In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Art as Performance, Story as Criticism: Reflections on Native Literary Aesthetics
  • Jarrett Chapin (bio)
Craig Womack . Art as Performance, Story as Criticism: Reflections on Native Literary Aesthetics. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2010. ISBN: 978-0-8061-4065-0. 406+ pp.

Presenting original fiction next to bold literary criticism, Craig Womack, associate professor of English at Emory University, has adopted an exceptional approach to the problem of tribal sovereignty. Art as Performance, Story as Criticism: Reflections on Native Literary Aesthetics is divided into fifteen "mus(e)ing"s, which break often with the form of much scholarly work on literature in any academic jurisdiction. Riffing on jazz in order to convey the methodological aim of his project, Womack in one "mus(e)ing" discusses the evolution of jazz under a master like Miles Davis, who, fearing the stagnation of a less accessible and unfashionable bebop jazz, experimented with fusion. The result of this controlled fusion was a more accessible though nonetheless complex musical experience for listeners. Getting to the point, Womack writes that both literary criticism and theory, similarly, "have enough problems without writing them in such a fashion that no one wants to read them. If we want readers to seriously consider our ideas, they better groove, man" (77). This playful and grooving use of language enriches Art as Performance.

Jazz-like things in Art as Performance include the merging of fiction and criticism in one critical work, and Womack's vague articulation of a tribal sovereignty in his fifth section, "Caught in the Current, Clinging to a Twig," wherein he aligns with Robert Warrior's definition of the concept as an open-ended, process-based metaphysic. In his too-brief discussion of sovereignty, Womack seems to call for more inclusivity. Yet, some of his readers may fail to form any coherent appreciation of this concept due, as I've noted, to his vagueness. For Womack, sovereignty seems to be something like jazz, harmonizing a plurality of deviations under a single melody, or a story. Sovereignty, writes Womack, "that fails to interact across borders would be no sovereignty at all. Tribal nationalism should be seen as central to any mature understanding of globalism and [End Page 72] the fluidity of borders rather than some kind of obstacle blocking a superior postmodern enlightenment" (88). His discussion of Creek citizenship issues and the 1979 disenfranchisement of freedmen may not sit well with some readers who hold a different philosophy. Yet, he notes, such exceptions may pose problems for tribal sovereignty. Apparently arbitrary exclusions should lead some to question the rationale behind such decisions that seem to turn merely on the blackness of a person's skin. Womack urges artists and critics to see the content of a court trial through a literary or aesthetic lens. In this way he reimages literary scholars and artists as frontline participants in the legal decisions of their communities: "what if we consider the trial as art?" (110). Womack asks for vigilance from "novelists, literary critics, and musicians" and a greater feeling of responsibility for the affairs of the world, "not solely with mysticism regarding love of earth and respect for all relations. One must also evaluate," he writes, "whether or not such philosophies are ever enacted" (114).

Applying his critical lens in "Lynn Riggs's Other Indian Plays," Womack turns to the Cherokee writer who spent his adult life avoiding the Oklahoma community where he was raised. Womack adds that Riggs went to great lengths to avoid the complexities of home and had a system worked out with his agent, who would call the writer out of the state with urgent business during prolonged visits. For Riggs, as it was for another Native writer, D'Arcy McNickle, "home represents lack of intellectual opportunities and the inability to grow as an artist—and much more threateningly a gloomy oppression that kills off all forms of human liberation" (122). In his reading of Riggs's work, Womack places critical stress on social dynamics, which may have worked to disconnect Riggs from a coherent feeling of community and to create points of "indirection, deflection [and] substitution" (297) in his plays wherever content suggests sexual deviance. According...

pdf