James, Meredith K.

Dr. Meredith K. James is Assistant Professor of English at Eastern Connecticut State University. She earned her B.A. from the University of the Ozarks and M.L.A. from Arkansas Tech University and then her Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma, where she was an instructor in the English Department and the Native American Studies Program.

Literary and Cinematic Reservation in Selected Works of Native American Author Sherman Alexie

2005 0-7734-6198-1
This study explores the importance of the literary “reservation of the mind” in twentieth century native American literature. The book examines the contradictory nature of what the literary reservation space means primarily in the works of Sherman Alexie, but also includes discussions of works by N. Scott Momaday, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Louise Erdrich. Authors often recreate reservation space in positive ways, so their characters are able to survive colonial imposition and administration. The book deals with how Native authors reconcile fragmented identities with the landscape, and how damaging perceptions and policies regarding Native peoples have contributed to the “reservation of the mind.”