Queequeg's Coffin: Indigenous Literacies & Early American Literature

by Birgit Brander Rasmussen

Book Overview

The encounter between European and native peoples in the Americas is often portrayed as a conflict between literate civilization and illiterate savagery. That perception ignores the many indigenous forms of writing that were not alphabet-based, such as Mayan pictoglyphs, Iroquois wampum, Ojibwe birch-bark scrolls, and Incan quipus. Queequeg's Coffin offers a new definition of writing that comprehends the dazzling diversity of literature in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 082234954X
• ISBN13: 9780822349549
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: Duke University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.1"