Page 73 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 73
Epistemology, Ideology, and Literature ... 73
cause they offer the possibility to read them as forms of resistance against
‘epistemological hegemony’.
Scholars often mention the specific epistemology of Native American
cultures, but it is difficult to find explanations and examples for this asser-
tions. Eric Cheyfitz gives more information on it, referring to some other
sources, and notes “‘Narrative is the privileged epistemological mode of
an oral culture; storytelling is the primary means of gaining and convey-
ing knowledge”,15 and he adds that “epistemological privileging of story-
telling is articulated by a range of contemporary Native writers” (Chey-
fitz 2006, 66). To avoid simplifying generalization, he mentions—as an
example—Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony, published in 1977. In-
deed, in Silko’s novel storytelling is not just a means of gaining and con-
veying preexistent knowledge, i.e. a knowledge that exists independently
and is just verbalized by aesthetic speech. Storytelling produces and en-
acts knowledge. The medicine man Betonie depicts the creative power of
storytelling in the story about a conference of witches: “Okay / go ahead
/ laugh if you want to / but as I tell the story / it will begin to happen”
(Silko 1986, 135). Because the stories are not good per se and the world,
created by them, is not necessarily good, they have to be told with great
caution, as old medicine man Ku’oosh explains:
“But you know, grandson, this world is fragile.”
The word he chose to express “fragile” was filled with the intricacies of a con-
tinuing process, and with a strength inherent in spider webs woven across
paths through sand hills where early in the morning the sun becomes en-
tangled in each filament of web. It took a long time to explain the fragili-
ty and intricacy because no word exists alone, and the reason for choosing
each word hat to be explained with a story about why it must be said this
certain way. That was the responsibility that went with being human, old
Ku’oosh said, the story behind each word must be told so there could be no
mistake in the meaning of what had been said; and this demanded great pa-
tience and love (Silko 1986, 35–36).
The story that begins to happen in Betonie’s story about witchcraft, is
the story about colonial violence and genocide, thus it is about something
that actually happened as we know from history. In this context, more
significant than the double framing of the story and the skillful treat-
ment of the relation between fact and fiction is that what the story pro-
duces is nothing ‘magic’ like in fairy tales, but specific, violent, human re-
15 He is quoting from the unpublished article “The Trickster in Native American Oral
Narrative” (2005) by Arnold Krupat.
cause they offer the possibility to read them as forms of resistance against
‘epistemological hegemony’.
Scholars often mention the specific epistemology of Native American
cultures, but it is difficult to find explanations and examples for this asser-
tions. Eric Cheyfitz gives more information on it, referring to some other
sources, and notes “‘Narrative is the privileged epistemological mode of
an oral culture; storytelling is the primary means of gaining and convey-
ing knowledge”,15 and he adds that “epistemological privileging of story-
telling is articulated by a range of contemporary Native writers” (Chey-
fitz 2006, 66). To avoid simplifying generalization, he mentions—as an
example—Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony, published in 1977. In-
deed, in Silko’s novel storytelling is not just a means of gaining and con-
veying preexistent knowledge, i.e. a knowledge that exists independently
and is just verbalized by aesthetic speech. Storytelling produces and en-
acts knowledge. The medicine man Betonie depicts the creative power of
storytelling in the story about a conference of witches: “Okay / go ahead
/ laugh if you want to / but as I tell the story / it will begin to happen”
(Silko 1986, 135). Because the stories are not good per se and the world,
created by them, is not necessarily good, they have to be told with great
caution, as old medicine man Ku’oosh explains:
“But you know, grandson, this world is fragile.”
The word he chose to express “fragile” was filled with the intricacies of a con-
tinuing process, and with a strength inherent in spider webs woven across
paths through sand hills where early in the morning the sun becomes en-
tangled in each filament of web. It took a long time to explain the fragili-
ty and intricacy because no word exists alone, and the reason for choosing
each word hat to be explained with a story about why it must be said this
certain way. That was the responsibility that went with being human, old
Ku’oosh said, the story behind each word must be told so there could be no
mistake in the meaning of what had been said; and this demanded great pa-
tience and love (Silko 1986, 35–36).
The story that begins to happen in Betonie’s story about witchcraft, is
the story about colonial violence and genocide, thus it is about something
that actually happened as we know from history. In this context, more
significant than the double framing of the story and the skillful treat-
ment of the relation between fact and fiction is that what the story pro-
duces is nothing ‘magic’ like in fairy tales, but specific, violent, human re-
15 He is quoting from the unpublished article “The Trickster in Native American Oral
Narrative” (2005) by Arnold Krupat.
