The Transit of Empire: Indigenous Critiques of Colonialism (First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies) - Softcover

Byrd, Jodi A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816676410 ISBN 13: 9780816676415

Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2011

Synopsis

In 1761 and again in 1768, European scientists raced around the world to observe the transit of Venus, a rare astronomical event in which the planet Venus passes in front of the sun. In The Transit of Empire, Jodi A. Byrd explores how indigeneity functions as transit, a trajectory of movement that serves as precedent within U.S. imperial history. Byrd argues that contemporary U.S. empire expands itself through a transferable “Indianness” that facilitates acquisitions of lands, territories, and resources.

Examining an array of literary texts, historical moments, and pending legislations—from the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma’s vote in 2007 to expel Cherokee Freedmen to the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization bill—Byrd demonstrates that inclusion into the multicultural cosmopole does not end colonialism as it is purported to do. Rather, that inclusion is the very site of the colonization that feeds U.S. empire.

Byrd contends that the colonization of American Indian and indigenous nations is the necessary ground from which to reimagine a future where the losses of indigenous peoples are not only visible and, in turn, grieveable, but where indigenous peoples have agency to transform life on their own lands and on their own terms.

About this title

About the Author

Jodi A. Byrd is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma and assistant professor of American Indian studies and English at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816676410
• ISBN 13: 9780816676415
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320