Synopses & Reviews
Review
"The volume is poignant in its deliberate application of one academic theory to one text in each essay...Graduate seminars will study this book for a good while." - Thomas Austenfeld, Department of English,University of Fribourg, Switzerland
"With Louise Erdrich: “Tracks,” “The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse,” “The Plague of Doves,” editor Deborah L. Madsen brings together a collection of articles by some of the most published scholars on Erdrich in the field, including P. Jane Hafen, Connie A. Jacobs, and David Stirrup. The result is an important and versatile critical compilation that employs a wide variety of theoretical approaches and enables readers to interpret Erdrichs work in new, relevant, and thought- provoking ways...Another strength of the text is the variety of theoretical approaches the contributing writers use, from ecocriticism to postcolonial theory, from trauma theory to Native American theoretical approaches. These varied lenses help readers to consider Erdrichs work from many diff erent viewpoints. Moreover, Madsens text “feels” like a unified whole rather than merely a hodgepodge collection of literary- critical essays." - Jill Walker Gonzalez, University of New Mexico
Table of Contents
1. Louise Erdrich in Context Deborah L. Madsen \ PART I: Tracks \ Short introduction Deborah L. Madsen \ 2. A Bowen Family Systems Reading of Tracks Allan Chavkin and Nancy Feyl Chavkin \ 3. "I knew there never was another martyr like me": Pauline Puyat, Historical Trauma, and Tracks Connie A. Jacobs \ 4. "To become a bureaucrat myself": History and Law in Tracks David Stirrup \ PART II: The Last Report on the Miracles At Little No Horse \ Short introduction Deborah L. Madsen \ 5. Power and Authority in the Realms of Racial and Gender Politics: Postcolonial and Critical Race Theory in The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Mark Shackleton \ 6. "We Speak of Everything": Indigenous Traditions in The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse P. Jane Hafen \ 7. Love and the Slippery Slope of Sexual Orientation: L/G/B/T/Qetc Sensibility in The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse Patrice Hollrah PART III: The Plague of Doves \ Short introduction Deborah L. Madsen \ 8. "It All Does Come to Nothing in the End": Nationalism and Gender in Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves Gina Valentino \ 9. So, a Priest Walks into a Reservation Tragicomedy: Humor in The Plague of Doves John Gamber \ 10. Haunted by Birds: An Eco-critical View of Personhood in Louise Erdrich's The Plague of Doves Catherine Rainwater \ Works cited \ Further Reading \ Notes on Contributors \ Index