Carrying the fire home: performing nation, identity, indigenous diaspora and home in the poems, songs, and performances of Arigon Starr, Joy Harjo and Gayle Ross

Unrestricted This project addresses the cultural work of nation building (political, spiritual, social) performed by narrative practices in diasporic Cherokee and Muskogee Creek communities. The overarching question of the project is: how has the concept of “home” in American Indian writing (“home” meaning a physical geography, a narrative history, and a social identity) been reconceptualized by artists in the face of widespread diasporization? I am interested in how work by Cherokee and Creek women writers, specifically Joy Harjo, Arigon Starr, and Gayle Ross, has recreated the concept of “home” as a decolonizing project of nation building within the Cherokee and Creek diasporas. The interdisciplinary fields of performance studies, literary history, American Indian Studies, gender studies, and landscape studies guide this project and its examination of poetry, storytelling, fiction, plays, and performance of the writers/artists.; I am interested in how these writers utilize indigenous epistemologies and bicultural competence in their work, and how they reinvent, re-imagine, and reconceptualize the concepts of “home” apart from the physical landscape but within the body as well. I suggest that these writers—Harjo’s How We Became Human, Ross’ How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Stories, and Starr’s The Red Road—write against the romanticized trope of “American Indian identity” and call into question stories and performance of identity that not only rewrites non-Indian invented histories but is at the same time, self-critical. Historical writers, such as Alexander Posey, John Ross and John Rollin Ridge each contribute to national narrative in historical moments of crisis in Creek and Cherokee history - Removal and the Trail of Tears; Oklahoma statehood and the destruction of tribal governments.; How do Posey, Ridge and Ross’ literal and literary descendants address these same issues under the rubric of nationalism? How does each contemporary writer define herself by her identity categories: woman, native, tribal, Creek, Cherokee, citizen, writer, actor, musician, storyteller? How do all of these identities form a decolonizing project for each writer? How are these writers writing against stereotypes of American Indians that have been and still are perpetuated by media images of “the” Native American? How are these writers influenced by the American Indian societies in which they live, work, and write? How do these writers reconcile political citizenship and cultural citizenship within their respective nations? How has their writing/performance/cultural critique addressed nation building in crucial periods of American Indian history: during; and in the era of pan-Indian tribalism and the survival of native nations and how these nations re-imagine themselves in the 21st century? What are the larger political and cultural issues: sovereignty, land struggles, gaming, gender issues, native wellness, language survival, ceremony, dance, that the writers are addressing in their work?

本项目为无限制研究，聚焦切罗基族与马斯科吉克里克族离散社区中，叙事实践所承载的国家建构文化工作——涵盖政治、精神与社会三大维度。本项目的核心研究问题为：美国印第安文学中的"家"的概念（此处"家"意指自然地理、叙事历史与社会身份），在普遍的离散化境遇下，被创作者们如何进行再概念化？

本研究关注切罗基族与克里克族女性创作者——尤其是乔伊·哈乔（Joy Harjo）、阿里贡·斯塔尔（Arigon Starr）与盖尔·罗斯（Gayle Ross）——的作品，如何将"家"的概念重塑为切罗基与克里克离散群体内的去殖民化（decolonizing）国家建构工程。本项目依托表演研究（performance studies）、文学史（literary history）、美国印第安研究（American Indian Studies）、性别研究（gender studies）与景观研究（landscape studies）等跨学科领域，考察这些创作者的诗歌、叙事、小说、戏剧与表演作品。

本研究亦关注这些创作者如何在创作中运用本土认识论（indigenous epistemologies）与双文化能力（bicultural competence），以及如何将"家"的概念脱离物理场域，转而扎根于身体之中进行再创造、再想象与再概念化。笔者认为，哈乔的《我们如何成为人类》（How We Became Human）、罗斯的《兔子骗水獭及其他故事》（How Rabbit Tricked Otter and Other Stories）以及斯塔尔的《红路》（The Red Road），均打破了"美国印第安身份"的浪漫化刻板印象，不仅重写了非印第安人编造的历史，同时也对自身的身份叙事与表演进行批判性审视，对相关话语提出了质疑。

历史上的创作者，如亚历山大·波西（Alexander Posey）、约翰·罗斯（John Ross）与约翰·罗林·里奇（John Rollin Ridge），均在克里克族与切罗基族历史的危机时刻——即族群迁徙与血泪之路（Trail of Tears）、俄克拉荷马州建州与部落政府的瓦解——为民族叙事做出了重要贡献。

那么波西、里奇与罗斯的直系与文学后裔，如何在民族主义的框架下回应这些相同议题？每位当代创作者又如何通过自身的身份类别定义自我：女性、原住民、部落成员、克里克族、切罗基族、公民、创作者、演员、音乐家与叙事者？这些身份如何为每位创作者构成去殖民化工程？这些创作者如何对抗长期以来乃至当下仍由媒体塑造的"典型印第安人（the Native American）"形象所固化的美国印第安刻板印象？这些创作者如何受到其生活、创作与工作其中的美国印第安社会的影响？这些创作者如何在各自的族群内部调和政治公民身份与文化公民身份？她们的创作、表演与文化批判，如何在美国印第安历史的关键时期回应国家建构：以及在泛印第安部落主义（pan-Indian tribalism）时代，原住民族群如何存续，又如何在21世纪重塑自身？这些创作者在作品中探讨的更大的政治与文化议题包括：主权、土地抗争、博彩业、性别议题、原住民健康、语言存续、仪式与舞蹈等。