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NEWS
| OCTOBER 27, 2005
The Literature Connection
English professor writes about
American Indian culture
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| The Shorthorn: Manikandan Sachidanandan |
| English professor Kenneth Roemer
co-edited the book “Native American Literature”
featuring essays and poetry. |
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By Alyssa
Fry
The Shorthorn staff
How American Indians define themselves is an issue English professor
Kenneth Roemer said he wants people to understand about the culture.
As the university’s Native American Student Association adviser,
Roemer encourages interaction among members of the American Indian
community and seeks to educate those outside it.
Roemer further promoted American Indian culture in recent months
when The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature was published,
a collection of essays he co-edited.
This latest book is his third published work on American Indian
literature, and it focuses on works written in English about historical,
cultural and genre contexts and individual authors. The essays are
by American Indian and non-American Indian scholars.
“This was a real balancing act as far as the contributors
go,” he said. “My main question, though, was, ‘How
do I get the information out to the largest amount of people?’
”
Roemer said having the book published by Cambridge University Press
will help increase the amount of people who will read it, which
he hopes will be experts in the field and high school teachers alike.
“It’s sad that here you have something that is more
American than any other literature in terms of historical roots,
yet there are people who won’t be impressed until Cambridge
University Press publishes something about it,” he said.
American Indian literature has increased in popularity since it
began to popularize in the early ’70s, which is good, he said,
but many still know nothing about the subject.
“It has gone from invisible to marginal to expected in literature
classes,” he said. “And after 30 years, you would think
we’ve finally arrived, but it’s still something that
is unknown so you have to keep telling the story.”
One issue facing the culture, Roemer said, is the translation of
its spoken and performed stories into essays and short stories.
One way of preserving the original feel of the story would be to
use the dialect of the tribe, he said.
“But if it looks too different, the publishers won’t
take it,” he said.
English Chair Wendy Faris said she finds it interesting how Roemer
has, with this book, become part of the culture’s dissemination.
“He is interested in the process of by which works of literature
and literature traditions become part of what everybody reads,”
she said. “And at the same time he’s contributed to
it in such a big way.”
Psychology freshman Elijah Wahkinney, a Native American Student
Association member, said books such as Roemer’s help destroy
stereotypes about the culture by showing that there are notable
American Indian writers.
“It lets people know we’re not just running around in
loin cloths and smoking peace pipes,” he said. “It lets
natives get back in touch with who they are.”
CORRECTION
In this story, the summary headline should have
read, “English professor edits book about American Indian
culture.”
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