Round the kitchen table: the poetic work of Joy Harjo

• Autor(a) principal: Guedes, Maria Helena de Sousa
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/11944
• topic: Literatura - Teses de mestrado; Ameríndios - Literatura; Tradição oral - Estados Unidos da América

This dissertation aims to explore the human and cultural heritage of North American Indigenous communities, through the example of the poetry of Joy Harjo, in order to increase understanding and respect for the diversity of life supported by the sharing Mother, the Earth. In the attempt to ponder a pluri-dimensional viewing of the world, an approach will be developed in the context of American Indian cultural expression, particularly the contemporary poetry of Joy Harjo, of Muskogee-Creek descent, who suggests a dialectics of spirituality to help human beings in the search for responses to issues and dilemmas both of American Indians and the global multicultural human community. In this process, she focuses on the dynamics of interrelationships combined with personal and collective activism. By sharing ideas and attitudes as well, everyone can learn how to cultivate and educate an awareness of responsibility towards dignifying and valuing diversity. To sum up, in accordance with the crucial role of literature in the evolution of human interrelationships with less social tension and fewer conflicts, by cultivating the dialectics of spirituality articulated by Harjo, human beings can share life in harmony and justice at the same time as we maintain a balanced coexistence with other elements and beings. This dissertation is composed of an introduction and theoretical contextualization of the theme in Part I, an interpretative study of Joy Harjo’s poetry in Part II, and the conclusion in Part III.