To a Child Running With Outstretched Arms in Canyon de Chelly Essay & Criticism

To a Child Running With Outstretched Arms in Canyon de Chelly Critical Overview

Known primarily as one of America's most prominent Native American writers, much of the critical attention which Momaday has received has dealt with his place in the tradition of Native American literature. Barbara Strelke, in her essay entitled "N. Scott Momaday: Racial Memory and Individual Imagination," finds Momaday's writing significantly enriched by Indian artistic traditions. "Much of the beauty of the work," Strelke writes, "rests on the Indian tradition of art, song, and poetry. Concrete nature imagery is a characteristic of Native American poetry and Momaday's concise haikulike passages are 'Indian' in their care for detail and their economy in style." In his analysis of Momaday's collection The Gourd Dancer, entitled "Beautyway: The Poetry of N. Scott Momaday," Kenneth C. Mason also stresses the poet's Indian background as the basis for one of his most important themes. Mason states that "[t]hrough his skill and the power of his rhetoric Momaday...
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