Volume 3 in the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series

This first book-length critical analysis of the full range of novels written between 1854 and today by American Indian authors takes as its theme the search for self-discovery and cultural recovery. In his introduction, Louis Owens places the novels in context by considering their relationships to traditional American Indian oral literature as well as their differences from mainstream Euroamerican literature. In the following chapters he looks at the novels of John Rollin Ridge, Mourning Dove, John Joseph Mathews, D'Arcy McNickle, N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, Michael Dorris, and Gerald Vizenor.

Louis Owens, who was of Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish descent, was Professor of English at the University of New Mexico. He authored several books, including The Sharpest Sight, Wolfsong and Bone Game, all published by the University of Oklahoma Press.