American Indian Autobiography

American Indian Autobiography
Author:
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2008-05-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780803217492

American Indian Autobiography is a kind of cultural kaleidoscope whose narratives come to us from a wide range of American Indians: warriors, farmers, Christian converts, rebels and assimilationists, peyotists, shamans, hunters, Sun Dancers, artists and Hollywood Indians, spiritualists, visionaries, mothers, fathers, and English professors. Many of these narratives are as-told-to autobiographies, and those who labored to set them down in writing are nearly as diverse as their subjects. Black Elk had a poet for his amanuensis; Maxidiwiac, a Hidatsa farmer who worked her fields with a bone-blade hoe, had an anthropologist. Two Leggings, the man who led the last Crow war party, speaks to us through a merchant from Bismarck, North Dakota. White Horse Eagle, an aged Osage, told his story to a Nazi historian. ΓΈ By discussing these remarkable narratives from a historical perspective, H. David Brumble III reveals how the various editors? assumptions and methods influenced the autobiographies as well as the autobiographers. Brumble also?and perhaps most importantly?describes the various oral autobiographical traditions of the Indians themselves, including those of N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko. American Indian Autobiography includes an extensive bibliography; this Bison Books edition features a new introduction by the author.

Andal

Andal
Author: Priya Sarukkai Chabria
Publisher: Zubaan
Total Pages: 190
Release: 2016-03-11
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 9385932004

Ninth century Tamil poet and founding saint Andal is believed to have been found as a baby underneath a holy basil plant in the temple garden of Srivilliputhur. As a young woman she fell deeply in love with Lord Vishnu, composing fervent poems and songs in his honour and, according to custom, eventually marrying the god himself. The Autobiography of a Goddess is Andal's entire corpus, composed before her marriage to Vishnu, and it cements her status as the South Indian corollary to Mirabai, the saint and devotee of Sri Krishna. The collection includes Tiruppavai, a song still popular in congregational worship, thirty pasuram (stanzas) sung before Lord Vishnu, and the less-translated, rapturously erotic Nacchiyar Tirumoli. Priya Sarrukai Chabria and Ravi Shankar employ a radical method in this translation, breathing new life into this rich classical and spiritual verse by rendering Andal in a contemporary poetic idiom in English. Many of Andal's pieces are translated collaboratively; others individually and separately. The two approaches are brought together, presenting a richly layered reading of these much-loved classic Tamil poems and songs.

Glimpses of India

Glimpses of India
Author: John F. Riddick
Publisher: Greenwood
Total Pages: 224
Release: 1989-04-17
Genre: History
ISBN:

This selected annotated listing of 580 published personal writings of Englishmen involved in India from 1583 is intended to round out the scattered bibliographical compilations on the history of British India. Included are memoirs and autobiographies, collections of personal letters, diaries and journals, and travel narratives. The term British India is used in a broad historical sense to include Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, and Burma during the relevant periods of British influence. With a few exceptions, the volume excludes official minutes, reports, and correspondence. Although each work provides a unique account of the British experience, a number of broad trends emerge. One of the most striking is the initial experience of parting from family and homeland and embarking on what was, before 1830, a five to seven-month sail around the Cape of Good Hope. Travel within India, on the other hand, was a high point of the British experience and thus provides the subject for much of the writings. Other topics include the violence of the British-Indian conflict, and the constant danger of death from disease, accidents, or other mishaps. Light is also cast on the role of the Western missionaries, who were active in education, translating Indian languages, and writing dictionaries. Although they effected little change in such practices as infanticide, the missionaries did reinforce the prevalent British view of the Indians as savages. The bibliography is divided by time period, beginning with the British entry into India in 1583, the rise and consolidation of British India, and the Indian mutiny (1857-1858). The subsequent sections list and annotate writings of Imperial India, the period of reform and reaction that followed (1905-1920), and India's move toward independence. It will serve as an important reference for historians of the period, and will be a useful addition to college and university libraries.

The Indian Autobiographies in English

The Indian Autobiographies in English
Author: R. C. P. Sinha
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2013
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1481784935

Self-portrayal has become an integral part of modern culture and India equally shares this universal mood. A large number of Indians have committed themselves to the writing of their autobiographies in English as well as in the regional languages. It is exciting to know that those in English have been produced by some of the finest minds of the country, such as Raja Rammohun Roy, Lal Behari Day, Surendra Nath Banerjea, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose, P.C. Roy, S. Radhakrishnan, Sachchidanand Sinha and Nirad C. Chaudhury. It is highly fascinating to read their testimony in the shaping of modern Indian history. Even more exciting are the glimpses into their private lives and the interrelation between the portrait and the man. This study is the first comprehensive attempt to critically evaluate these works and shows how in modern times Indians begin to get over the proverbial Indian inhibition in talking of private affairs hesitatingly first and then with a devastating even embarrassing frankness. This study, in passing also tries to dispel the impression that no autobiographical tradition existed in ancient and medieval India.

Native American Autobiography

Native American Autobiography
Author: Arnold Krupat
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
Total Pages: 566
Release: 1994
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780299140243

Publisher description: Native American Autobiography is the first collection to bring together the major autobiographical narratives by Native American people from the earliest documents that exist to the present._ The thirty narratives included here cover a range of tribes and cultural areas, over a span of more than 200 years. From the earliest known written memoir--a 1768 narrative by the Reverend Samson Occom, a Mohegan, reproduced as a chapter here--to recent reminiscences by such prominent writers as N. Scott Momaday and Gerald Vizenor, the book covers a broad range of Native American experience. Editor Arnold Krupat provides a general introduction, a historical introduction to each of the seven sections, extensive headnotes for each selection, and suggestions for further reading, making this an ideal resource for courses in American literature, history, anthropology, and Native American studies. General readers, too, will find a wealth of fascinating material in the life stories of these Native American men and women.

Autobiography of a Yogi

Autobiography of a Yogi
Author: Paramahansa Yogananda
Publisher: The Floating Press
Total Pages: 860
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1775411451

The autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952) details his search for a guru, during which he encountered many spiritual leaders and world-renowned scientists. When it was published in 1946 it was the first introduction of many westerners to yoga and meditation. The famous opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci said about the book: "Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended with priceless superphysical information-much needed to balance the Western material efficiency with Eastern spiritual efficiency-come from the vigorous pen of Paramhansa Yogananda, whose teachings my husband and myself have had the pleasure of studying for twenty years."

Who Was Who in British India

Who Was Who in British India
Author: John F. Riddick
Publisher: Greenwood
Total Pages: 472
Release: 1998-07-23
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

With over 5,000 entries, this book provides information on the men and women who played a significant role in British India from 1583 to 1947. In addition to military and governmental leaders, the book includes entries on leaders in business, the church and missions, art and literature, and science and medicine. An effort has also been made to include the women who played an important role in India. The only other reference work on the subject, Buckland's Dictionary of Indian Biography, was published in 1906. This book updates that work, covering the last 40 years of the British Raj, and provides more balanced coverage of types of leaders.

Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography

Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography
Author: Edward W. Said
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2008-01-08
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 023151154X

Edward W. Said locates Joseph Conrad's fear of personal disintegration in his constant re-narration of the past. Using the author's personal letters as a guide to understanding his fiction, Said draws an important parallel between Conrad's view of his own life and the manner and form of his stories. The critic also argues that the author, who set his fiction in exotic locations like East Asia and Africa, projects political dimensions in his work that mirror a colonialist preoccupation with "civilizing" native peoples. Said then suggests that this dimension should be considered when reading all of Western literature. First published in 1966, Said's critique of the Western self's struggle with modernity signaled the beginnings of his groundbreaking work, Orientalism, and remains a cornerstone of postcolonial studies today.