Dead Voices by Gerald R. Vizenor
"Dead Voices" by Gerald R. Vizenor is a novel that explores the experiences of American Indians living in urban Oakland, California, rather than on traditional reservations. The narrative centers on a shaman named Bagese and a seemingly autobiographical narrator engaged in a tarot-like game called wanaki, which unfolds over the course of a year from December 1978 to December 1979. Through this game, participants embody various creatures represented by cards, an act that challenges readers unfamiliar with Native American traditions. The stories within the book serve as creation tales, reflecting unique Chippewa cosmologies that diverge significantly from Eurocentric perspectives. Bagese cautions the narrator against publishing the stories, highlighting the sacredness of oral traditions and the importance of storytelling in connection with nature. The novel infuses wit and humor, setting it apart from other works by Native American authors. Vizenor’s exploration of intergenerational continuity and the concept of reincarnation further enriches the narrative, inviting readers to consider deeper cultural connections and the significance of listening to "shadows, animals, birds, and humans." Overall, "Dead Voices" challenges conventional literary forms while offering a profound commentary on identity and community within urban Indigenous contexts.
Dead Voices by Gerald R. Vizenor
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1992
Type of work: Novel
The Work
White men hear the “dead voices” to which Vizenor refers in his title, the voices of the printed word or carefully prepared lecture. These are the voices not of a ritualistic, storytelling tradition but the desiccated croakings of a literature apart from nature. In this novel, Vizenor focuses on American Indians who live in urban Oakland, California, rather than on a reservation.
Bagese, a shaman, engages in the tarotlike game of wanaki with the seemingly autobiographical narrator. The game extends from December, 1978, until December, 1979, with a prologue dated February, 1982, and an epilogue dated February, 1992. Vizenor has important things to say; he must say them even at the cost of losing some of his Eurocentric audience. His message becomes a moral imperative.
In wanaki, the participants, over an extended period, turn over cards bearing representations of bears, fleas, squirrels, mantises, crows, and beavers. When a card is turned, a participant becomes the creature on the card; accepting this demands a cognitive leap that people raised outside Native American traditions may not comfortably make. The tales that make up this novel—which is perhaps actually more a collection of short fables than a novel—are creation stories. They have to do with the quintessential forces of the universe, but Chippewa forces are far different from those considered quintessential in the Eurocentric world.
Bagese, a “tribal woman who was haunted by stones and mirrors,” warns the narrator never to publish the stories in this collection or to reveal the location of her apartment in Oakland. At the end of the year-long wanaki meditation, she disappears without a trace.
Bagese considers the best listeners for her stories to be “shadows, animals, birds, and humans, because their shadows once shared the same stories.” This suggestion of intergenerational continuity suggests a Native American concept of reincarnation. Like most of Vizenor’s writing, Dead Voices is witty, infused with a pervasive humor that distinguishes the author’s work from that of such other Native American writers as N. Scott Momaday and Sherman Alexie.
Bibliography
Blaeser, Kimberly M. Gerald Vizenor: Writing in the Oral Tradition. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996.
Hochbruck, Wolfgang. “Breaking Away: The Novels of Gerald Vizenor.” World Literature Today 66 (Spring, 1992): 274-278.
Isernhagen, Hartwig. Momaday, Vizenor, Armstrong: Conversations on American-Indian Writing. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
Lee, A. Robert, ed. Loosening the Seams: Interpretations of Gerald Vizenor. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Press, 2000.
Owens, Louis, ed. Studies in American Indian Literatures 9 (Spring, 1997). Special issue devoted to Vizenor.
Vizenor, Gerald. Interior Landscapes: Autobiographical Myths and Metaphors. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1990.