Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés
Due to its unusual publishing history, E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki: With the Nez Percés has not received the critical attention it deserves. Through the book’s photographs and text, Gay stages a migratory, polyvocal narrator who rejects the unitary identity that establishes both the writer’s and the...
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| Language: | English |
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European Association for American Studies
2015-08-01
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| Series: | European Journal of American Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11038 |
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| author | Wendy Harding |
| author_facet | Wendy Harding |
| author_sort | Wendy Harding |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Due to its unusual publishing history, E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki: With the Nez Percés has not received the critical attention it deserves. Through the book’s photographs and text, Gay stages a migratory, polyvocal narrator who rejects the unitary identity that establishes both the writer’s and the colonizer’s authority. This article studies textual features such as shifting focalization, the splitting of the writing subject into multiple personae, and the humor extracted from social contradictions to show how Gay’s book both cites and challenges nineteenth century conventions governing genre and gender. Contemporary theory (Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti, Butler) provides concepts that can aid our appreciation of the text’s originality. Gay’s self-presentation cracks the restrictive nineteenth century mold of femininity and liberates the subject, even as, ironically, the author collaborates in the project of imposing on the Nez Perce the constraints legislated through the Dawes Act. Gay’s book illustrates the author’s ambivalence about the Allotment policy that attempted to end tribal organization on the Nez Perce reservation. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cbcd2f19daa144709e94a2f5659d9b7d |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1991-9336 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2015-08-01 |
| publisher | European Association for American Studies |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of American Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-cbcd2f19daa144709e94a2f5659d9b7d2025-01-06T09:10:12ZengEuropean Association for American StudiesEuropean Journal of American Studies1991-93362015-08-0110210.4000/ejas.11038Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez PercésWendy HardingDue to its unusual publishing history, E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki: With the Nez Percés has not received the critical attention it deserves. Through the book’s photographs and text, Gay stages a migratory, polyvocal narrator who rejects the unitary identity that establishes both the writer’s and the colonizer’s authority. This article studies textual features such as shifting focalization, the splitting of the writing subject into multiple personae, and the humor extracted from social contradictions to show how Gay’s book both cites and challenges nineteenth century conventions governing genre and gender. Contemporary theory (Deleuze and Guattari, Braidotti, Butler) provides concepts that can aid our appreciation of the text’s originality. Gay’s self-presentation cracks the restrictive nineteenth century mold of femininity and liberates the subject, even as, ironically, the author collaborates in the project of imposing on the Nez Perce the constraints legislated through the Dawes Act. Gay’s book illustrates the author’s ambivalence about the Allotment policy that attempted to end tribal organization on the Nez Perce reservation.https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11038identitygenderassimilationwomenallotmentAmerican West |
| spellingShingle | Wendy Harding Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés European Journal of American Studies identity gender assimilation women allotment American West |
| title | Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés |
| title_full | Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés |
| title_fullStr | Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés |
| title_full_unstemmed | Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés |
| title_short | Migratory Subjectivity in E. Jane Gay’s Choup-nit-ki, With the Nez Percés |
| title_sort | migratory subjectivity in e jane gay s choup nit ki with the nez perces |
| topic | identity gender assimilation women allotment American West |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/11038 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wendyharding migratorysubjectivityinejanegayschoupnitkiwiththenezperces |