Erotics of Sovereignty: Queer Native Writing in the Era of Self-Determination

Synopsis

In 1970 the Nixon administration inaugurated a new era in federal Indian policy. No more would the U.S. government seek to deny and displace Native peoples or dismantle Native governments; from now on federal policy would promote &“the Indian&’s sense of autonomy without threatening his sense of community.&” In The Erotics of Sovereignty, Mark Rifkin offers a telling perspective on what such a policy of self-determination has meant and looks at how contemporary queer Native writers use representations of sensation to challenge official U.S. accounts of Native identity. Rifkin focuses on four Native writers—Qwo-Li Driskill (Cherokee), Deborah Miranda (Esselen), Greg Sarris (Graton Rachería), and Chrystos (Menominee)—approaching their fiction and poetry as forms of political theory. Rifkin shows how the work of these queer or two-spirit Native writers affirms the significance of the erotic as an exercise of individual and community sovereignty. In this way, we come to see how their work contests the homophobic, sexist, and exclusivist policies and attitudes of tribal communities as well as those of the nation-state.

Copyright:

1995

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9781452939124

Related ISBNs:

9780816677832

Publisher:

University of Minnesota Press

Date of Addition:

03/18/25

Copyrighted By:

. Qwo-Li Driskill’s and Deborah Miranda’s poetry reprinted by permission of the authors and by Salt Publishing.

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Nonfiction, Literature and Fiction, Social Studies, Language Arts

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.