Peer reviewed
Direct linkERIC Number: EJ973266
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 20
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0730-3238
EISSN: N/A
It's Not a Poem. It's My Life: Navajo Singing Identities
Roemer, Kenneth M.
Studies in American Indian Literatures, v24 n2 p84-103 Sum 2012
In this essay, the author aims to further complicate the blurrings of Native poetry and autobiography and to make a plea. His general "complicating" genre claim is that an overlooked but absolutely essential form of Native identity expression--that is both preliterate and contemporary--is the traditional song, especially songs that from a non-Native viewpoint do not seem to express autobiographical "content." In most of this essay the author focuses on a particular example that is readily accessible to teachers and scholars. His plea expands upon his comments in a 1997 "SAIL" "Retro-Prospective" essay: more work needs to be done with traditional songs, and oral literatures in general, by more scholars specializing in American Indian literatures. (Contains 4 notes.)
Descriptors: Singing, American Indians, Autobiographies, Poetry, Tribes, Indigenous Knowledge, American Indian Culture, Cultural Maintenance
University of Nebraska Press. 1111 Lincoln Mall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0630. Tel: 800-755-1105; Fax: 800-526-2617; e-mail: presswebmail@unl.edu; Web site: http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/catalog/categoryinfo.aspx?cid=163
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
