Contemporary Native Fiction: Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance - Paperback

by James Donahue (Author)

Contemporary Native Fiction: Toward a Narrative Poetics of Survivance analyzes paradigmatic works of contemporary Native American/First Nations literary fiction using the tools of narrative theory. Each chapter is read through the lens of a narrative theory - structuralist narratology, feminist narratology, rhetorical narratology, and unnatural narratology - in order to demonstrate how the formal structure of these narratives engage the political issues raised in the text. Additionally, each chapter shows how the inclusion of Native American/First Nations-authored narratives productively advance the theoretical work project of those narrative theories. This book offers a broad survey of possible means by which narrative theory and critical race theories can productively work together and is key reading for students and researchers working in this area.

Author Biography

James J. Donahue is Associate Professor of English & Communication at SUNY Potsdam. He is the author of Failed Frontiersmen: White Men and Myth in the Post-Sixties American Historical Romance as well as co-editor of Narrative, Race, and Ethnicity in the United States and Post-Soul Satire: Black Identity after Civil Rights.