Discuss the major themes and genres of Native American literature?

Answer 1

Native American literature is somewhat of an oxymoron, since the actual literature came from Puritan settlers documenting stories and performances of Native Americans. Native Americans were not educated and were, certainly, not literate of the English language when the Puritans arrived. Native American literature is nothing more than the Puritan's perspective of the stories told by the "indians". Puritan settlers watched performances and ceremonies then wrote what they believed to be the message being relayed. Native Americans passed tribal information and legends from generation to generation using ceremonies and performances since they didn't have any written language to document tribal history.

But now on to the answer you are looking for, the general themes of Native American literature are respect and love for nature. They had many gods assigned to different facets of nature and the gods were responsible for; therefore, everything in nature was directly related to one god or another.

(short version :))

Themes: respect for nature and all creatures, tribal unity, respect and love for each god, community (every member of the tribe had a specific job and function within the tribe), understanding of how each member contributed to the well being of the tribe, women held in high regard- considered spiritual leaders within the tribe (which is why the women were responsible for the farming-if the gods were pleased with the women's spiritual leadership and divinity-the gods would provide a bountiful harvest.

Genres:

1. Origin and Emergence Stories- example--our tribe was born when the mother bear gave birth to her cubs, we are the cubs of mother bear, etc...

2. Cultural Hero Stories-explains methods of tribe, explains actions

3. Historical Narratives-used to relay stories, legends, history of tribe

4. Trickster Tales--used fictitious character to break rules generally proving or disproving tribal rules