Joy Harjo’s Memoir: A Portrayal of Native American Identity in the Modern World Cover Image

Joy Harjo’s Memoir: A Portrayal of Native American Identity in the Modern World
Joy Harjo’s Memoir: A Portrayal of Native American Identity in the Modern World

Author(s): Mihaela Vasile
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, American Literature
Published by: Editura Universitaria Craiova
Keywords: Native American identity; autobiography; transition; stereotype; reassertion;

Summary/Abstract: Native American women’s writings stand as evidence of their strength and resilience against the discrimination of the mainstream society. In a world where stereotypical views of Native American women dominate, Harjo portrays in her memoir Native women’s newfound identity that relies on traditional tribal elements but also acknowledges the Euro- American ones as part of it. Joy Harjo states that one major theme in her life is “this struggle with transitions: between night and day, here and there, desert and water, earth and sky, and beginnings and endings” (Crazy Brave: A Memoir 17). Crazy Brave: A Memoir shows the struggle undertaken by the writer to overcome mainstream society’s discrimination, counteract stereotypical views related to Native Americans and succeed in making her voice heard. Native American women’s current identity is a transitional one, as they still try to reassert their powerful tribal identities in a world that sees them as extinct by emphasizing the importance of traditional Native identity components, such as the land, the environment, cultural heritage and language in the process of identity reaffirmation. Joy Harjo’s autobiography stands as both a “door to memory” (14) and a milestone for the next generation of Native women and their identity construction.

  • Issue Year: 1/2018
  • Issue No: XIX
  • Page Range: 95-103
  • Page Count: 9
  • Language: English