Native American Literature by Andrew Wiget, and American Indian Novelists: An Annotated Bibliography by Tom Colonnese and Louis Owens

Abstract

Reviews 263 The liberality of content is in contrast to the chronological framework, which begins in 1879. The authors note this date as marking the beginning of Native American Studies with the founding of the Bureau of Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution. That the bibliographers managed to limit them­ selves to 5450 entries yet legitimately claim a fair degree of comprehensiveness is an impressive achievement. Nearly 400 periodicals and serials were consulted in preparing the com­ pilation. Most of the annotations are two to three lines, primarily descriptive but occasionally critical. Entries are divided into twelve parts, the initial one listing general works and the remainder identifying geographic regions north of Mexico. Within each of these divisions are subdivisions made according to tribe, with over 180 separate groups included. Rounding out the organiza­ tional format are subject and author indexes. It is always difficult to assess the success of a bibliographic venture unless one duplicates the compilers’efforts. As that is normally not practicable, the next course is to check those sections of the listings with which one has some knowledge. Accordingly, I looked at the entries under Osage, Potawatomi, Crow, and Cheyenne, and did not find them wanting. Clements and Malpezzi have done the scholarly community a considerable service. TERRY P. WILSON University of California, Berkeley Native American Literature. ByAndrew Wiget. (Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985. Twayne’s United States Authors Series #467. 147 pages, n.p.) American Indian Novelists: An Annotated Bibliography. By Tom Colonnese and Louis Owens. (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1985. 177 pages, $28.) It’sboth logical that Twayne Publishers would seek to extend their broad coverage of American literature with a book on American Indian literature, and commendable that they would give the assignment to a leading scholar in that field (not always the case with Twayne books). Andrew Wiget’s Native American Literature is a bona fide pioneering study, a welcome early contri­ bution to an area of literary study just now discovering itself. The virtues of Wiget’sbook include a comprehensive knowledge of and feeling for the terrain it explores, and a kind ofcartographer’sskill in mapping out the main features of that difficult terrain. And the book’s central liability is likewise something inherent in pioneering work—too much ground to cover, because others have not yet attempted to survey it. The severe limitations of coverage under which the book labors may well be the publisher’s fault, and not the author’s—if so, then Wiget deserves credit for leaving parts of his map virtually blank rather than sketching them in superficially. What he does offer in his 130 pages is uncompromising in scholarship and interpretive method—and I imagine that he will soon be among those endeavoring to fill in the blanks. 264 Western American Literature Native American Literature consists of two main sections, the first on traditional Indian verbal art—narrative, oratorical, lyrical;and the second on Indian written literature. The first section seems to me to be distinctly the weaker overall, because of omissions that really can’t be justified in terms of the purposes of the book and, indeed, its title. Certainly it does not advance the cause of the recognition of the Native American oral literary heritage for Wiget to ignore its astonishing diversity of content and style—at once chal­ lenge and obstacle to anyone wanting to study the Native repertories. And likewise it does not serve the book’s purpose as a general introduction for Wiget to neglect to give adequate notice of the really formidable textual and interpretive difficulties in coming to literary terms with Native traditional narratives and songs. Wiget’sown interpretive comments are generally astute, and indicate that he is aware of these difficulties—but surely he should intro­ duce his readers to them as facts of life (“How does a Zuni story or a Tlingit song get transformed from oral tradition to a text in English?” “What is the role of Anglo narrative and lyrical conventions in our understanding of story or song?”), and, further, at least point to the important and controversial theoretical work now being done byDell Hymes, Dennis Tedlock, Joel Sherzer and others to establish a...