‘From Wigwam to White Lights’: Popular Culture, Politics, and the Performance of Native North American Identity in the Era of Assimilationism

This article examines the appropriation and redirection of the Gothic in two contemporary, Native-centered feature films that concern a history that can be said to haunt many Native North American communities today: the history of Indian boarding schools. Georgina Lightning’s Older than America (2008) and Kevin Willmott’s The Only Good Indian (2009) make use of Gothic conventions and the figures of the ghost and the vampire to visually relate the history and horrors of Indian boarding schools. Each of these Native-centered films displays a cinematic desire to decenter Eurocentric histories and to counter mainstream American genres with histories and forms of importance to Native North American peoples. Willmott’s film critiques mythologies of the West and frontier heroism, and Lightning attempts to sensitize non-Native viewers to contemporary Native North American concerns while also asserting visual sovereignty and affirming spiritual values.

Download Full-text

PHILLIPS, Ruth B., Trading Identities. The Souvenir in Native North American Art from the Northeast, 1700-1900 (Montréal/Seattle, McGill’s-Queen’s University Press/University of Washington Press, 1998), 334 p.

Revue d histoire de l Amérique française ◽

10.7202/005539ar ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 54 (2) ◽

pp. 311

Author(s):

France Lord

Keyword(s):

North American ◽

American Art ◽

University Of Washington ◽

Native North American ◽

Queen's University

Download Full-text

Perspectives on the European Videogame

10.1017/9789048550623 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

North American ◽

Game Development ◽

Global Impact ◽

Collective Work ◽

Philosophical Ground ◽

History Of ◽

The Creation ◽

European Production ◽

Made In

The history of European videogames has been so far overshadowed by the global impact of the Japanese and North American industries. However, European game development studios have played a major role in videogame history, and prominent videogames in popular culture, such as Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and Alone in the Dark were made in Europe. This book proposes an exploration of European videogames, including both analyses of transnational aspects of European production and close readings of national specificities. It offers a kaleidoscope of European videogame culture, focusing on the analysis of European works and creators but also addressing contextual aspects and placing videogames within a wider sociocultural and philosophical ground. The aim of this collective work is to contribute to the creation of a, so far, almost non-existent yet necessary academic endeavour: a story of the works, authors, styles and cultures of the European videogame.

Download Full-text

Coccomyces papillatus. [Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria].

IMI Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria ◽

10.1079/dfb/20056401472 ◽

2001 ◽

Author(s):

D. W. Minter

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Geographical Distribution ◽

North American ◽

European Countries ◽

Native North American ◽

Pinus Wallichiana

Abstract A description is provided for Coccomyces papillatus. Information is included on the disease caused by the organism, its transmission, geographical distribution, and hosts. DISEASE: The ecology of this fungus is completely unknown. SHERWOOD (1980) noted strong similarities with Coccomyces strobi (IMI Descriptions No. 1292), which is known to occur on brittle dead attached twigs of native North American five-needled pines in North America and some European countries to which they have been introduced. This habitat is often associated with endobionts involved in self-pruning ecosystems which later fruit on dead twigs, best exemplified by Colpoma quercinum on Quercus and C. crispum on Picea (IMI Descriptions Nos 942. 1333), and Therrya fuckelii and T. pini on Pinus (IMI Descriptions Nos 1297, 1298) and it is tempting to speculate that C. papillatus too will prove to occupy this sort of niche. HOSTS: Pinus wallichiana (twig). GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION: ASIA: Pakistan. TRANSMISSION: Not known. Presumably by air-borne ascospores released in humid conditions.

Download Full-text

Getting To The Core:

European Journal of Musicology ◽

10.5450/ejm.18.1.2019.73 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

pp. 73-83

Author(s):

Marie-Anne Kohl

Keyword(s):

Cultural Studies ◽

North American ◽

Song Cycle ◽

American Identity ◽

The Core ◽

Specific Concept ◽

And Performance

This article discusses the construction and representation of nature in the composition and performance of Meredith Monk’s song cycle “Facing North” by analyzing the quality of the performing voices, their physicality, and by bringing them into relation to the associations and contexts evoked by the songs’ titles. Based on voice and nature concepts in cultural studies, this article argues that this approach creates a very specific concept of nature, which is artistic and artificial at the same time. Through contextualising the concept of nature established in “Facing North” with a specific, gendered construction of nature as basis of a narrative of North American identity as depicted by musicologist Denise Von Glahn, it becomes evident how the composition and performance of “Facing North” at once accord with and oppose to a gendered concept of nature.

Download Full-text