Studies in American Humor · 2020 · 14 citations · 0 references
HumanitiesCultural StudiesEthnic StudiesAmerican ArtIndigenous StudiesNative American StudiesIndigenous HistoriesIndigenous LiteratureIndigenous Queer StudiesNative American ArtNative American Gender StudiesNative American LiteratureAmerican Romantic LandscapeCamp HumorContemporary Native American ArtIndigenous Trickster TraditionsNative American TricksterTransgender Indigenous IdentitiesTrickster Narratives
ABSTRACT This article explores the many ways Cree artist Kent Monkman uses irony, parody, and camp humor to subvert mythologized visions of the American West that excluded Native Americans or treated them as a dying people, frozen in time. Monkman thrusts himself into large-scale western landscapes in the form of a transgender, camp alter ego named “Miss Chief” who disrupts multiple romanticized views of the American landscape. In true trickster fashion, Miss Chief at once shapes and disrupts history, serving as a corrective to a settler narrative that imagined a future without a Native presence.