Novels of Louise Erdrich: Stories of Her People Book

	Preface
	Maps
	List of Abbreviations
1	Continuing the Tradition: Louise Erdrich and the Native American Literary Renaissance	1
	Native American Authors Write Back	1
	The Native American Literary Renaissance	3
	Defining Native American Literature	6
	Critical Work in Native American Literature	10
	Five Characteristics of Native American Fiction	12
	Writing as an Act of Recovery	17
2	Traditional Storytellers	19
	How Storytelling Functions in the Native American Literary Tradition	19
	How Folklorists Have Studied the Function of Stories	28
	How Orality Theory Provides a Fuller Context for Erdrich's Work	32
	Transitional Texts between Oral and Written Narratives	38
	Erdrich's Novels as Storytelling Sessions	45
3	Louise Erdrich, A Contemporary Tradition Storyteller	51
	Erdrich's Life and Work	53
	Erdrich's Use of the Autobiographical Voice in Her Novels	60
	Erdrich's Use of Story Cycles to Frame Her Novels	69
	The Historical Ojibwa	70
	Traditional Ojibwa Beliefs	71
	The Formation of the Turtle Mountain Band	77
	Erdrich's Non-Reservation Novels	82
	Erdrich's Incorporation of Tribal and Anglo History	85
4	The Power of Love as Medicine Louise Erdrich's Family Stories	105
	Defining "Family"	106
	Erdrich's Use of Families in the Novels	108
	The Circular Narrative Structure of Erdrich's Family Stories	108
	Touchstone Family Stories	117
	Family Characteristics	134
	Love Medicines	145
5	"Power Travels in the Bloodlines, Handed Out Before Birth": Louise Erdrich's Female Mythic Characters	147
	Secondary Heroes	148
	Fleur's Bear Power	151
	Animal Helpers and Totems	152
	The Historical Pillagers	153
	Fleur's Immortality	154
	The Bear in Ojibwa Culture	155
	Fleur's Bear Medicine	158
	Fleur's Wolf and Marten Characteristics	160
	Fleur's Guardian, Misshepeshu	161
	Fleur, an Anishinaabe Medicine Woman	165
	The Antelope People	169
	Mythic Dogs	172
	The Mythic World of The Antelope Wife	173
	Erdrich, the Maker of Myths	173
6	Louise Erdrich, An American Storyteller	175
	The American Literary Canon and Multiculturalism	175
	Writing out of the Dominant Culture	179
	Erdrich and the American Literary Tradition	181
	From Myth to Rhetorics	184
	Continuance of the Mythic for Native Americans	186
	The Importance of Stories and of Storytelling	187
	Notes	191
App	Important Dates in the History of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians	219
	Works Cited	223
	Index	249