(Counter)Hegemonic Constructions of Masculinities and Gender Expansiveness in North American Indigenous Literature

Decolonial Constructions of Masculinities in North American Indigenous Writing Since the Late 1960s

Dissertation

Chiona’s project looks at literary texts by North American Indigenous authors published since the 1960s. She analyzes how these texts problematize North America’s hetero cis-patriarchy and how they re-imagine normative, hegemonic notions of masculinities. Since issues of national Indigenous identity and issues of sexuality/gender identity have often been conceived of as separate issues in the public sphere, the texts emphasize the necessity of merging issues of Indigenous identity and a diverse understanding of genders. As masculinities become especially legible when not performed by a white, male, cis, hetero, able-bodied middle-class person, the project does also look at constructions of queer masculinities. Reading the selected texts reparatively allows a focus on reparative practices that decolonize dominant colonial understandings of gender. Thus, the project frames joy, hope, humor, decolonial love, and intimacy as “radical embodied reparative practices of resurgence”.