Early Native Literacies in New England: A Documentary and Critical AnthologyKristina Bross, Hilary E. Wyss University of Massachusetts Press, 2008 - 276 pages Designed as a corrective to colonial literary histories that have excluded Native voices, this anthology brings together a variety of primary texts produced by the Algonquian peoples of New England during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and very early nineteenth centuries. Included among these written materials and objects are letters, signatures, journals, baskets, pictographs, confessions, wills, and petitions, each of which represents a form of authorship. Together they demonstrate the continuing use of traditional forms of memory and communication and the lively engagement of Native peoples with alphabetic literacy during the colonial period. Each primary text is accompanied by an essay that places it in context and explores its significance. Written by leading scholars in the field, these readings draw on recent trends in literary analysis, history, and anthropology to provide an excellent overview of the field of early Native studies. They are also intended to provoke discussion and open avenues for further exploration by students and other interested readers. Above all, the texts and commentaries gathered in this volume provide an opportunity to see Native American literature as a continuity of expression that reflects choices made long before contact and colonization, rather than as a nineteenth -- or even twentieth-century invention.Contributors include Heidi Bohaker, Heather Bouwman, Joanna Brooks, Kristina Bross, Stephanie Fitzgerald, Sandra Gustafson, Laura Arnold Leibman, Kevin McBride, David Murray, Laura Murray, Jean O'Brien, Ann Marie Plane, Philip Round, Jodi Schorb, David Silverman, and Hilary E. Wyss. |
From inside the book
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... important resource for understanding Indian responses to English colonialism in Natick and other In- dian communities . In Massachusetts , petitions to the court constituted a stan- dard means of pleading a cause to the colonial ...
... important ministers on the island . Japheth's biography reveals the importance of a dual lineage : He is the descendant of a petty sachem , but because of his parents ' early emphasis on a Puritan education , he also emerges as a leader ...
... important , since the cultures that produced our anthologized texts are still vital parts of New England today . We believe that it is important to recognize not only the significance and the persistence of tribal identities but also ...
Contents
The Mohegans | 15 |
Joseph Johnson Diary 1773 | 28 |
Laura J Murray Joseph Johnsons Diary Farmington | 42 |
Copyright | |
17 other sections not shown
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Early Native Literacies in New England: A Documentary and Critical Anthology Kristina Bross,Hilary E. Wyss No preview available - 2008 |