Tricky Tribal Discourse: The Poetry, Short Stories, and Fus Fixico Letters of Creek Writer Alex Posey

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This volume is an attempt to understand Alex Posey's multiple and divergent voices - voices that evolved through experience and through constant negotiation of his conflicted position. Dr. Kosmider first investigates Posey's replication of Western literary models and then examines other writings that reflect Posey's attempt to incorporate and/or reproduce Creek verbal elements and strategies in his works. Posey's writing demonstrates that he was influenced by the historical and cultural context of his world - Indian Territory - and the rapid changes occurring there during his lifetime. Dr. Kosmider situates Posey within the Indian literary tradition and links him with other contemporary Indian writers, focusing on his poetry, short stories, Creek stories, and his Fus Fixico letters. Dr. Kosmider relies on various theoretical approaches in investigating Posey's divergent voices drawing on ethnopoetics, metanarration, performance theory, and postcolonial literary theory. Through Posey's writings, Creek verbal traditions live and are transformed. As a young boy, Posey listened to his mother's stories about Opossum, Skunk, and the Creek trickster, Rabbit. As an adult he understood how these animals comment on the social and political events of his time. Posey's rewriting of Creek stories shows his ability to effectively reproduce competent performances and demonstrates his skill at negotiating between two cultures. This study explores and assesses Alex Posey's literary contributions. By circling back to the roots of contemporary Native American literature and examining the work of writers such as Posey, readers may come to understand the difficulty of negotiating, and ultimately expressing, bicultural experiences.

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