Critical Insights: Critical Insights: Louise Erdrich (PDF)

One of the great Native American novelists of the present day, Louise Erdrich has won over legions of readers with her strong attachment to the people and places of her native North Dakota, her carefully constructed plots, and her wonderfully complex and sympathetic characters. From her early success with Love Medicine to her latest offerings with The Plague of Doves and Shadow Tag, she has again and again proven herself to be a true sorceress of language.

Edited by P. Jane Hafen, Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, advisory editor of Great Plains Quarterly, Frances C. Allen Fellow, D'Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian, The Newberry Library and Clan Mother of the Native American Literature Symposium, this volume in the Critical Insights series presents a variety of new essays on one of the most widely read authors of Native American fiction. For readers who are studying Erdrich for the first time, a biographical sketch relates the details of her life and four essays survey the critical reception of Erdrich’s work, explore its cultural and historical contexts, situate Erdrich among her contemporaries, and review key themes in her work. Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the writer can then move on to other essays that explore topics like Native American identity, spiritualism, language, and assimilation issues, as well as relationships and economic and social issues. Works discussed include Love Medicine, The Antelope Wife, The Beet Queen, The Bingo Palace, The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, The Plague of Doves, and The Master Butchers Singing Club, as well as selections of Erdrich’s short fiction and poetry.

Rounding out the volume are a chronology of Erdrich’s life and a list of her principle publications as well as a bibliography for readers seeking to study this fascinating author in greater depth.