ARCUS | Arctic Research Consortium of the United States

6th Annual ARCUS Award for Arctic Research Excellence

Submitted by		Kathleen Osgood Dana
Authors		Kathleen Osgood Dana
Category		Interdisciplinary Research
Title		When a Lapp is out on the high fells: Literary Voice and Cultural Identity for the Sámi
Affiliation		Gielegas Instituhta/Sámi Studies Institute, University of Oulu - Finland, Oulu, Finland

Abstract

Vision has been considered a male paradigm for knowing and reinforced in textual traditions, whereas voice has been considered a female way of knowing, reminiscent of oral traditions. However, in native literature, such as in Sámi writing, literary voice is perhaps the dominant rhetorical and formal feature of their very dialogic writing. Using both a rhetorical analysis of voice (Bakhtin, Fuiwiler, Said) and a cultural analysis of utterance (Gunn Allen, Lincoln, Krupat), I will examine the introductory statements of purpose from Turi's Book of Lappland Valkeapää's Greetings from Lappland and Kirsti Paitto's Saamelaiset.