Abstract
Reviewed by: The Political Arrays of American Indian Literary History by James H. Cox Joshua T. Anderson James H. Cox, The Political Arrays of American Indian Literary History. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2019. 274 pp. Hardcover, $108; paper, $27; e-book, $14.95. In The Political Arrays of American Indian Literary History James H. Cox introduces exciting new methodologies for reading and recognizing the wide range of political thought, expression, and activism of Native American authors from the early twentieth century to the present. Challenging the "perception of the Native American Renaissance as a rupture," Cox powerfully recasts the Red Power era as part of a vibrant and, at times, vexed lineage of Native writing and political action (13). In his efforts to "foreground continuities" between and across generations of Native writers and intellectuals, Cox continues his broader work to re-recognize the contributions of early- and mid-twentieth-century Native writers, such as Gertrude Bonnin (i.e., Zitkala-Ša, Lakota), John Milton Oskison (Cherokee), Lynn Riggs (Cherokee), and Todd Downing (Choctaw), while also bringing critical attention to more recent writers, such as HIV/AIDS activist and novelist Carole laFavor (Ojibwa), who have been largely overlooked by Native literary scholars (13; see also Lisa Tatonetti's work on laFavor). Cox's "political arrays" productively signify and engage the ways in which Native politics and literary works cross generic, geographic, and generational boundaries, forming complex relations between and among Native writers within personal and professional networks in publishing, film, editing, and academia. At times the arrays emerge as intimate letters between friends, such as in the marvelous chapter "Academic Networks," in which Cox turns to the political and personal correspondence of John Joseph Mathews (Osage), arguing that "the exchange of private letters between Natives and non-Natives … generates new, and contributes to existing political arrays rooted in both Indigenous and settler-colonial communities, histories, and literary histories while establishing local, intimate links among them all" (144). At others the political arrays develop across time and territory, such as the final chapter "Crimes Against Indigeneity," in which Cox tracks the political arrays of the robust Native crime and detective [End Page 188] genre, from foundational works by John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee), Todd Downing, and D'Arcy McNickle to contemporary writers Thomas King, Sara Sue Hoklotubbe, Louis Owens, Louise Erdrich, Carole laFavor, and Linda Hogan. As Cox argues, "like no other literary form, detective fiction by Native authors rigorously centers the most urgent concerns of Native communities," including the protection of resources, the reclamation of lands, and the pursuit of justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, while the varied routes toward Indigenous justice envisioned by the diverse range of authors enact complex arrays within and across the texts (205). Celebrating the richness and diversity of Native American literature and political thought, Cox produces his own political array that re-entangles the Red Power era within the broader landscape of American Indian literature. His methodologies re-recognize the intimate intersections and layered relations between and among generations of Native writers and Native-authored texts, while also modeling how to read across a wide range of textual and extratextual materials—from private letters to films, academic and editorial networks to the lineages of literary and genre-fiction. Essential reading for Native American literature scholars, Cox's book makes a significant contribution to the field, providing a methodology not merely for reading but for reorganizing American Indian literary history. Joshua T. Anderson University of Saint Joseph Copyright © 2021 Western Literature Association
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