Two Spirit Indigenous Feminism: Complementary and Reciprocal Relationships in Native Literature

This book pairs an Indigenous Two Spirit and Indigenous feminist theoretical lens to analyze Native American literature from the nineteenth century to the present, exploring themes of national identity, tribal history, and gender ideology expressed in Native-authored texts.
With chapters on hypermasculinity in the work of John Rollin Ridge, neo-colonialism in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), queer relationships in Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) and tribal activism in Louise Erdrich's The Night Watchman (2020), Two Spirit Indigenous Feminism explores how Native authors negotiate and destabilize colonial constructions of gender and nationalism, by drawing upon an Indigenous gender-based Two Spirit ideology.
By uncovering how Native authors use literature to decolonize readers' minds and challenge patriarchal notions, Sneider shows how an inclusive Two Spirit Indigenous feminist perspective presents a new way of recognizing literature and storytelling as social activism.