English, Department of

 

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

June 2000

Citation

Loosening the Seams: Interpretations of Gerald Vizenor, edited by A. Robert Lee. Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2000, pages 203–224

Comments

Copyright © 2000 Bowling Green State University Popular Press. Used by permission

Abstract

Poems on a page bear a decidedly, yet deceptively, fixed being. The Western literary tradition (if I may invoke such a creature) has historically preferred fixed texts. Even when confronting slippery oral traditions, an enormous effort has been expended to canonize an originary Ur-form of each tale. Such a tendency, akin to mounting a bird species rather than pondering the flight of feathers, is the antagonist of Vizenor's poetic art. In what follows I seek to explore some of the ways Vizenor's haiku and longer poetry melt fixation and celebrate the transformative possibilities of impermanence.

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