Manifest Manners

Narratives on Postindian Survivance

by Gerald Vizenor

“Combining postmodern and postcolonial cultural theories with the comic wisdom of the tribal trickster, Vizenor analyzes aspects of contemporary Native American culture. He eschews what he terms ‘terminal creeds,’ that is, views of Native Americans that fix them in a certain cultural pose–usually established by anthropologists and romanticizers–and out of which they can never evolve without destroying their identity. . . . [Vizenor is] the foremost postmodern theorist of Native American literatures and cultures.”–San Francisco Chronicle.

“Seeking to recover ‘the genius of natural reason, the ironies of tribal imagination, and the shimmer of survivance stories’ from the surveillance of the social-science mentality, Vizenor affirms the comic delight in chance and coincidence manifest in oral cultures.”–Karl Kroeber, Common Knowledge.

“Manifest Manners, in its encyclopedic fashion, uses postmodern theory in an effort to identify the figures and forces responsible for initiating and perpetuating tribal oppression as well as point out and applaud legitimate advocates and warriors of tribal realities.”–Barry E. Laga, American Indian Quarterly.

Gerald Vizenor has written a new preface for this Bison Books edition. A professor of American Studies and Native American literature at the University of California, Berkeley, he is the author of more than twenty books, including the American Book Award winner Griever: An American Monkey King in China.

— ©1999