Autobiography and an overdetermined self: Jane Willis's Geniesh: An Indian girlhood

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Abstract

Criticism on Native life writing has suggested that the type of "self displayed in such work differs from that of the Western autobiographical tradition. This essay challenges reductive claims regarding the measure of individualism in Native life narratives with a reading of Jane Willis's autobiography. Cautious of "decolonizing" criticism, and unsatisfied with existing differentiations of "Native autobiography," the author looks to emergent discourses of mixedness to understand Willis's autobiographical subject and the economy of capitulation and subversion in her narrative.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)132-154
Number of pages23
JournalEssays on Canadian Writing
Volume79
StatePublished - Mar 2003
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Literature and Literary Theory

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