Native American literary works have often been ignored by serious critics or examined by social scientists in ways that rob them of their effectiveness as works of art. The emphasis of postmodern theory on the creative power of language, on narrative discourse, and on signs and semiotics allows an original and perceptive approach to Native American literature. The 11 critical essays in this collection focus on translation and representation in tribal literatures, comic and tragic world views, trickster discourse, and on selected works by novelists N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, D'Arcy McNickle, Louise Erdrich, Gerald Vizenor, and other Native American authors. The essays are "A Postmodern Introduction" by Gerald Vizenor; "Technology and Tribal Narrative" by Karl Kroeber;"'The Way to Rainy Mountain': Momaday's Work in Motion" by Kimberly Blaeser; "The Dialogic of Silko's 'Storyteller'" by Arnold Krupat; "Tayo, Death, and Desire: A Lacanian Reading of 'Ceremony'" by Gretchen Ronnow; "Textual Perspectives and the Reader in 'The Surrounded'" by James Ruppert; "Opening the Text: 'Love Medicine' and the Return of the Native American Woman" by Robert Silberman; "The Trickster Novel," by Alan Velie; "Ecstatic Strategies: Gerald Vizenor's 'Darkness in Saint Louis Bearheart'" by Louis Owens; "Metalanguages" by Elaine Jahner; and "Trickster Discourse: Comic Holotropes and Language Games" by Gerald Vizenor. This book includes bibliographies, notes on contributors, and an index. (SV)