pastoral) family. Lamadrid also explains where he sees Ultima and Antonio literally or symbolically acting as mediators. Such actions would include Ultima taking control of the fate of the afterbirth and Antonio trying to please both of his parents. Symbolically speaking, Lamadrid discusses how the characters are mediators of place. Ultima was able to be a mediator of place because she “lived on the plain and in the valley, in Las Pasturas as well as in El Puerto de la Luna, gaining the respect of the people in both places” (499). Antonio is a mediator of place because his “family lives in Guadalupe, in a compromise location at mid-point between Las Pasturas and El Puerto. Through the father’s insistence, the house is built at the end of the valley where the plain begins” (499). These are just some examples of how these two characters act as mediators. Lamadrid also discusses the idea of totality, balance, and synthesis in the text. In addition to these things, he looks at Antonio’s dream in which Antonio is struggling to determine which water (the sweet water of his mother’s people or the salt water of his father’s) was in his blood and how this dream represented a type of apocalypse and totality. It is Ultima who appears in this dream and acts as mediator. This article has a lot of examples and would be beneficial for those that are interested in looking at the characters of Ultima and Antonio and what role they play in the text.
Lamadrid, Enrique R. “Myth as Popular Culture in
Rodolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima: The Dialectics of Knowledge,” Hispania Vol. 68 No. 3 (Autumn, 1985). 496-501.
Enrique Lamadrid, in his article “Myth as Popular Culture in
Rodolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima: The Dialectics of Knowledge”, proposes that
Bless Me Ultima
should be read in a Marxist light. Lamadrid spends
quite a bit of time talking about various historical conflicts between
Hispanics and non-Hispanic Caucasians, in
There are
major weaknesses in this particular argument. The Marxist reading of history
that Lamadrid seems to propose does not fit the
action of the book. Yes, there may have been some historical things going on in
the time period, in which this book is placed, but these bits of information
are not brought out in the book. There are, in fact, very few white characters
in this book. The only real non-Hispanic European American influence comes from
the returning soldiers. There are no actual suggestions of anything to do with
a conflict with a broadening non-Hispanic European culture. Rather to the
contrary, the conflict between the Luna and Marez
clans seem to suggest a conflict within Hispanic culture. Lamadrid
is so focused on proving his structualist/Marxist
analysis he fails to notice the lack of any actual conflict outside of one
particular ethnic group. Yes, historically there may have been agricultural and
land conflicts, in
Rodriguez, Roberto and Patrisia Gonzales. In Search of Aztlán.
5 Mar 2007 <http://www.insearchofaztlan.com/>.
I found the Web site In Search of Aztlán while looking for articles on the importance of place (or location) in Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima. I found that little has been written on the topic, until I found this Web site. The main page has an excerpt of an interview with Anaya in which he describes the importance of Aztlán in the 1960s:
We were losing our language; we were losing our culture. We didn’t have access into positions of power in the society. We felt we didn’t belong. So we had to find a way to turn that around. And one way to do it was to say: "We have been here a long time. This is our land. We belong here. Our ancestors, our great ancestors, lived here, passed through here." (In Search of Aztlán)
The Aztlán project began at the 1969 Denver Youth Conference. The concept gave Chicanos a homeland even though it exists as a myth, which Anaya contrasts with the terms fairytale or fiction. This he cites as crucial for identity formation. This movement changed how Anaya felt about his rights as a citizen to protest and gave him a sense of spiritual power. He also notes that “myth tells the people who they are” (In Search of Aztlán). He asserts that much of his creative energy comes from the land of his ancestors. Anaya considers the myth to be communal because it does not belong to one person, but instead belongs to Native Americans, Mexicanos, and Espanoles. He believes that the “beauty of a myth, or a legend, a story is that it is always communal” (In Search of Aztlán).
The Youth
and Liberation Conference in
With
our hearts in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence
of our Mestizo nation. We are a Bronze People with a
Bronze Culture. Before the world, before all of
The plan of the
program called for nationalism, unity of La Raza,
economic control over their own lives, education (which should be bilingual),
receiving restitution for past exploitation, the right to self defense,
strengthening cultural values, and political liberation. It also called for a national walk-out on 16
September (the date of Mexican Independence) by all Chicano students in
educational settings to demand educational reform. Ultimately, the plan called for and
independent local, regional, and national political party.
The Denver Youth Conference had
about fifteen hundred attendees from around the country. It was at this gathering that debate lead to
a call “for all Mexican Americans to unite under the banner of the term
‘Chicano.’” (In Search of Aztlán) They chose Aztlán
as their spiritual homeland when they discovered that the Aztec Empire had
originated somewhere in the
This fascinating Web site has photos, links, interviews, and documents from the conference to explore. This will be useful for anyone studying Chicano literature.
Rogers, Jane. “The Function of the La Llorona Motif in Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima.” Contemporary Chicano Fiction: A Critical Survey. Ed.
Vernon
Likening la llorona to
the sirens in The Odyssey, the author
describes multiple images and manifestations of the “wailing woman of the
river” legend in Bless Me, Ultima.
The most
significant la llorona
motif, though, is Tony’s mother, whose voice --“Antoniooooooo”
– frequently echoes between the house and the river, and who longs to keep her
boy close to her. In all her appearances,
Sandra
Cisneros
Olivares, Julian. "Sandra Cisneros' The House on
In this
chapter, Olivares identifies Gaston Bachelard's The
Poetics of Space as having inspired Cisneros' The House on
Tusmith, Bonnie. All My relatives: Community in
Contemporary Ethnic American Literature.
An Arbor:
Tusmith analyzes various cultures of ethnic Americans and the importance of individualism and communal values within each of them. She analyzes the sense of community in works by Frank Chin, Maxine Hong Kingston, Alice Walker, John Edgar Wideman, N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, Tomas Rivera, and Sandra Cisneros.
Willa
Cather
Tillie
Olsen
Teresa
Jordan