twentieth century, which included William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor,
Robert Penn Warren, and Eudora Welty. Specific topics that might be pur-
sued include a comparison of the social forces that generated the movements
or the extent to which each group saw itself as a literary movement in its own
time. Lincoln’s Native American Renaissance would be most useful for this
undertaking.RESOURCES
Primary Works
Paula Gunn Allen, ed., Spider Woman’s Granddaughters: Traditional Tales and Con-
temporary Writing by Native American Women (Boston: Beacon, 1989).
Juxtaposes traditional tales with contemporary stories by such writers as Les-
lie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, and Linda Hogan and includes a useful
introduction.
Laura Coltelli, ed., Winged Words: American Indian Writers Speak (Lincoln: Uni-
versity of Nebraska Press, 1990).
Interviews conducted in 1985 with eleven native writers—Paula Gunn Allen,
Michael Dorris, Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, Linda Hogan, N. Scott Momaday,
Simon J. Ortiz, Wendy Rose, Leslie Marmon Silko, Gerald Vizenor, and James
Welch—some of whom had not yet come to prominence. Each discusses the oral
tradition and its impact on written literature, the role of humor, and his or her
own creative process.
Mimi D’Aponte, ed., Seventh Generation: An Anthology of Native American Plays
(New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1999).
Seven plays from the contemporary era by Kiowa, Choctaw, Kuna/Rappahanock,
Ojibwa, Assiniboine/Nakota, Hawaiian, and Cherokee authors, including Hanay
Geiogamah’s Body Indian (1972), notable as one of the first to depict contempo-
rary native lives in a drama, and Diane Glancy’s The Woman Who Was a Red Deer
Dressed for the Deer Dance (1995).
John L. Purdy and James Ruppert, eds., Nothing but the Truth: An Anthology of
Native American Literature (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2001).
Comprises twelve nonfiction essays and works of literary criticism, followed by
generous selections of fiction and poetry, mostly by contemporary writers, and a
play by Gerald Vizenor. It is probably the best selection currently available.
Criticism
Paula Gunn Allen, The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian
Traditions (Boston: Beacon, 1986).
Examines the female rituals, traditions, and figures of strength across various
Native American traditions and their incarnations in contemporary literatures.
Susan Berry Brill de Ramírez, Contemporary American Indian Literatures and the
Oral Tradition (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999).