Coyote Kills John Wayne: Postmodernism and Contemporary Fictions of the Transcultural Frontier

Carlton Smith. Coyote Kills John Wayne: Postmodernism and Contemporary Fictions of theTranscultural Frontier. Hanover: UP of New England, 2000. 1 67 pp.

This study addresses two important issues in contemporary criticism and theory: first, the relationship between multicultural texts and postmodernism, and second, the role of the frontier and of discourses of discovery in contemporary narrative. While the works of Native American and other contemporary ethnic writers may share postmodern practices without embracing postmodern critique, Smith argues that these works profit from being read in the context of contemporary critiques of subjectivity and representation. Postmodern displacement of master narratives opens a space in which the concept of the frontier, for example, can be renegotiated by those whom conventional representations have excluded. Smith explores these issues in alternating chapters, three dealing with important Native American writers (Leslie Marmon Silko,Thomas King, and Louise Erdrich) and...