Introduction
To specify, by the terminology on the page, I am referring to the paratexts and situating the texts as objects. The paratexts consist of the covers, title pages, and publishing information that suggest the ownership, possession, authorship, and overall power dynamics in place. Although the paratexts are often heavily dominated by white printing culture, there are glimpses where we can observe Black and Indigenous authorship and agency. Secondly, by off the page, I am emphasizing the Black and Indigenous literary contributors’ efforts in their everyday lives. This includes their access to education and the English language and their complex conversations and negotiations that must be considered.
Before discussing the details of the digital exhibit, it is critical to think about how to conduct dialogues across comparative frames. I must be clear that this is not a project arguing that Indigenous and Black participants had identical experiences with early print culture. Of course, they each had their own difficulties, their own distinct needs, and their own terminology. Chadwick Allen recognize the complications of the comparative framework, revealing that “the verb compare unites ‘together’ (com-) with ‘equal’ (par)… Native peoples know too well that the abstract concept of together equal is easily turned against the political interests of specific individuals, communities, and nations and various forms of coalition.”[3] Rather than working through comparative frames that may equate their experiences, I will instead attempt to orchestrate collaborative conversations between Black and Indigenous authors. The collaborative approach is heavily inspired by Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s recent text Rehearsals for Living, where together the two writers stage contemporary conversations about Black and Indigenous solidarity.[4] Through their solidarity efforts, it is apparent that the conversation presents a safe space to talk through similarities and differences between their objectives and needs, and they are able to disagree and debate respectfully. My aspiration is that the exhibit also provides a space to imagine Black and Indigenous communities organizing and rebuilding collectively during the 17th and 18th centuries, as their solidarity work was, and still is, a rarity within the archives. Despite the white supremacist forces that have purposefully kept Black and Indigenous communities apart, ultimately their histories and futures are intertwined.
Through using a collaborative framework, I also hope that the exhibit extends Karen Weyler’s conception of collaborative authorship. Weyler writes that “Empowering Words advocates understanding authorship not as a singular act, but as a process- a process that for outsiders was collaborative, sponsored, and even collective.”[5] Her structuring of collaboration solely places an author of color with a white partner, revealing that a connection to whiteness is necessary for Black and Indigenous writers to be included in early American print culture. However, what if we staged the collaboration solely between Black and Indigenous literary contributors? What if these “outsiders,” in the words of Weyler, were granted the opportunity to share successful practices regarding negotiating the printing space and speaking for themselves? What if Black and Indigenous writers were able to discuss how to dominate the literary sphere together? I am aware that these questions may come across as speculative since there is little evidence of their collaboration within the archives. Despite that, I would argue that this speculative work is necessary because their lack of collaboration apparent in the archives speaks to the violence and silencing in the archives that is a constant occurrence for writers of color. As literary historians, one scholarly approach towards combatting this injustice is Saidiya Hartman’s concept of critical fabulation, where scholars build new narratives through archival work.[6] Hartman’s practice connects her literary background with her work as a cultural historian to “imagine what might have happened or might have been said or might have been done.”[7] For this project, I am specifically envisioning the conversations and collaborations between Black and Indigenous partakers that might have occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Because of the prioritization of both Black and Indigenous studies, I would prefer not to choose one source as a primary text. Rather, I will incorporate both Black and Indigenous authors equally throughout the conversation, with each writer complementing the others and demonstrating the constraints within print culture and the alternatives available. The texts will be arranged chronologically and will include the 1663 Bible translated by James Printer (Wowaus), “The Confession and Dying Warning of Katherine Garret” located in Reverend Eliphalet Adam’s book of sermons (1738), Phillis Wheatley’s poetry collection with “On Being Brought from Africa to America” (1773), and John Marrant’s Narrative (1785).
First, I will critically observe the paratextual materials for each of these four texts in a deliberate effort to specifically notice what is on the page. The careful identification and description of the paratexts and the contributions from secondary scholarship will both heavily help inform the second section of the exhibit, which is a creative practice where I will discuss the deliberate manipulative decisions of Black and Indigenous writers in conversation and consider their strategies to combat the Euro-American print culture collectively. The second section purposefully places Black and Indigenous collaborators in one space, and the conversation is motivated by their efforts on and off the page, so both within and outside of the archives.
[1] Simon Gikandi, “Rethinking the Archive of Enslavement,” (2015), 93.
[2] Ibid., 93.
[3] Chadwick Allen, Trans-Indigenous: Methodologies for Global Native Literary Studies. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (2012), xiii-xiv.
[4] Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Rehearsals for Living, (2022), 154.
[5] Karen Weyler, Empowering Words: Outsiders and Authorship in Early America, (2013), 23.
[6] Saidiya Hartman, “Venus in Two Acts,” (2008), 11.
[7] Ibid., 11.