Contestation of Discourse on Alcoholism among Native Americans in Joy Harjo’s The Reckoning (2002)

This study aims at revealing how the discursive practices and the discourse on alcoholism in the Native Americans is produced and contested in a short story entitled The Reckoning by Joy Harjo. The problem in this study is approached by Foucauldian concept of discourse production procedure. The method applied here is the Foucauldian discourse analysis by examining the problem through the process of formation including external and internal exclusion. Central to the analysis is that alcoholism is produced as taboo through the mother character which limits the general understanding about alcoholism; hence this discourse is possible to produce by the subject whose credentials can validate the truth. This discourse is also affirmed by the contextual prohibition which authoritatively can state the truth about alcoholism. This is further contested in the current society of how being an alcoholic would be considered as a non-native American way of life. The result indicates that alcoholism among Native American society becomes the discourse within which constraints produce considerable barriers to expose or address to this topic

MEMÓRIA E RESISTÊNCIA ENTRELAÇADAS: CRAZY BRAVE, DE JOY HARJO

Proponho discutir neste trabalho a interseccionalidade e o pensamento feminista, principalmente, a partir da forma como essa relação se dá no campo da literatura indígena escrita por mulheres na América do Norte, destacando o local a partir do qual esses textos são atravessados pelo gênero, raça, classe e cosmovisões diversas. A partir das discussões feministas, especialmente o feminismo negro e indígena, tendo em mente as provocações de bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Lélia Gonzáles, Carla Akotirene, Joyce Green, entre tantas outras, aponto de que forma essa consciência quanto a um antiessencialismo radical pode desestabilizar posições no que diz respeito às mulheres e seus lugares sociais, inclusive dentro do feminismo e principalmente no texto literário Crazy Brave, de Joy Harjo. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Literatura indígena. Joy Harjo. Interseccionalidade. Feminismo. Autobiografia

La migración como metáfora de la existencia

El texto propone comprender el concepto de la migración como el viaje que presupone la existencia. Sostiene que la migración de un estado del ser a otro es un fundamento del aspecto evolutivo y se da por medio del lenguaje. La metáfora, como un vehículo imprescindible para arribar a estados superiores de la conciencia. Con ayuda del pensamiento de María Zambrano y de James Hillman, autores que disertan sobre la metáfora del corazón, y en diálogo con la teoría literaria trazada por Paul Ricoeur en su obra La metáfora viva, la autora ahonda en el concepto de migración. Para finalizar, toma como ejemplo la voz de la poeta norteamericana Joy Harjo,en su obra Conflict resolution for holy beings y hace un viaje al corazón de la palabra de Harjo. En ese viaje, explica cómo la poesía acompaña el ejercicio de migrar de un estado de conciencia a otro en la construcción de una episteme que tiene como centro el fortalecimiento de la propia subjetividad.

Mahmoud Darwish and Joy Harjo: Cosmic Consciousness

This study examines the phases of human consciousness revealed in the poetry of indigenous people in the light of some prominent psychologists and philosophers mainly Bucke, Schleiermacher, William James, Hegel, and Moores. Bucke and Schleiermacher cited three forms of consciousness: Animal or Brutish Self-awareness, Sensual or Self-Consciousness, and Cosmic Consciousness. While examining the poetry of indigenous people, Palestinians and Native Americans, we find out that the majority moves within the confines of the Sensual or Self-Consciousness in their reaction to the brutish consciousness of the oppressors who deny their unalienable rights for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Unlike others, Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian, and Joy Harjo, the Native American, attempt to transcend the sensual consciousness and adopt a broader universal vision or cosmic consciousness; however, their peaceful vision is often shattered by bitter realities and frustrated by the inhuman conduct of their oppressors. In their verses, the particular or the sensual is not completely overlooked or concealed. It is always there, yet alleviated by a universal vision held by the two poets

The Role of Memory and Language in Transformation: Crucial Issues in American Indigenous Poetry

The integration of the personal and the political has been an engaging topic in analyses of literary texts by authors whose works are known for their political content and activism, as well as an emphasis on social justice. Literary audiences in the United States have been familiar with Joy Harjo and John Trudell, two well-known contemporary Indigenous poets, who have voiced out the concerns of Indigenous people in the face of colonization and injustice happening in their homeland. Within the fusion of the personal and the political, as well as the mythical, the idea of transformation is paramount for Indigenous authors since to move from the state of being colonized to one of being decolonized, transformation is undoubtedly crucial. This paper focuses on the role of memory and the power of language in the process of transformation in the three poems by Joy Harjo and John Trudell. The analysis uses a qualitative methodology in the form of a close reading of literary texts to uncover the interconnectedness of memory and language in transformation. I argue that Native poets experience personal transformation that is critically influenced by the role of ancestral memory and social and historical consciousness in the broader context of Indigenous people’s struggle and resistance, as well as the power of language to see reality differently and affect its change. The analysis is intended to show to what extent the concepts of memory and language are critical in the process of decolonization and the manners in which these texts can be empowering for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous audiences in response to forms of injustice through the integration of the personal, the political, and the mythical.