Description
Ethnocriticism moves cultural critique to the boundaries that exist between cultures. The boundary traversed in Krupat's adventurous new book is the contested line between native and mainstream American literatures and cultures. For over a century the discourses of ethnography, history, and literature have sought to represent the Indian in America. Krupat considers all these discourses and the ways in which Indians have attempted to "write back, " producing an oppositional - or at least a parallel - discourse. Exploring the recent convergence of ethnography and literature, he analyzes the work of Franz Boas - founder of American scientific anthropology - and of James Clifford - foremost critic of scientific anthropology. After an innovative rhetorical reading of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, Krupat discusses the counter-discourse with which the Cherokee tried to prevent its passage. He considers the gulf between the idea of "literature" and the Native American practice of oral performance, concluding with a close analysis of representations of the Indian self in Native American autobiography. This is an exciting and ambitious new work that all scholars interested in post-modern cultural critique and cultural difference will want to read.