LauraLeón Llerena. By Reading the Illegible. Indigenous Writing and the Limits of Colonial Hegemony in the Andes, Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press, 2003. 264 pp. £54.00 (paperback), ISBN: 978‐0‐8165‐4753‐1

Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico. By Mónica Díaz. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2010. Pp. xiii, 227. Illustrations. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $50.00 cloth. - Volume 67 Issue 4

León Llerena, Laura. Reading the Illegible: Indigenous Writing and the Limits of Colonial Hegemony in the Andes. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2023, 264 pp.

Laura Leon Llerena. <i>Reading the Illegible: Indigenous Writing and the Limits of Colonial Hegemony in the Andes</i>.

Reading the Illegible: Indigenous Writing and the Limits of Colonial Hegemony in the Andes

Reading the Illegible: Indigenous Writing and the Limits of Colonial Hegemony in the Andes

Contact, Mediation, and Myth in Early Latin American Literatures Joanne van der Woude (bio) Colonial Latin American Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Rolena Adorno. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 148 pp. Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico. Mónica Díaz. Tuscon: University of Arizona Press, 2010. 229 pp. On the Wings of Time: Rome, the Incas, Spain, and Peru. Sabine MacCormack. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007. 320 pp. The Art of Being In-Between: Native Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca. Yanna Yannakakis. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008. 290 pp. Michel de Certeau wrote: "By an art of being in-between, he draws unexpected results from his situation"—an intriguing expression that opens Yanna Yannakakis's book. In her work, the citation applies to Native intermediaries, but it seems just as pertinent to scholars and teachers who (seek to) work comparatively. They, too, must distance themselves from their monolingual training and expertise in order to tackle new fields in the hope of "unexpected," or even enlightening, "results." This is true not only for those who work across languages but also for anyone who cultivates [End Page 201] a transatlantic, transcultural, or transhistorical perspective on early America—and so, suddenly, nearly everyone can be called a comparativist, in some sense of the word. I make this point in order to argue for the importance of Latin American scholarship to North American studies. The flourishing field of Latin American literature and history should be taken into account not just out of a sense of duty but because it offers real methodological and theoretical advantages. For those who still wonder why they should care, this review begins by pointing out specific genres and themes that are shared across the colonial Americas, and that would benefit from comparative consideration in criticism as well as in the classroom. Teaching, to be honest, is still complicated: there are few, good, affordable editions and translations of Latin American sources that can be assigned to undergraduate classes and professors harbor an understandable reluctance to assign many texts in translation or are simply hesitant to change time-tested syllabi. Rather than add another voice to the extensive debate about whether early American culture is best taught transatlantically, hemispherically, or both—let alone try to convince or castigate anyone about the need to assign more diverse texts—this overview begins by delineating productive pairings of Spanish writings with more canonical (and therefore usually English) texts. The idea behind this arrangement, which is followed by brief summaries and reviews of the four listed books, is to spark interest instead of inducing guilt, stressing the relevance of Latin American texts to current perspectives on North American literature and history. Fictional dialogues are a popular genre across the American colonies. John Eliot's Indian Dialogues (1671) comes most immediately to mind, as well as its scholarly readings by Kristina Bross, David Murray, and Thomas Scanlan. Although this tract was purportedly written to aid future missionaries, Eliot uses the opportunity to stage wishful exchanges that speedily convert Native leaders while also assuaging the fears of "a colonial audience concerned about the outbreaks of violence with coastal Algonquians" (Bross 119). (For the sake of realism, this piece is perhaps best read alongside another less fictional Eliot tract, though its obvious fakery also, arguably, constitutes its charm.) Christoph Saur's A Dialogue between a Newcomer and a Settler in Pennsylvania (1751), translated from the German by Patrick Erben for Carla Mulford's Oxford anthology (735-44), is a promotional piece for the Middle Colonies, which contains a wealth of information [End Page 202] on colonial Pennsylvania as well as on eighteenth-century Europe. It includes a spirited defense of Pietism, alongside such endearingly honest questions as: "If it would happen to me as it has happened to many people in this country [Germany], and I could not pay everything in cash and had to go into debt, would that be a big issue?" (Mulford 739). Helpful additions to this pair might be Manuel da Nóbrega's Dialogue for the Conversion of the Indians (Castillo and Schweitzer 1556-57) and the dialogue written by Fray Bernardino de...

Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico. By Mónica Díaz. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2010. Pp. xiii, 227. Illustrations. Appendices. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $50.00 cloth.

Indigenous Writings from the Convent: Negotiating Ethnic Autonomy in Colonial Mexico. By MónicaDíaz. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2010. Pp. xii + 229. $26.95.

80 WLT MAY–AUGUST 2017 Resurrection by Jennifer Elise Foerster Summers we lie out on the hot porch palms splayed— raising flames from ragweed hoofed dancers from the boundaries tornado’s sharp-toed steeds. In the rusted truck behind the barn a tufted titmouse sings balled up like a stone its stick claws stiff as thorns. When the nest of starlings built in the eaves drops a hatchling we steal its pink body to the roof lay it out beneath the lightning. Our mouths creak open to the honeyed light— tie-snakes bind our feet. Jennifer Elise Foerster is an alumna of the Institute of American Indian Arts and the Vermont College of the Fine Arts. A Muscogee (Creek) Nation citizen, she is pursuing her PhD at the University of Denver. Her first book of poems, Leaving Tulsa, was published by the University of Arizona Press in 2013. cover feature new native writing Norman Akers (Osage), The Gathering (2012), lithograph, 22 3/4 x 16 3/8 in / Courtesy of the artist (normanakers.com) WORLDLIT.ORG 81 Effigies II: An Anthology of New Indigenous Writing ed. Allison Hedge Coke (Salt Publishing, 2014) Christopher Felver Tending the Fire: Native Voices and Portraits (University of New Mexico Press, 2017) Harper’s Anthology of 20th Century Native American Poetry ed. Duane Niatum (Harper & Row, 1988) Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology ed. Hope Nicholson (Bedside Press, 2016) Off the Path Volume II: An Anthology of 21st Century American Indian and Indigenous Writers ed. Adrian Jawort Off the Path Press, 2015 Reinventing the Enemy’s Language: Contemporary Native Women’s Writing of North America ed. Joy Harjo & Gloria Bird (W.W. Norton, 1998) The Remembered Earth: An Anthology of Contemporary Native American Literature ed. Geary Hobson (Red Earth Press, 1979 / University of New Mexico Press, 1993) Returning the Gift: Poetry and Prose from the First North American Native Writers’ Festival ed. Joseph Bruchac (University of Arizona Press, 1994) Sing: Poetry from the Indigenous Americas ed. Allison Hedge Coke (University of Arizona Press, 2011) Sister Nations: Native American Women Writers on Community ed. Heid Erdrich & Laura Tohe (Minnesota Historical Press, 2002) Songs from This Earth on Turtle’s Back: Contemporary American Indian Poetry ed. Joseph Bruchac (Greenfield Review Press, 1983) Walking the Clouds: An Anthology of Indigenous Science Fiction ed. Grace L Dillon (University of Arizona Press, 2012) WORLDLIT.ORG 81 for further reading ...

Reading the Illegible Indigenous: Writing and the Limits of Colonial Hegemony in the Andes. By Laura León Llerena. Tucson: University of Arizona Press Fall, 2023. Pp. 264. $65.00 cloth; $65.00 eBook.