Abstract
This paper provides a discourse analysis of two poems selected from the book Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature (Driskill et al., 2011b) to explore the concept of grief in Two-Spirit/Queer Indigenous poetry. It analyzes the diction, voice, formality, themes, metaphors, similes, personification, and the use of repetition the authors utilize to represent grief and discover the social, cultural, and political realities and discursive practices behind the poems. It concludes that through their expression of grief, the poets highlight the emergence and endurance of a community and people who will continue to fight for survival and the right to live in peace and harmony outside of colonial gender and sexual binaries. Both poems engage with a continuing sense of Two-Spirit identity that call forth new generations of Queer Indigenous/Two-Spirit people while remembering their history and the Elders who came before to heal personal and historical trauma often through connection with nature, their ancestors, and spirituality.
References
Allen, P. G. (1983). The Woman Who Owned the Shadows. Spinsters/Aunt Lute.
Allen, P. G. (1986). The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Beacon Press.
Allen, P. G. (1997). Life is a Fatal Disease: Collected Poems 1962-1995. West End Press.
Allen, P. G. (2011). Some like Indians Endure. In Driskill, Q.-L., Justice, D. H., Miranda, D. A., & Tatonetti, L. (Eds.) Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. (p. 21- 24). University of Arizona Press.
Austin, J. L. (1962). How to Do Things with Words. Oxford University Press.
BBC. (2021, June 24). Canada: 751 unmarked graves found at Residential School. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57592243
Brant, Beth. (1984) A Gathering of Spirit: A Collection by North American Indian Women. Sinister Wisdom Press.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex". Routledge.
Caduto, M. J., & Bruchac, J. (1991). Keepers of the Animals: Native American Stories and Wildlife Activities for Children. Fulcrum Publishing.
CBC/Radio Canada. (2017, December 15). Poet Joshua Whitehead Redefines Two-Spirit Identity in Full-Metal Indigiqueer. CBC Radio. CBC News. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/from-dystopian-futures-to-secret-pasts-check-out-these-indigenous-storytellers-over-the-holidays-1.4443312/poet-joshua-whitehead-redefines-two-spirit-identity-in-full-metal-indigiqueer-1.4447321
Deloria, V. (1973). God is Red. Grosset & Dunlap.
Dennis M. K. (2021). Collecting Grief: Indigenous Peoples, Deaths by Police and a Global Pandemic. Qualitative Social Work, 20(1-2), 149–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020973301
Driskill, Q.-L. (2004). Stolen From Our Bodies: First Nations Two-Spirits/Queers and the Journey to a Sovereign Erotic. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 16(2), 50- 64. https://doi.org/10.1353/ail.2004.0020
Driskill, Q.-L. (2005). Walking with Ghosts. Salt Publishing.
Driskill, Q.-L., Finley, C., Gilley, B. J., & Morgensen, S. L.(2011a). Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature. University of Arizona Press.
Driskill, Q.-L., Justice, D. H., Miranda, D. A., & Tatonetti, L. (2011b). Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. University of Arizona Press.
Driskill, Q.l.. (2011c). Chantway for F.C. Driskill, Q.-L., Justice, D. H., Miranda, D. A., & Tatonetti, L. (Eds.) Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature. (p. 71-73-24). University of Arizona Press.
Driskill, Q.-L. (2016). Asegi Sories: Cherokee Queer and Two-Spirit Memory. The University of Arizona Press.
Gay American Indians, comp. (1988). Living the Spirit: A Gay American Indian Anthology. St. Martin’s Press.
Jacobs, S.-E., Thomas, W., & Lang. S. (1997). Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality. University of Illinois Press.
Jäger, S. (2001). Discourse and Knowledge: Theoretical and Methodological Apects of a Critical Discourse and Dispositive Analysis. Wodak, R.& Meyer, M. (Eds.) In Methods of Critical Discourse Studies (1st ed.) (pp. 32–62). SAGE.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed.
Lorde, A. (1984). Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press.
Moxey, K. (2018). The Practice of Theory: Poststructuralism, Cultural Politics, and Art History. Cornell University Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501729027-006
Nibley, L. [Director]. (2010). Two spirits [Film]. Cinema Guild.
Nicholson, H. (2016). Love beyond body, space, and time: An Indigenous LGBT sci-fi anthology. Bedside Press.
Robinson, M. (2019) Two-Spirit Identity in a Time of Gender Fluidity, Journal of Homosexuality, 67(12), 1675-1690. https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2019.1613853
Silko, L. (1981) “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective.” Fiedler, L. & Baker, H. In English Literature: Opening Up the Canon, (pp. 54–72). Johns Hopkins University Press.
Smith, L. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
U.S. Department of the Interior (2021, June 23). Secretary Haaland announces Federal Indian Boarding School initiative. U.S. Department of the Interior. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-haaland-announces-federal-indian-boarding-school-initiative
White Hat. A., Sr. (2012) Life's Journey–Zuya: Oral Teachings from Rosebud. University of Utah Press.
Whitehead, J. (2017). Full-metal indigiqueer: Poems. Talonbooks.
Whitehead, J. (2020). Love after the end; An anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction. Aresenal Pulp Press.
Williams, W. L. (1986). The spirit and the flesh: Sexual diversity in American Indian culture. Beacon Press.
Yellow Horse Brave Heart, M., Chase, J., Elkins, J. & Altschul, D. (2011) Historical Trauma Among Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: Concepts, Research, and Clinical Considerations, Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43(4), 282-290. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2011.628913
Young, R. W. (2000). The Navajo Verb System: An overview. University of New Mexico Press.
Comments
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2023 Mónica Bradley