Welch, James (Vol. 6) | Welch, James 1940–
Welch, James 1940–
Welch is an American Indian poet and novelist.
Welch says [of "Winter in the Blood"], "I have seen works written about Indians by whites … but only an Indian knows who he is." And three of the six jacket-encomiasts insist upon the book's special value as inside news of Indian life. A small part of its value may well be that, but to stress the Indianness of Welch or his novel is to indulge in the same obfuscatory inverse snobbery with which some black writers and journalists have recently burdened their work. (The oppressed can hardly be blamed for reluctance to admit that their oppressors have indeed understood them—and continued to oppress.)
"Winter in the Blood" is by no means an "Indian novel." There is nothing in it—character, incident, language or emotion—which will not be familiar or quickly comprehensible to any middle- or working-class white or black Southerner, Jew, Spanish-speaking American, homosexual,...
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