Gerald Vizenor's 'almost Browne.'

Front 1

The idea of belief.

Back 1

Beliefs in narrative are explored.

Front 2

Shape-shifting stories and characters.

Back 2

The 'Trickster' character and their disruptive behaviour.

'Spiritual balance in a comic drama.'

Front 3

Tribal Lore?

Back 3

Human existence on the 'borders' is shown through the trickster character.

Front 4

Against inherent meanings/meanings are symbolic but these symbols have real power. Naming.

Back 4

'Almost Browne' who could have been 'Robert'

'Almost Browne' / 'Almost White Earth'

Front 5

'Almost told stories that made the tribe seem more real'

Back 5

'Almost' is confusing to the reader, the whole form of the narrative is tricking and open ended.

Stories are shown to have power....Foucault/Bentham's Panopticon.

Front 6

'Reservation Consumer'

Back 6

Those outside (or perhaps inside the reservation too) are willing to buy into reservation culture, despite the limited assumptions of doing so.

Front 7

'Not picture nature in a dozen bird names, but road kills.'

Back 7

The importance of visceral image / experience over traditional imagery and linguistic narrative.

Front 8

My winter breath is a word.

Back 8

Again visceral images/ experience shown to have more power/agency than symbolic language. Relate to Alan Shelton's 'Dreamworlds of Alabama', whose writing is filled with the importance of memory/ experience.

Front 9

Repetition of 'double doors'.

Back 9

Allegory for the construction of a binary chronology/ traditional American narrative.

Front 10

The dangers of post-colonialism:

Back 10

'Ethnic authenticity at the very threshold of civilisation'