Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
Lincoln points out that in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a generation of Native Americans were
coming of age who were the first of their respective tribal communities to receive a substantial
English-language education, particularly outside Indian boarding schools, and with more graduating
from colleges and universities. Conditions for Native people, while still very harsh during this period,
had moved beyond the survival conditions of the early half of the century.
A period of historical revisionism was underway, as historians were more willing to look at
difficulties in the history of the invasion and colonization of the North American continent. As they
explored the Wild West) era, some were more careful to represent events from the Native American
perspective. This work inspired public interest in Native cultures and within Native American
communities themselves; it was also a period of activism within Native American communities to
achieve greater sovereignty and civil rights.
The ferment also inspired a group of young Native American writers, who emerged in the fields of
poetry and novel-writing. In the span of a few years, these writers worked to expand the Native
American literary canon.
By the 1980s, the rapid increase in materials and the development of Native American Studies
departments and programs at several universities, such as the University of California, Los Angeles;
Dartmouth College, and Eastern Washington University, led to the founding of scholarly journals,
such as SAIL (Studies in American Indian Literature) and Wazo a Review (1985). With the
heightened interest in Native American writing, publishers established specialized imprints, such as
Harper and Row's Native American Publishing Programme, which had the goal of promoting new
voices and publication opportunities.
Simon J. Ortiz, From Sand Creek: Rising In This Heart Which Is Our America (1981)
Paula Gunn Allen, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows (1984)
Criticism
The term Native American Renaissance has been criticized on a number of points. As James Ruppert
writes, "Scholars hesitate to use the phrase because it might imply that Native writers were not
producing significant work before that time, or that these writers sprang up without longstanding
community and tribal roots. Indeed, if this was a rebirth, what was the original birth?" [2] Other critics
have described it as "a source of controversy, [3]" or have commented on its "vexing implications" of a
comparative downgrading of the artistry of oral tradition. [4]
Notes
1.
4.
References
The Native American Renaissance: Literary Imagination and Achievement, eds. Alan R. Velie
and A. Robert Lee (Norman: Oklahoma UP, 2014).