American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Literary �giants� are� sparked� by �evolutionary,� even� revolutionary �cultural� shifts— from� societal� emancipation� to� progressive� change,� breakaway� civil� chaos �to� the� rebirth� of� a� nation.� Scholars� trace� the� 1855� American� Renaissance� to� locally� rooted� writers,� Herman� Melville� and� Ralph� Waldo� Emerson� across� to� Edgar� Allan �Poe� and� Walt �Whitman, �in� full� stride� to� define� themselves �as� emancipated� natives �of �a �new �land. �Euro-American �modernism� sprang �from� 1920s �armistice� relief� and� wasteland� angst fueled� by� the� maverick� vigor� of� Ezra� Pound� and� company.� The �antiwar �1950s �Beats �triggered �a �literary� revolution� that� catalyzed� writers �from �James �Baldwin �to �Adrienne� Rich�and� cultural �callouts� everywhere.