Native American Women's Writing: An Anthology C. 1800 - 1924 - Paperback

by Karen L. Kilcup (Author)

Front Jacket

This ground-breaking anthology establishes the tradition of early Native American women's writing within American literature and American women's history.

With a regionally diverse group of writers, this richly interwoven collection explores in depth the work of well-known figures such as Pauline Johnson, Sarah Winnemucca and Zitkala-ea, as well as less familiar writers such as Narcissa Owen, Buffalo Bird Woman, Mary Jemison, Ora Eddleman Reed, Sophia Alice Callahan, Owl Woman and Annette Leevier. Anonymously authored women's texts are also included, along with writing by children and young adults.

Karen Kilcup challenges traditional mainstream notions of what constitutes literature, including political, historical, and autobiographical writing alongside more familiarly aesthetic forms like romantic poetry, short fiction and spiritual literature. As well as representing traditional oral narratives, the collection invites readers to hear the translation of orality into written forms.

Brief headnotes outline the writers' lives and indicate connections between and among the writers. The volume also includes brief bibliographies of primary and secondary materials for each writer.

A key text for the classroom, Native American Women's Writing: An Anthology c. 1800-1924 offers an inviting wealth of newly discovered material for scholars and general readers alike.

Back Jacket

This ground-breaking anthology establishes the tradition of early Native American women's writing within American literature and American women's history.

With a regionally diverse group of writers, this richly interwoven collection explores in depth the work of well-known figures such as Pauline Johnson, Sarah Winnemucca and Zitkala-ea, as well as less familiar writers such as Narcissa Owen, Buffalo Bird Woman, Mary Jemison, Ora Eddleman Reed, Sophia Alice Callahan, Owl Woman and Annette Leevier. Anonymously authored "women's texts" are also included, along with writing by children and young adults.

Karen Kilcup challenges traditional mainstream notions of what constitutes literature, including political, historical, and autobiographical writing alongside more familiarly "aesthetic" forms like romantic poetry, short fiction and spiritual literature. As well as representing traditional oral narratives, the collection invites readers to hear the "translation" of orality into written forms.

Brief headnotes outline the writers' lives and indicate connections between and among the writers. The volume also includes brief bibliographies of primary and secondary materials for each writer.

A key text for the classroom, Native American Women's Writing: An Anthology c. 1800-1924 offers an inviting wealth of newly discovered material for scholars and general readers alike.

Author Biography

Karen L. Kilcup is Professor of American literature at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The recipient of a US national Distinguished Teacher award in 1987, Professor Kilcup has been named the Davidson Eminent Scholar Chair in the Humanities at Florida International University for Fall 2000. She is the author or editor of six books on American literature and culture, including Soft Canons: American Women Writers and Masculine Tradition (1999), Robert Frost and Feminine Literary Tradition (1998), and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: An Anthology (1997).