Author Description

Stories Through Theories/Theories Through Stories explores the uneasy relations―often contentious, sometimes complicit―between American Indian Literature and literary theory. Some of the essays in this book open American Indian narratives to theoretical critique based on "western depth models." Others work from a very different direction, finding critique in storytelling and processes of narrative production, thereby exposing dimensions of literary theory that grow from the indigenous ground of Native stories themselves. This collection of essays―sometimes playfully but always insistently―changes our readings of Native works and challenges our roles as intellectual guides until we step deeper into the ambiguous territories where writer, listener, reader, and critic intersect. Taken together, these essays provide compelling evidence for looking at primary Native cultures, authors, and histories as enrichments of Native literature.