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44-408: Native American pieces of literature come out of a rich set of oral traditions from before European contact and/or the later adoption of European writing practices. Oral traditions include not only narrative story-telling, but also the songs, chants, and poetry used for rituals and ceremonies. Many of these stories and songs were transcribed by anthropologists , but often with significant conflict with

88-637: A National Book Award finalist for The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse . The Plague of Doves focuses on the historical lynching of four Native people wrongly accused of murdering a White family, and the effect of this injustice on the following generations. Her Pulitzer Prize–winning novel The Night Watchman (2020) concerns a campaign to defeat the 'termination bill' (introduced by Senator Arthur Vivian Watkins ), and Erdrich acknowledged her sources and its inspiration being her maternal grandfather's life. Her most recent novel, The Sentence , tells

132-480: A Native American man Erdrich declines to identify publicly. She discusses her pregnancy with Azure, and Azure's father, in her 2003 non-fiction book, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country . She uses the name "Tobasonakwut" to refer to him. He is described as a traditional healer and teacher, who is eighteen years Erdrich's senior and a married man. In a number of publications, Tobasonakwut Kinew, who died in 2012,

176-552: A divorced Ojibwe woman whose death by hypothermia brought her relatives home to a fictional North Dakota reservation for her funeral. She wrote this while "barricaded in the kitchen." At her husband's urging, she submitted it to the Nelson Algren Short Fiction competition in 1982, for which it won the $ 5,000 prize, and eventually it became the first chapter of her debut novel, Love Medicine , published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1984. "When I found out about

220-636: A lifeguard, waitress, researcher for films, and as an editor for the Boston Indian Council newspaper The Circle. In 1978, Erdrich enrolled in a Master of Arts program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore , Maryland. She earned the Master of Arts in the Writing Seminars in 1979. Erdrich later published some of the poems and stories she wrote while in the M.A. program. She returned to Dartmouth as

264-545: A romantic relationship. They married in 1981, and raised three children whom Dorris had adopted as a single parent (Reynold Abel, Madeline, and Sava ) and three biological children together (Persia, Pallas, and Aza Marion ). Reynold Abel suffered from fetal alcohol syndrome and in 1991, at age 23, he was killed when he was hit by a car. In 1995, their son Sava accused Dorris of committing child abuse; in 1997, after Dorris' death, his adopted daughter Madeline claimed that Dorris had sexually abused her and Erdrich had neglected to stop

308-623: A televised feature on Russell Simmons ' Def Poetry ; performance poetry is a genre of poetry that consciously shuns the written form. Oral literatures forms a generally more fundamental component of culture , but operates in many ways as one might expect literature to do. The Ugandan scholar Pio Zirimu introduced the term orature in an attempt to avoid an oxymoron , but oral literature remains more common both in academic and popular writing. The Encyclopaedia of African Literature , edited by Simon Gikandi (Routledge, 2003), gives this definition: "Orature means something passed on through

352-557: A writer-in-residence. After graduating from Dartmouth, Erdrich remained in contact with Michael Dorris. He attended one of her poetry readings, became impressed with her work, and developed an interest in working with her. Although Erdrich and Dorris were on two different sides of the world, Erdrich in Boston and Dorris in New Zealand for field research, the two began to collaborate on short stories. The pair's literary partnership led them to

396-657: Is a Native American author of novels, poetry, and children's books featuring Native American characters and settings. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota , a federally recognized tribe of Ojibwe people . Erdrich is widely acclaimed as one of the most significant writers of the second wave of the Native American Renaissance . She has written 28 books in all, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children's books. In 2009, her novel The Plague of Doves

440-402: Is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung in contrast to that which is written , though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature. A broad conceptualization refers to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form. It includes

484-772: Is influential in her life and prominent in her work. Although many of Erdrich's works explore her Native American heritage, her novel The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003) featured the European, specifically German, side of her ancestry. The novel includes stories of a World War I veteran of the German Army and is set in a small North Dakota town. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Award. Erdrich's interwoven series of novels have drawn comparisons with William Faulkner 's Yoknapatawpha novels. Like Faulkner's, Erdrich's successive novels created multiple narratives in

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528-460: Is referred to as Erdrich's partner and the father of Azure. When asked in an interview if writing is a lonely life for her, Erdrich replied, "Strangely, I think it is. I am surrounded by an abundance of family and friends and yet I am alone with the writing. And that is perfect." Erdrich lives in Minneapolis . In 1979, she wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman", a short story about June Kashpaw,

572-735: Is that there are elements to oral traditions in these places that cannot be captured by words alone, such as the existence of gestures, dance, and the interaction between the storyteller and the audience. According to Nwi-Akeeri, oral literature is not only a narrative, but also a performance . Oral tradition is seen in societies with vigorous oral conveyance practices to be a general term inclusive of both oral literature and any written literature, including sophisticated writings, as well, potentially, as visual and performance arts which may interact with these forms, extend their expression, or offer additional expressive media. Thus even where no phrase in local language which exactly translates "oral literature"

616-477: Is used, what constitutes "oral literature" as understood today is already understood to be part or all of the lore media with which a society conducts profound and common cultural affairs among its members, orally. In this sense, oral lore is an ancient practice and concept natural to the earliest storied communications and transmissions of bodies of knowledge and culture in verbal form from the dawn of language-based human societies, and 'oral literature' thus understood

660-710: The 1970s onwards, the term "Oral literature" appears in the work of both literary scholars and anthropologists: Finnegan (1970, 1977), Görög-Karady (1976), Bauman (1986), in the World Oral Literature Project and in the articles of the journal Cahiers de Littérature Orale . Although deaf people communicate manually rather than orally, their culture and traditions are considered in the same category as oral literature. Stories, jokes and poetry are passed on from person to person with no written medium. Louise Erdrich Karen Louise Erdrich ( / ˈ ɜːr d r ɪ k / ER -drik ; born June 7, 1954)

704-527: The 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award. It is the only debut novel ever to receive that honor. Erdrich later turned Love Medicine into a tetralogy that includes The Beet Queen (1986), Tracks (1988), and The Bingo Palace (1994). It has also been featured on the National Advanced Placement Test for Literature. In the early years of their marriage, Erdrich and Michael Dorris often collaborated on their work, saying they plotted

748-769: The 1991 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . In 2021, Louise Erdrich was a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner for The Night Watchman . In 2019, Joy Harjo (Muscogee Nation) became the first Native American to hold the post of United States Poet Laureate . Also in 2019, Tommy Orange 's (Cheyenne & Arapaho) novel about urban Indian life in California, There There , was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction . Articles on Native American writers in Western American Literature Oral literature Oral literature , orature , or folk literature

792-658: The Forest , as well as a public lecture/eulogy of King Philip . Sarah Winnemucca (Paiute) wrote about her tribe's first interactions with European Americans in Life Among the Piutes , and John Rollin Ridge (Cherokee) wrote what is considered the first novel by a Native American, The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta , about the infamous California bandit . In the early 1900s, as white American audiences became interested in reading about

836-716: The Native community in the Twin Cities. Erdrich was born on June 7, 1954, in Little Falls, Minnesota . She was the oldest of seven children born to Ralph Erdrich, a German-American, and Rita (née Gourneau), a Chippewa woman (of half Ojibwe and half French blood). Both parents taught at a boarding school in Wahpeton, North Dakota , set up by the Bureau of Indian Affairs . Erdrich's maternal grandfather, Patrick Gourneau, served as tribal chairman for

880-492: The Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, The Porcupine Year , Chickadee , and Makoons . In addition to fiction and poetry, Erdrich has published nonfiction. The Blue Jay's Dance (1995) is about her pregnancy and the birth of her third child. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country (2003) traces her travels in northern Minnesota and Ontario's lakes following the birth of her youngest daughter. Her heritage from both parents

924-413: The abuse. Dorris and Erdrich separated in 1995, and would divorce in 1996. Dorris, who was accused of sexually abusing two of the biological daughters he had with Erdrich, died by suicide in 1997. In his will, he omitted Erdrich and his adopted children Sava and Madeline; Madeline accused Dorris of sexually abusing her as well. In 2001, at age 47, Erdrich gave birth to a daughter, Azure, fathered by

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968-525: The best known Native American work from this period is Green Grow the Lilacs , a play by Cherokee author Lynn Riggs that became the basis for the musical Oklahoma! Many of these authors blended autobiography, traditional stories, fiction, and essays, as can be seen in Zitkala-Sa 's (Dakota) American Indian Stories . The term " Native American Renaissance " was coined in 1983 by Kenneth Lincoln to describe

1012-541: The book Defining New Idioms and Alternative Forms of Expression , edited by Eckhard Breitinger (Rodopi, 1996, page 78): "This means that any 'oral society' had to develop means to make the spoken word last, at least for a while. We tend to regard all the genres of orature as belonging to the homogeneous complex of folklore." Building on Zirimu's orature concept, Mbube Nwi-Akeeri explained that Western theories cannot effectively capture and explain oral literature, particularly those indigenous to regions such as Africa. The reason

1056-497: The books together, "talk about them before any writing is done, and then we share almost every day, whatever it is we've written" but "the person whose name is on the books is the one who's done most of the primary writing. " They got started with "domestic, romantic stuff" published under the shared pen name of "Milou North" (Michael + Louise + where they live). During the publication of Love Medicine , Erdrich produced her first collection of poems, Jacklight (1984), which highlights

1100-683: The federally recognized tribe of Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians for many years. Though not raised in a reservation, she often visited relatives there. She was raised "with all the accepted truths" of Catholicism. While Erdrich was a child, her father paid her a nickel for every story she wrote. Her sister Heidi became a poet and also lives in Minnesota; she publishes under the name Heid E. Erdrich . Another sister, Lise Erdrich, has written children's books and collections of fiction and essays. Erdrich attended Dartmouth College from 1972 to 1976. She

1144-409: The fictional reservation universe of Love Medicine to include the nearby town of Argus, North Dakota. The action of the novel takes place mostly before World War II . Leslie Marmon Silko accused Erdrich's The Beet Queen of being more concerned with postmodern technique than with the political struggles of Native peoples. Tracks (1988) goes back to the early 20th century at the formation of

1188-479: The fictional story of a haunting at Erdrich's Minneapolis bookstore, set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic , George Floyd's murder , and the resulting protests . She also writes for younger audiences; she has a children's picture book Grandmother's Pigeon, and her children's book The Birchbark House , was a National Book Award finalist. She continued the series with The Game of Silence , winner of

1232-700: The flowering of literary work by Native American writers in the late 1960s through the 1970s and into the 1980s. The focal point for the "arrival" of Native American literature as a significant literary event came with the first Pulitzer Prize awarded to a Native author, N. Scott Momaday (Kiowa) for his novel House Made of Dawn . The 1970s saw important fiction by James Welch (Blackfeet and A-aninin), Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna descent), and Gerald Vizenor (Chippewa), and poetry by Joy Harjo (Muscogee), Simon J. Ortiz (Acoma), and Wendy Rose (Hopi/Miwok). Many authors have done significant work in both genres, such as Joseph Bruchac (Abenaki). The 1980s saw many of

1276-404: The lives and cultures of Native Americans, Native American writers began transcribing the stories of their cultures, such as Charles Eastman 's Old Indian Days and Mourning Dove 's Coyote Tales . Others began to write fiction, for example, Mourning Dove's novel Cogewea and D'Arcy McNickle 's The Surrounded . Other novelists include John Joseph Mathews and John Milton Oskison . Perhaps

1320-512: The prize I was living on a farm in New Hampshire near the college I'd attended," Erdrich told an interviewer. "I was nearly broke and driving a car with bald tires. My mother knitted my sweaters, and all else I bought at thrift stores ... The recognition dazzled me. Later, I became friends with Studs Terkel and Kay Boyle , the judges, toward whom I carry a lifelong gratitude. This prize made an immense difference in my life." Love Medicine won

1364-405: The reservation and nearby towns. She has published five novels since 1998 dealing with events in that fictional area. Among these are The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001) and The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003). Both novels have geographic and character connections with The Beet Queen . In 2009, Erdrich was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Plague of Doves and

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1408-552: The reservation. It introduces the trickster figure of Nanapush, who owes a clear debt to Ojibwe figure Nanabozho . There are many studies of the trickster figure in Erdrich's novels. Tracks shows early clashes between traditional ways and the Roman Catholic Church . The Bingo Palace (1994), set in the 1980s, describes the effects of a casino and a factory on the reservation community. Tales of Burning Love (1997) finishes

1452-505: The result is still often referred to as "oral literature". The different genres of oral literature pose classification challenges to scholars because of cultural dynamism in the modern digital age. Literate societies may continue an oral tradition — particularly within the family (for example bedtime stories ) or informal social structures. The telling of urban legends may be considered an example of oral literature, as can jokes and also oral poetry including slam poetry which has been

1496-410: The same fictional area and combined the tapestry of local history with current themes and modern consciousness. Erdrich's bookstore hosts literary readings and other events. Her new works are read here, and events celebrate the works and careers of other writers as well, particularly local Native writers. Erdrich and her staff consider Birchbark Books to be a "teaching bookstore". In addition to books,

1540-588: The spoken word, and because it is based on the spoken language it comes to life only in a living community. Where community life fades away, orality loses its function and dies. It needs people in a living social setting: it needs life itself." In Songs and Politics in Eastern Africa , edited by Kimani Njogu and Hervé Maupeu (2007), it is stated (page 204) that Zirimu, who coined the term, defines orature as "the use of utterance as an aesthetic means of expression" (as quoted by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o , 1988). According to

1584-482: The stories, legends, and history passed through generations in a spoken form. Pre-literate societies, by definition, have no written literature, but may possess rich and varied oral traditions —such as folk epics , folk narratives (including fairy tales and fables ), folk drama , proverbs and folksongs —that effectively constitute an oral literature. Even when these are collected and published by scholars such as folklorists and paremiographers ,

1628-465: The story of Sister Leopolda, a recurring character from all the previous books, and introduces a new set of European-American people into the reservation universe. The Antelope Wife (1998), Erdrich's first novel after her divorce from Dorris, was the first of her novels to be set outside the continuity of the previous books. Erdrich heavily revised the book in 2009 and published the revision as The Antelope Woman in 2016. She subsequently returned to

1672-533: The struggles between Native and non-Native cultures, as well as celebrating family, ties of kinship, autobiographical meditations, monologues, and love poetry. She incorporates elements of Ojibwe myths and legends. Erdrich continues to write poems, which have been included in her collections. Erdrich is best known as a novelist, and has published a dozen award-winning and best-selling novels. She followed Love Medicine with The Beet Queen (1986), which continued her technique of using multiple narrators and expanded

1716-481: The tribes and often with significant misinterpretation and/or mistranslation. Many early Native American writers were political and/or autobiographical, which was often also political in that it was meant to persuade readers to push for better treatment of Native Americans. Samson Occom (Mohegan) was a Christian preacher who wrote not only his autobiography, A Short Narrative of My Life , but also many hymns. William Apess (Pequot) wrote his autobiography, A Son of

1760-400: The writers listed above continuing to produce new literature. New voices included Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe), Paula Gunn Allen (Laguna), Linda Hogan (Chickasaw), Michael Dorris , and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo). The 1990s introduced several works of poetry and of prose fiction by Spokane/Coeur D'Alene author Sherman Alexie . Chickasaw author Linda Hogan 's Mean Spirit was a finalist for

1804-751: Was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and received an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award . In November 2012, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for her novel The Round House . She is a 2013 recipient of the Alex Awards . She was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction at the National Book Festival in September 2015. In 2021, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel The Night Watchman . She

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1848-491: Was a part of the first class of women admitted to the college and earned a B.A. in English. During her first year, Erdrich met Michael Dorris , an anthropologist , writer, and then-director of the new Native American Studies program. While attending Dorris' class, she began to look into her own ancestry, which inspired her to draw from it for her literary work, such as poems, short stories, and novels. During that time, she worked as

1892-455: Was married to author Michael Dorris and the two collaborated on a number of works. The couple separated in 1995 and then divorced in 1996; Dorris would also take his own life in 1997 as allegations that he sexually abused at least three of the daughters whom he raised with Erdrich were under investigation. She is also the owner of Birchbark Books , a small independent bookstore in Minneapolis that focuses on Native American literature and

1936-627: Was putatively recognized in times prior to recordings of history in non-oral media, including painting and writing. Oral literature as a concept, after 19th-century antecedents, was more widely circulated by Hector Munro Chadwick and Nora Kershaw Chadwick in their comparative work on the "growth of literature" (1932–40). In 1960, Albert B. Lord published The Singer of Tales , which influentially examined fluidity in both ancient and later texts and "oral-formulaic" principles used during composition-in-performance, particularly by contemporary South Slavic bards relating long traditional narratives. From

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