Paula Gunn Allen | |
|---|---|
 Paula Gunn Allen (2007) | |
| Born | Paula Marie Francis October 24, 1939 |
| Died | May 29, 2008(2008-05-29) (aged 68) |
| Occupation | Poet,novelist |
| Nationality | Laguna Pueblo |
| Alma mater | University of Oregon,University of New Mexico |
| Literary movement | Native American Renaissance |
Paula Gunn Allen (October 24, 1939 – May 29, 2008) was an Americanpoet,literary critic, activist,[1]professor, andnovelist. Ofmixed-race European-American,Arab-American, and Native American descent, she identified with her mother's people, theLaguna Pueblo.[2] Gunn Allen wrote numerous essays, stories and poetry with Native American and feminist themes, and two biographies of Native American women. She edited four collections of Native American traditional stories and contemporary writing.
In addition to her poetry and fiction, in 1986 she published the book,The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions,[3][4] in which she posited that Europeans had de-emphasized the role of women in their accounts ofNative American cultures because of their own biases, as they were frompatriarchal societies.[3]
Paula Marie Francis was born on October 24, 1939 inCubero, New Mexico, a Spanish-Mexican land grant village bordering theLaguna Pueblo reservation.[5][6] Of mixedScottish American,Lebanese-American, and Laguna descent, Allen always identified most closely with the Laguna, among whom she spent part of her childhood.[7] She was not enrolled in any Native nation.[8]
She was one of five children born to Ethel Gottlieb Francis, who came from theKeresPueblo people, andElias Lee Francis II.[6][9] Her Lebanese-American father owned a local store, the Cubero Trading Company, and later served as the lieutenant governor of New Mexico from 1967 to 1970.[10] Her parents were both musicians, and her brother,Lee Francis, went on to be a poet, storyteller, and educator.
Allen first went to a mission school and graduated in 1957 from a boarding school called the "Sisters of Charity" located in Albuquerque.[11] She first took an interest in writing in high school after discovering the work ofGertrude Stein.[11]
She briefly attended theColorado Women's College, then received a BA in English in 1966 and anMFA in creative writing in 1968 from theUniversity of Oregon.[10] At the University of Oregon, she studied under poetRalph Salisbury, who claimed to beCherokee and would have a heavy influence on Allen.[12][13] Allen also creditsN. Scott Momaday'sHouse Made of Dawn with restoring her sense of Native identity and alleviating a serious depressive episode while she worked on her master's degree.[9]
In 1975, she earned a PhD at theUniversity of New Mexico, where she worked as a professor and began research on tribal religions. As a student at the University of New Mexico, Allen reached out to a poetry professor,Robert Creeley, for poetic advice. He directed her to the work ofCharles Olson,Allen Ginsberg, andDenise Levertov, who all had strong influences on her work.
In the 1980s, Allen was a fellow at the Stanford Humanities Institute, where she helped coordinate a weekly women's workshop.[11]
Allen taught atFort Lewis College in Colorado, theCollege of San Mateo,San Diego State University,San Francisco State University, the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, theUniversity of California, Berkeley, and theUniversity of California, Los Angeles. She taught at UCLA from 1990 to 1999 as a professor of the English department and the UCLA American Indian Studies Center.[14]
Based on her own experiences and her study ofIndigenous cultures, Paula Gunn Allen wroteThe Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions (1986), published onBeacon Press. The book argued that the dominant cultural view of Native American societies is biased and that European explorers andcolonizers understood Native Peoples through thepatriarchal lens. Gunn described the central role women played in many Native American cultures, including roles in political leadership, which were either downplayed or missed entirely by explorers and scholars from male-dominated European cultures. Allen presented the argument that most Native Americans at the time of European contact werematrifocal andegalitarian with only a small percentage reflecting the Europeanpatriarchal pattern.[3]
Allen's arguments and research were criticized by more mainstream scholars, as well as by author and criticGerald Vizenor, who accused her of "a simple reversal of essentialism".[citation needed] TheAmerican Indian Movement ("AIM") has itself been criticized by feminists as being sexist.[15] In spite of this, Allen's book and subsequent work has been influential in feminist and women's studies, encouraging otherfeminist readings of Native American cultures and literature, both by mainstream feminists, or in related streams such asIndigenous feminism.[16][17][18]
Allen is well known as anovelist,poet andshort story writer. Her work drew heavily on the Pueblo tales ofGrandmother Spider and theCorn Maiden. It is noted for its strong political connotations. Critics have noted thatLeslie Marmon Silko, also of Laguna descent, also draws on these traditional tales.
Her novel,The Woman Who Owned The Shadows (1983), features the woman Ephanie Atencio, the mixed-blood daughter of a mixed-blood mother who struggles with social exclusion and the obliteration of self.[19]
As a poet, Allen published a collection of more than 30 years of work:Life Is a Fatal Disease: Collected Poems 1962-1995, judged to be her most successful. Allen's work is often categorized as belonging to theNative American Renaissance, but the author rejects the label.[13]
Allen's father, E. Lee Francis, was a Lebanese American and her mother, wasScottish-American andLaguna Pueblo.[citation needed] One of Allen's sisters,Carol Lee Sanchez, was a Laguna writer. She was also related toLeslie Marmon Silko.[23]
Allen was in two different marriages and divorced both times.[22] From 1981-1986, she lived in a committed relationship with American poet and author,Judy Grahn.[24][25]
Two of Allen's children preceded her in death, Fuad Ali Allen, and Eugene John Brown. Son Fuad Ali Allen died in 1972 and her other son Eugene John Brown died in 2001. She was survived by two children, Lauralee Brown and Suleiman Allen.[26][22]
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From 1981-1986, Judy lived with the Native American critic, novelist, poet, and teacher, Paula Gunn Allen. The two of them held weekly Sunday morning meetings on subjects pertaining to women's spirituality at Mama Bears Coffeehouse and Bookstore on Telegraph Avenue in north Berkeley.
