The Sounds of Navajo Poetry
A Humanities of Speaking
Summary
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- About the author(s)/editor(s)
- About the book
- This eBook can be cited
- Table of Contents
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Humanities of Speaking
- Punning, Poetry, Sound and Linguistic Relativity
- Poetry as Equipment for Living
- Outline of Book
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 1: The Mouse That Sucked
- The Poems
- On “Quickness” and “Thought Poems”: Or Why Think about a Sucking Mouse?
- Conclusion
- The Mouse That Sucked Redux
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 2: X Marks the Spot: Co-authored with Blackhorse Mitchell
- Poem: na’ashchxiidí
- Translating the Poem, or Seeing the Morphemes but Not the Feeling
- Expressive Features in Native American Languages and Their Discontents
- Control in Navajo
- The Expressive Work of -x- in Navajo
- –x- Marks the Spot
- On the Fate of an Expressive
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 3: In the Fall
- Saad éí nitsí’iiłkees
- Ak’eego
- From ajik’eed to Fuck
- “You can’t say the F word”
- “Everything got kinda strange after a while”
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 4: Seductive Ideophony
- Unavoidable Sound-Worlds: Music and Myth
- The Poem and Its Translations
- The Morphology of a Poem
- Interlude: A Conversation with Blackhorse Mitchell
- Seduced by Ideophony
- Stick Dice Resonances: Blood, Lightning and Thunder
- Seductive Ideophony and Misunderstanding
- Notes
- References
- Chapter 5: The Art of Failure
- Translating the Phonosonic Nexus
- “I am a poet”
- “Fragile like a cobweb:” Transcript and Commentary
- Creative Transposition: náhookqs ndi náhookqs
- “And I will not tell you all about that”
- Conclusions
- Notes
- References
- Conclusion
- Index
- Series index
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Webster, Anthony K., author.
Title: The sounds of Navajo poetry: a humanities of speaking / Anthony K. Webster.
Description: New York: Peter Lang, 2018.
Series: Critical indigenous and American Indian studies; vol. 4
ISSN 2376-547X (print) | ISSN 2376-5488 (online)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017031307 | ISBN 978-1-4331-3390-1 (hardback: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4331-3991-8 (ebook pdf) | ISBN 978-1-4331-3992-5 (epub)
ISBN 978-1-4331-3992-5 (mobi)
Subjects: LCSH: Jim, Rex Lee—Criticism and interpretation.
Navajo poetry—20th century—History and criticism. | Navajo language—Phonetics.
Classification: LCC PM2009.J55 Z94 2017 | DDC 897/.261—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017031307
DOI 10.3726/b11637
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the “Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie”; detailed bibliographic data are available
on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de/.
© 2018 Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York
29 Broadway, 18th floor, New York, NY 10006
www.peterlang.com
All rights reserved.
Reprint or reproduction, even partially, in all forms such as microfilm, xerography, microfiche, microcard, and offset strictly prohibited.
| About the author(s)/editor(s) |
| About the book |
The Sounds of Navajo Poetry analyzes five poems by Navajo poet Rex Lee Jim in order to think through questions of linguistic relativity and translation. In fundamentally rethinking linguistic relativity, this book argues for a humanities of speaking that attends to poetics as a key site for coming to terms with the ways languages facilitate imaginative acts. This book will be of particular interest to researchers in anthropology, linguistics, Native American studies, sound studies, and translation studies. The Sounds of Navajo Poetry will be particularly appropriate for courses on verbal art, language and culture, contemporary Native American poetry, translation, and sound studies.
| This eBook can be cited |
This edition of the eBook can be cited. To enable this we have marked the start and end of a page. In cases where a word straddles a page break, the marker is placed inside the word at exactly the same position as in the physical book. This means that occasionally a word might be bifurcated by this marker.
Table 2.1 Examples of Expressive Implication Changed by “Aspiration”
we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
—Philip Larkin, ‘The Mower’
First, and as usual and most importantly, I want to thank the many Navajos who have taken time to talk with me about poetry, about languages, about sound, about punning, and about so much more. This book does not exist without their kindness. I specifically want to thank Rex Lee Jim, Blackhorse Mitchell, Laura Tohe, Sherwin Bitsui, Esther Belin, Gloria Emerson, Tina Deschenie, Venaya Yazzie, Cliff Jack, Ford Ashley, Orlando White, Larry King, Damien Jones, Ben Barney, Wesley Thomas, Irvin Morris, Jennifer Denetdale, Jalon Begay, Hershman John, Luci Tapahonso, Zoey Benally, Bennie Klain, Tacey Atsitty, the late Larry Emerson, Ellavina Perkins, the late Alyse Neundorf, Starrla Tompkins, Karen Halona, and Martha Austin-Garrison.
I thank again, Bill Riddle, Sonja Horoshko, and Michael Thompson for all their support as well. I thank Ron Maldonado for guiding me through the permit process at the Historic Preservation Office of the Navajo Nation. Research on the Navajo Nation was done under permits granted by the Historic Preservation Office. I thank again Blackhorse Mitchell for his generosity. The debt this work owes to Rex Lee Jim is immense. I thank him. I thank him as well for teasing me ← ix | x → over the years—reminding me of the things that I do not yet know, and that he thinks I might yet learn them.
The ideas in this book have also benefited a great deal from conversations with a number of other people. Whether or not they were aware of the help they were providing is an open question. I’d like to thank Joyce McDonough, Leighton Peterson, Courtney Handman, James Slotta, Elizabeth Keating, John Leavitt, Sean O’Neill, Kim Marshall, Jeff Berglund, Connie Jacobs, David Samuels, Maureen Schwarz, Kristina Jacobsen, Jason Baird Jackson, Alan Rumsey, Wesley Leonard, Bernie Perley, Dan Suslak, Jillian Cavanaugh, Paja Faudree, Nick Harkness, Michael Silverstein, Dick Bauman, Oswald Werner, Charlotte Frisbie, the late David P. McAllester, the late Paul Friedrich, Rusty Barrett, Paul Zolbrod, Andy Wiget, Barbra Meek, Eleanor Nevins, Margaret Field, Erin Debenport, Mark Sicoli, Polly Strong, Dina Omar, Paul Kockelman, Joseph Errington, Paul Kroskrity, Laura Graham, Lisa King, Thorsten Huth, Gwen Saul, Myrdene Anderson, Scott Rushforth, Luis Cárcamo-Huechante, Dustin Tahmahkera, Juan Luis Rodríguez, the late Brian Stross, Luke Fleming, Danny Law, Jonathan Hill, David Sutton, Charles Hofling, Janet Fuller, Roberto Barrios, Hilaria Cruz, Natalia Bermúdez, Janis Nuckolls, Mark Dingemanse, Solveiga Armoskaite and Päivi Koskinen. I especially thank Joel Sherzer, who many years ago, when I came to him with the idea to do a dissertation on Navajo poetry, enthusiastically encouraged me. I want to thank as well Pattie Epps and Tony Woodbury for the many conversations that led to our co-authored piece and to helping me think through a number of issues taken up in this book. If I have forgotten anyone, I am sorry.
I have presented portions of this book at so many places and gotten such wonderful feedback. I thank the audiences for their kindness. An earlier version of Chapter One appeared in Studies in American Indian Literature. An earlier version of Chapter Two—co-authored with Blackhorse Mitchell—appeared in Anthropological Linguistics. The earlier version of both Chapters One and Two were published by the University of Nebraska Press. Mitchell kindly agreed to the use of Chapter Two here. A version of Chapter Three first appeared in Anthropology & Humanism. A different version of Chapter Four appears in Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique. An earlier version of Chapter Five is found in Journal de la Société des Américanistes. All the Chapters have been revised from their earlier forms. I thank the editors and reviewers for all their help in crafting those earlier versions.
Details
- Pages
- XII, 168
- Publication Year
- 2018
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9781433139918
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9781433139925
- ISBN (MOBI)
- 9781433139932
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9781433139901
- DOI
- 10.3726/b11637
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2018 (March)
- Published
- New York, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Vienna, Oxford, Wien, 2018. XII, 168 pp., 1 tbl.
- Product Safety
- Peter Lang Group AG
