Intimate Grammars: An Ethnography of Navajo Poetry - Softcover

Webster, Anthony K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816534195 ISBN 13: 9780816534197

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2016

Synopsis

Through the work of poets such as Luci Tapahonso, Laura Tohe, Rex Lee Jim, Gloria Emerson, Blackhorse Mitchell, Esther Belin, Sherwin Bitsui, and many others, Webster provides new ways of thinking about contemporary Navajo poets and poetry. Intimate Grammars offers an important ethnography of speaking, ethnopoetics, and discourse-centered examinations of language and culture.

Based on more than a decade of ethnographic and linguistic research, Webster’s book explores a variety of topics: the emotional value assigned to various languages spoken on the Navajo Nation through poetry (Navajo English, Navlish, Navajo, and English), why Navajo poets write about the “ugliness” of the Navajo Nation, and the way contemporary Navajo poetry connects young Navajos to the Navajo language. Webster also discusses how contemporary Navajo poetry challenges the creeping standardization of written Navajo and how boarding school experiences influence how Navajo poets write poetry and how Navajo readers appreciate contemporary Navajo poetry.

About this title

About the Author

Anthony K. Webster is a linguistic anthropologist and associate professor in the department of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Explorations in Navajo Poetry and Poetics, as well as numerous articles on Navajo language, ethnopoetics, and culture.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816534195
• ISBN 13: 9780816534197
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 208