A Usable Past: Tradition in Native American Arts and Literature - Couverture souple

Pellerin, Simone; Collectif

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 286781667X ISBN 13 : 9782867816673

Editeur : Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2010

Synopsis

The present volume explores the multifaceted notion of tradition and its uses by Native American writers and artists over the past hundred years, beginning with Pauline Johnson at the close of the 19th century, down to present-day filmmakers, authors and visual artists. Bringing together creators and scholars, some young, some long established, this collection of essays offers a wide range of new perspectives on this central yet mystifying theme. The Amerindian, so the cliché goes, in order to be acknowledged at all must stick to type: a creature embedded in "tradition." But what do traditions consist of, existentially, for those who count them as part of themselves ? Surely flot a timorous, fetishist attachment to obsolete forms, reflecting inability to tope with modernity or, why not, "civilization." The contributors here forcefully show how all artists, through their idiosyncratic connection to the past, hammer for themselves and for those who share their heritage a capacity to also shed traditions, adapt, and hence survive in an ever changing world.

A propos du livre

Extrait

Preface :
The Search for the Perfect Indian

The present volume, A Usable Past : Tradition in Native American Literatures and Cultures, addresses the role of tradition in a variety of American Indian forms of expression, as a more or less operational tool to understand, live and present one's own identity in the main stream of North American societies. The notion and its uses are here explored through specifies studies of artistic productions over a little more than a hundred years, from Pauline Johnson at the end of the 19,h century, to contemporary authors, filmmakers and visual artists. By bringing together both artists and young or long-established scholars in the field, the collection offers a wide range of new perspectives on this crucial problem area in the definition of what is truly "Native American."

Indeed, what is tradition ? A rather complex notion, linked to everyday life- usage, customs, oral literature, a given group's norms, social control. A whole pattern that makes it possible to define the coherence and originality of a given culture, with individuals who do define themselves in relation to the tradition of their own group. But in ail cultures the relation to tradition has always been problematic. If tradition meant only the past ways, then ail traditional cultures would long have withered away. In order to survive a continuous flow of new and often adverse conditions, cultural identity in a group or individual must cultivate a capacity for retaining AND transforming, a faithfulness to one's self AND at the same time a shrewd dealing with the world as it obtrudes, here and now. So, being traditional means at least equally retaining the old ways that have been passed on from one generation to the next, AND dancing a new step in a forever-changing present.

The topic of "tradition" in the field of Native American studies has always been a challenge. For the general public, the "traditional" Indian has always been seen as the only possibility of a really existing Indian - not dead, maybe, in the sense of Sheridan, but dead in the sense that he or she belongs to the past.
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Présentation de l'éditeur

The present volume explores the multifaceted notion of tradition and its uses by Native American writers and artists over the past hundred years, beginning with Pauline Johnson at the close of the 19th century, down to present-day filmmakers, authors and visual artists. Bringing together creators and scholars, some young, some long established, this collection of essays offers a wide range of new perspectives on this central yet mystifying theme.

The Amerindian, so the cliché goes, in order to be acknowledged at ail must stick to type : a creature embedded in "tradition." But what do traditions consist of, existentially, for those who count them as part of themselves ? Surely not a timorous, fetishist attachment to obsolete forms, reflecting inability to cope with modernity or, why not, "civilization." The contributors here forcefully show how ail artists, through their idiosyncratic connection to the past, hammer for themselves and for those who share their heritage a capacity to also shed traditions, adapt, and hence survive in an ever changing world.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux
• Date d'édition: 2010
• Langue: français
• ISBN 10: 286781667X
• ISBN 13: 9782867816673
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 180
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible