Contribution to Book
Transformation, Myth, and Ritual in Paula Gunn Allen's Grandmother's of the Light
Contemporary Literary Criticism
(2005)
Abstract
Subtitled A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook, Paula Gunn Allen's Grandmothers of the Light guides the reader into the "void"--the Great Mystery--where the power of female thought is essential to creativity. This assertion of Native American myths concerning the origin and processes of life, a metaphorical return to the womb, is for Allen, an affirmation of gender and cultural identity, a reclamation of personal and cultural self-awareness which results in transforming energy. "She finds that in the void there is energy, and it is an energy that is self-aware." Evidence of this awareness is apparent in Allen's reinstatement of female significance into Native American myths and rituals, which she describes in "Kochinnenako in Academe" as a "feminist-tribal" exploration of gynocentric principles. Despite its, at times, didactic and contradictory qualities, Grandmothers is a significant book providing insight into a personal and empowering transformation and suggests the many complications which arise with identity formation and colliding cultures. Allen's writing evidences the impact of this collision.
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Keywords
- Native American,
- identity,
- Paula Gunn Allen,
- literature,
- women's studies
Disciplines
Publication Date
2005
Editor
Jeffrey W. Hunter
Publisher
Gale
ISBN
9780787679729
Citation Information
Tracy J. Prince. "Transformation, Myth, and Ritual in Paula Gunn Allen's Grandmother's of the Light" DetroitContemporary Literary Criticism Vol. 202 (2005) p. 20 - 26 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/tracy-prince/14/