Page 51 - Potocco, Marcello, ed. 2018. Literatura v preseku družbe, družba v preseku literature. The Crossroads of Literature and Social Praxis. Zbornik povzetkov. Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem
P. 51
ela Virant the crossroads of literature and social praxis, ljubljana, 2018 49
University of Ljubljana
Social Functions of Storytelling in Contemporary Native
American Literature
“Marx had been inspired by reading about certain Native American
communal societies, though naturally as a European he had misun
derstood a great deal”, wrote Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo)
in her novel Almanac of the Dead. Marx and Engels read the work of
the American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan. Especially Engels in
his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State referred to
Morgan’s writings about the ethnography of the Iroquois. Contem
porary Native American writers and scholars discuss central social
and political questions from a somehow anachronistic position be
tween a globalized society and their status as “domestic dependent
nations”. They formulate a critique against capitalism that caused
the genocide and against communist dictatorship, nationalism and
postcolonial theories (especially the concept of hybridity). In the
struggle for “intellectual sovereignty” that would avoid the pitfalls
of these ideologies, they stress their specific epistemology and the
need for its emancipation. Derogative and romantic notions – e.g.
“Native Americans have wisdom, Anglo Americans have science”
– call for “decolonializing and decolonial knowledges” (Mignolo).
How can this epistemology be described? What is the role of lan
guage and storytelling in it? The paper will try to find answers in se
lected works by Native American authors N. Scott Momaday, Les
lie Marmon Silko, and Sherman Alexie.
University of Ljubljana
Social Functions of Storytelling in Contemporary Native
American Literature
“Marx had been inspired by reading about certain Native American
communal societies, though naturally as a European he had misun
derstood a great deal”, wrote Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo)
in her novel Almanac of the Dead. Marx and Engels read the work of
the American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan. Especially Engels in
his The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State referred to
Morgan’s writings about the ethnography of the Iroquois. Contem
porary Native American writers and scholars discuss central social
and political questions from a somehow anachronistic position be
tween a globalized society and their status as “domestic dependent
nations”. They formulate a critique against capitalism that caused
the genocide and against communist dictatorship, nationalism and
postcolonial theories (especially the concept of hybridity). In the
struggle for “intellectual sovereignty” that would avoid the pitfalls
of these ideologies, they stress their specific epistemology and the
need for its emancipation. Derogative and romantic notions – e.g.
“Native Americans have wisdom, Anglo Americans have science”
– call for “decolonializing and decolonial knowledges” (Mignolo).
How can this epistemology be described? What is the role of lan
guage and storytelling in it? The paper will try to find answers in se
lected works by Native American authors N. Scott Momaday, Les
lie Marmon Silko, and Sherman Alexie.
