Poetry and the Post-Apocalyptic Paradox: North American Indigenous Disruptions to the Westernized Self

Author(s)

Joseph Benjamin Ziegler Ferber, University of Dayton

Advisor

Thomas L. Morgan

Department

English

Publication Date

Spring 4-2016

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Abstract

This three-chapter project explores the work of three poets, each identifying with different North American indigenous tribes. Their work challenges western poetic conventions and notions of individualism to offer alternative worldviews and complicate mainstream oversimplifications of American Indian identity. Brandi MacDougall investigates assumptions of the Western Self represented by the "I" Perspective common in Western thought; Sherman Alexie revises the sonnet form to portray the complexity of how contemporary American Indians navigate the blending of capitalist institutions and native traditions; Kristi Leora offers readers an enlightened conception of self-hood by balancing processes of western socialization with native cosmology. Ultimately, this project is a student’s dive into the shallow waters of a deep, perhaps infinite pool of understanding and existence that can never be fully learned, understood or experienced from his personal, subjective perspective.

Permission Statement

This item is protected by copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and may only be used for noncommercial, educational, and scholarly purposes.

Keywords

Undergraduate research

Disciplines

English Language and Literature | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority

eCommons Citation

Ferber, Joseph Benjamin Ziegler, "Poetry and the Post-Apocalyptic Paradox: North American Indigenous Disruptions to the Westernized Self" (2016). Honors Theses. 90.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/uhp_theses/90