Red Ink: Native Americans Picking Up the Pen in the Colonial Period (Suny Series, Native Traces) - Softcover

Lopenzina, Drew

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1438439784 ISBN 13: 9781438439785

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2013

Synopsis

Reexamines the writings of early indigenous authors in the northeastern United States.

The Native peoples of colonial New England were quick to grasp the practical functions of Western literacy. Their written literary output was composed to suit their own needs and expressed views often in resistance to the agendas of the European colonists they were confronted with. Red Ink is an engaging retelling of American colonial history, one that draws on documents that have received scant critical and scholarly attention to offer an important new interpretation grounded in indigenous contexts and perspectives. Author Drew Lopenzina reexamines a literature that has been compulsively “corrected” and overinscribed with the norms and expectations of the dominant culture, while simultaneously invoking the often violent tensions of “contact” and the processes of unwitnessing by which Native histories and accomplishments were effectively erased from the colonial record. In a compelling narrative arc, Lopenzina enables the reader to travel through a history that, however familiar, has never been fully appreciated or understood from a Native-centered perspective.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The Native peoples of colonial New England were surprisingly quick to grasp the practical functions of Western literacy. Their written literary output was composed to suit their own needs and expressed views often in resistance to the agendas of the European colonists with whom they were confronted. Red Ink is an engaging retelling of American colonial history, one that draws on documents that have recieved scant critical attention to offer an important new interpretation grounded in indigenous contexts and perspectives. Author Drew Lopenzina reexamines a literature that has been compulsively "corrected" and overinscribed with the norms and expectations of the dominant culture, while simultaneously invoking the often violent tensions of "contact" and the processes of unwitnessing by which Native histories and accomplishments were effectively erased from the colonial record. In a compelling narrative arc, Lopenzina enables readers to travel through a history that, however seemingly familiar, has never been fully appreciated or understood from a Native-centered perspective.

About the Author

Drew Lopenzina is Assistant Professor of American Literature at Sam Houston State University.

About this edition

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1438439784
• ISBN 13: 9781438439785
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 412