Show simple item record

dc.contributor.advisorSalazar, James B.
dc.creatorPuckett, James A
dc.date.accessioned2022-05-26T18:03:50Z
dc.date.available2022-05-26T18:03:50Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/7652
dc.description.abstractIn A Science of Literature, I examine how and why US ethnologists and popular authors of the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries collected, read, and interpreted Indigenous oral traditions as works of literature. “Oral traditions” in this case refers to the narratives and songs that Indigenous peoples maintained mostly orally, and which variously served religious, historical, philosophical, educational, and entertainment purposes within Indigenous communities. I track how, through the collection process, Euro-American authors transformed oral traditions into “Indian oral literature,” (re)writing versions of oral traditions that aligned with Western literary categories and attitudes toward the “primitive.” For the most part, this reconceptualization, I argue, worked to discredit oral traditions as bodies of knowledge—as works of fiction and poetry, oral traditions became, in effect, untrue—and it supported removal and assimilation efforts in so far as it was used to shed light on a primitive Indian psychology, one that was naturally poetic, but not rational, not scientific. And yet many Indigenous writers, like George Copway and Zitkala-Ša, took advantage of the popularity of Indian oral literature to produce their own print collections of oral traditions. I analyze these collections as works of Indigenous “counter science.” I show how Indigenous writers, for example, moved from informant to ethnologist as they cited, summarized, and transcribed oral traditions as tribal records (histories, maps, deeds) and later as works of moral philosophy, thus explicitly contesting their interpretation as merely works of the imagination. Oral traditions, as I argue, have functioned as important resources to which Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers alike turned to validate scientific and literary practices, to contest the history of colonization, and to debate US-Indian relations.
dc.format.extent346 pages
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherTemple University. Libraries
dc.relation.ispartofTheses and Dissertations
dc.rightsIN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
dc.subjectNative American studies
dc.subjectAmerican literature
dc.subjectScience history
dc.subjectEthnology
dc.subjectIndigenous
dc.subjectLiterature
dc.subjectNative American
dc.subjectOral traditions
dc.subjectUnited States
dc.titleA Science of Literature: Ethnology and the Collection of Indigenous Oral Traditions in the United States
dc.typeText
dc.type.genreThesis/Dissertation
dc.contributor.committeememberHenry, Katherine, 1956-
dc.contributor.committeememberFord, Talissa J.
dc.contributor.committeememberSchneider, Bethany Suzanne
dc.description.departmentEnglish
dc.relation.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.34944/dspace/7624
dc.ada.noteFor Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation, including help with reading this content, please contact scholarshare@temple.edu
dc.description.degreePh.D.
dc.identifier.proqst14740
dc.date.updated2022-05-11T16:07:44Z
refterms.dateFOA2022-05-26T18:03:52Z
dc.identifier.filenamePuckett_temple_0225E_14740.pdf


Files in this item

Thumbnail
Name:
Puckett_temple_0225E_14740.pdf
Size:
1.546Mb
Format:
PDF

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

Show simple item record