Book Review: Louis Owens: Literary Reflections on His Life and Work

Authors

Kimberly Roppolo, University of Lethbridge

Date of this Version

2005

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 25:3 (Summer 2005). Copyright © 2005 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Beginning with poet Neil Harrison's outstanding "5 Canadas," this volume is a tribute to the late Choctaw/Cherokee/Irish novelist and theorist. Kilpatrick's introduction stresses Owens's academic accomplishments - which, though cut short by his suicide in July 2002, are impressive - and situates Owens's creative and critical work, positioning him with those mixed-blood critics, who, like Gerald Vizenor, work in a nexus of postcolonialism, postmodernism, and hybrid identity on the cultural "frontier." The volume also includes the last interview with Owens, "Outside Shadow: A Conversation with Louis Owens," the first in a series he had agreed to do with author A. Robert Lee and an invaluable resource to students of Owens's work.