Bradford's Indian Book: Being the True Roote & Rise of American Letters as Revealed by the Native Text Embedded in Of Plimoth Plantation
Betty Booth Donohue
Abstract
This book, written partly in the Cherokee syllabary by a Cherokee critic, argues that William Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation shows evidence of American Indian poetics. It is a revisioning of the genesis of American literary history. The book reveals that, from its earliest moments, American literature has owed its distinctive shape to the determining influence of American Indian thought and culture. It demonstrates the extent of this influence by identifying the scores of Native historical, biographical, and ceremonial texts, as well as vocabularies, compositional principles, and rhetorical ... More
This book, written partly in the Cherokee syllabary by a Cherokee critic, argues that William Bradford's Of Plimoth Plantation shows evidence of American Indian poetics. It is a revisioning of the genesis of American literary history. The book reveals that, from its earliest moments, American literature has owed its distinctive shape to the determining influence of American Indian thought and culture. It demonstrates the extent of this influence by identifying the scores of Native historical, biographical, and ceremonial texts, as well as vocabularies, compositional principles, and rhetorical strategies, embedded in Bradford's history. The book emphasizes that American literature did not begin with European-American colonial writings, but rather in the oral traditions and ceremonial rituals of America's five hundred indigenous Nations. The verbal power of these ancient oralities invaded the newly forming American letters.
Keywords:
American Indian poetics,
American literary history,
American literature,
ceremonial rituals,
Cherokee syllabary,
Of Plimoth Plantation,
oral traditions,
William Bradford
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2011 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780813037370 |
| Published to Florida Scholarship Online: May 2012 |
DOI:10.5744/florida/9780813037370.001.0001 |
