Leslie Marmon Silko Summary

Leslie Silko (born 1948) is one of the foremost authors to emerge from the Native American literary renaissance of the 1970s. She blends western literary forms with the oral traditions of her Laguna P... Read more

Even before the publication of her novel Ceremony (1977), Leslie Marmon Silko had become recognized as one of the preeminent figures in what Kenneth Lincoln calls the Native American Renaissance -- t... Read more

Despite that her most successful work is an early one, Leslie Marmon Silko remains a central voice in Native American literature. Her first novel, Ceremony (1977), is taught in colleges and universiti... Read more

In the following essay, Hirsch provides an in-depth examination of Leslie Marmon Silko's Storyteller, a collection of writings in several genres which, the critic suggests, constitutes a piece ... Read more

In the following essay, Jaskoski maintains that by contextualizing stories between cultures, Silko transforms the Laguna tales in Storyteller into universal stories. Out of her own body she pushed ... Read more

In the essay below, Krumholz describes Silko's attempts to engage non-Native American readers in Storyteller in order to inform their understanding of Laguna culture. Leslie Marmon Silko�... Read more

Critical Essay by Charles R. Larson The world that Silko creates in Ceremony is essentially a masculine one. Her story centers upon an Indian veteran named Tayo immediately after World War II. Crippl... Read more

Critical Essay by N. Scott Momaday "Storyteller" is a rich, many-faceted book. It consists of short stories, anecdotes, folktales, poems, historical and autobiographical notes, and phot... Read more

Critical Essay by Hayden Carruth Did Leslie Marmon Silko have in mind the word tao when she named the protagonist of her first novel? It's a striking resemblance, tao and Tayo. And clearly Tay... Read more

Critical Essay by Frank Macshane The literature of the American Indian is ritualistic. Its whole purpose is to establish a sense of unity between the individual and his surroundings, which include th... Read more

Critical Essay by Elaine Jahner Ceremony is about the power of timeless, primal forms of seeing and knowing and relating to all of life. The concept of an on-going communal participation in stories t... Read more

Critical Essay by Edith Blicksilver [Leslie Silko] attempts in some of her short stories and poems to explore the conflict between traditionalism and modernity. Fortunately, she has been able to tran... Read more

In the following essay, Evasdaughter asserts that, "the celestial laughter" Silko evokes in Ceremony "shows that Indian civilization is living and has the potential to transform a... Read more

In the following essay, Swan discusses the male relationships in Silko's Ceremony and how they relate to the customs and practices of the Pueblo of Laguna. Leslie Marmon Silko's novel... Read more

In the following essay, Krumholz discusses Silko's collection, Storyteller, asserting that the author "appropriates the terms of the colonizer in order to change forms of representation,... Read more

In the following essay, Taylor Evans asserts that, "One of the basic unspoken feminist assumptions—that women are essentially powerless—is debunked within Silko's texts, fo... Read more

Storytelling has played a vital role in our personal pasts and our cultural histories. Whether through word of mouth or written language, it is how the world today is connected to the world of yesterd... Read more