In his introduction to this book, Eric Cheyfitz insists “the two aims … are to provide readers familiar with these literatures a specific political context within which to read them, in line with a paradigmatic shift taking place in the field … and to introduce new readers to these literatures within that context” (ix). The order in which he lists these priorities is important: this is not a book which merely summarizes the complexities of American Indian studies. Instead, the essays in this volume indulge in these complexities. Newcomers to the field may find the arguments here stimulating, along with the field itself. But the sophistication of the language used to pinpoint an exact placement of these literatures within the canon of postcolonial literature may prove a little too specialized for the general reader.

The consistent argument throughout these essays is for the inclusion of Indian American literature under the banner of postcolonial literary studies. In his richly detailed opening essay, “The (Post)Colonial Construction of Indian Country,” Cheyfitz himself concludes, “the teaching of Native literatures as literature of resistance and liberation is imperative” (109). In a neatly linked follow-up essay, “American Indian Fiction and Anticolonial Resistance,” Arnold Krupat and Michael A. Elliott press this notion ever harder: “the ultimate work of this body of fiction may be nothing less than the reimagination of Native identities and communities to the point where they become truly postcolonial” (173). An extensive number of texts are covered in this chapter to back up this point, simultaneously spearheading the book's polemic and introducing new readers of native literature to an idea of the depth of the subject.

In “Cannons and Canonization” Kimberly M. Blaeser offers a highly theoretical approach to the verse output of members and descendants of the many and varied tribes, weaving in and out of each with dexterity, and providing biographical backgrounds and close analysis of the lyrics which should stimulate the newcomer. She, too, insists upon the importance of this literature: “Native American poetry is a multiform, complex, many-voiced canon of impressive works” (263). Blaeser also usefully provides an extensive list of editions of this poetry available.

With further chapters detailing American Indian theatre, biography and non-fiction, Cheyfitz has provided a panoramic, if not comprehensive, guide. It should stimulate new interests in the field, but in parts the book is too theoretically complex for such an undertaking, and may better suit those who are familiar with the field.