Renewal Through Ritual Myths And Ceremonies in Native American Fiction

Contents: Preface. 1. Myths and ceremonies. 2. House made of dawn. 3. Winter in the blood. 4. Ceremony. 5. Tracks. 6. Conclusion. Selected bibliography. Index.
 
Native American Renaissance generated a spate of critical essays on American Indian Fiction. But it has produced only a few books on this burgeoning field of inquiry. Rita Tripathy\'s renewal through ritual offers a nuanced reading of the four famous American Indian/Native American novels. N. Scott Momady\'s House made of Dawn, James Welch\'s winter in the blood, Leslie Marmon silko\'s Cremony and Louis Erdrich\'s tracks.

The book uncovers how these novelists successfully weave contemporary materials on the pattern of ancient myths. It is principally concerned with exploration and explication of these novels in the light of Native American/American Indian myths, ceremonies, and rituals. In a rich weave of materials drawn on fields as diverse as anthropology, psychology, history, cultural studies, renewal through ritual examines the possibility of attaining psychic renewal through ritual enactment of certain dominant myths. The study touches upon subjects like ethnicity, acculturation indigenous cultural memory the trickster and shamanism.

As the book interprets the cosmic and social life of the tribes and shows how these novels read like ceremonial texts it brings out the tribal coherence and cultural competence of these four eminent American Indian novelists. (jacket)