Narratives of Resistance in Contemporary Native North American Fiction: (Re)Writing the Past

This dissertation examines Native North American historical novels as instrumental in realizing Native self-determination. The research presented considers literature as both product and producer of extra-textual reality, and thus as necessary in challenging established political, social and cultural practices. The novels read are shown to actively reframe Native existence in North America, unsettling and reframing the national narrative of the United States while focusing specifically on Native North American realities.

The following chapters draw on novels, as well as on literary, cultural and political theory. Examining Native North American historical novels at this intersection allows for a comprehensive approach that addresses the writing of history as a narrative act while also exploring the reasons that engender these narratives. History is located as an exercise of white power, written and remembered to maintain definitive hierarchies that disenfranchise Native North Americans and other racial others. Fiction that examines the past, on the other hand, upsets these hierarchies and creates explicitly Native North American histories that engender a productive present. The dissertation works within an Indigenous framework that favors Native North American theory, particularly when relating to concepts such as sovereignty, philosophies of time, and the telling of stories.