A Radiant Curve: Poems and Stories (review)

A general inquiry about Navajo poetry often lists Luci Tapahonso's name near the top. Tapahonso is one of the earliest-documented Navajo poets in publication. Her newest poetry collection, A Radiant Curve, confirms her place near the top of any list in American literature. Whether there exists an audience to receive her information into the American literature canon is arguable. A similar argument exists when determining whether any traditional Native Americans still exist. The semantic relationship tribes have with the English language is mostly one of invisibility, but when it does transpire there are often layers and layers of investigation and interpretation that need to occur before the manifestation. Indeed, the context to any tribal writing using the English language is calculated and complicated at best.

A Navajo-language speaker would readily disclose that the English word poetry does not exist in the Navajo worldview. As a fellow Navajo poet, I would simply induce that the word is nonexistent because it is exclusive of audience. The Navajo worldview is centered on audience; many taboos exist for this purpose. Similar to how anthropologists have observed the central role of shamans in so-called primitive societies, shamans keep the tribe together with ceremonial lore to maintain a societal worldview. Shamans are the orators, the healers, the chanters. Again, a Navajo-language speaker would readily disclose that an equivalent word for shaman exists in the Navajo worldview. The English translation of hataalii is often written as "medicine man." However, it is just a personified version of hataal, to sing, chant, or speak with an audience in mind.

And as most tribes, the Navajo people are especially good at adapting. The original role of hataalii is losing audience; the political strategy to eliminate tribes within the United States has made it essential for tribes to integrate and hybridize their worldviews to maintain a solidified tribal identity. As more Navajo writers continue to publish in the English language, the more they are confirming that English has become a tribal language. Using that tribal English, Tapahonso presents her audience with intricate and varied methods to reimagine and resume a tribal existence in midst of the persistent industrial and capitalist ideology surrounding tribal borders. Her gingerly textured tribal phrases could easily be dismissed when analyzed via Western origins of literary criticism. Although Tapahonso writes utilizing the English language as a vehicle, her writing is meant to be heard. As a tribe with an imposed orthography, the Navajo people often stress the importance of their oral transmission of data, song, and worldview. Thus, Tapahonso affirms her position as storyteller (chanter/singer) and includes an audio disc of her reading selected poems and singing her songs. The inclusion of this recording is a welcome supplement. Her selected poems include longtime audience favorites "Hills Brothers Coffee" and "Raisin Eyes."

Tapahonso eloquently maneuvers her audience with such ease: at times, she is a dictionary, historian, theologian, shopping mall. She masters rhetorical distance and space with the use of her local and global tactics. Tapahonso opens A Radiant Curve with "The Beginning was Mist," a poem many could argue is simply creating context or prologue. Rather, Tapahonso has it listed equally in the table of contents with other similar poems throughout the book. Those localized poems are meticulously placed throughout the text to serve the social function of poetry. Tapahonso's oral tradition ideology requires a subordination of style (what many would identify as the literary art via Western standards) to the subject (audience memory and engagement) because it is so readily connected to tribal wellbeing. Thus, tribal writers hold an even greater burden when offering their texts as contributing social elements to collective survival.

On a global level, Tapahonso's volume is vital as a noninvasive academic text. As a scholar, Tapahonso contributes to numerous fields of study: linguistics, history, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and so forth. The real functioning art of this volume stems from the sestina "The Canyon was Serene." Tapahonso...