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Weaving Accessibility And Art In Marilou Awiakta's Selu: Seeking The Corn-Mother's Wisdom., James David Basinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Selu: Seeking the Corn-MotherÆs Wisdom, Awiakta enlists the reader to participate on the path to knowing Selu, Corn-Mother to us all. In particular, the book provides a reader with a text that blends ancient Cherokee teachings of the oral tale of Selu with contemporary Western, Appalachian-American thought and experience. Awiakta adopts and adapts Selu in order to capture and express the essence of the tale within a contemporary American aesthetic.

Though Awiakta's approach is didactic, it rises above mere teaching to achieve an aesthetic characterized by accessibility, simultaneity, and liminality. She purposely combines stories, poems, teachings, histories, and cultural …