Constructing Representation

Dakota and Ojibwe in Minnesota Literary and Media Narratives

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/AdAmericam.26.2025.26.02

Keywords:

Native American heritage in Minnesota, contemporary Ojibwe fiction, contemporary Ojibwe non-fiction, Native American media coverage, trauma, resilience

Abstract

This paper aims to examine how groups of Indigenous Peoples, specifically Dakota and Ojibwe in Minnesota, are currently being portrayed and perceived by the general audience in the contemporary cultural environment. To this end, an analysis of two complementary elements of discourse has been conducted. These are (a) literature as an important and in-depth way of describing local reality through both fiction and non fiction, and (b) local media, which provide everyday knowledge about the state’s Indigenous communities, with a special emphasis on Minnesota’s acclaimed public media. The article’s goal, therefore, is to highlight the similarities and differences between narratives presented by literature and media.

Author Biographies

  • Agnieszka Gondor-Wiercioch, Jagiellonian University

    Associate Professor, PhD/Dr hab., teaches American, Latin American and Canadian literature at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and has published two monographs; one on multicultural models in Louise Erdrich and José María Arguedas (2009) and the other on the roles of history in contemporary Native American and Latino/a fiction (2016) and many articles related to the themes of Contemporary Native American and Latino/a Fiction, transculturation and history reconstruction, identity search in ethnic literature, hybrid and heterogenous literature, dialogic identity, ethnic and post-ethnic dilemmas, comparative literature, transnational problems and the clash and convergence of contrasting cultural models.

  • Katarzyna Kawecka, Jagiellonian University

    Holds a Master’s degree in American Studies from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her research interests focus on the representation of women and, more broadly, on socio-cultural issues reflected in American literature, as well as on the role of religion in the political and social life of the United States. She is the author of the article The Enduring Relevance of Mental Illness in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, published in Smoking Guns – Tematy dzielące Amerykę. Her undergraduate thesis explored The Bell Jar as a novel of feminism and mental illness, while her Master’s thesis examined the portrayal of women in Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women. She has also participated in conferences devoted to the position of women in the United States and in American literature.

  • Rafał Kuś, Jagiellonian University

    Holds a PhD degree in political studies (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 2011). He graduated from the Jagiellonian University with degrees in law as well as journalism and social communication. He completed Postgraduate Studies for Translators of Specialist Texts, Postgraduate Studies in Press, Publishing, and Copyright Law, and Postgraduate Studies in Rhetoric (Jagiellonian University). Dr. Kuś graduated also from the American Law School (Catholic University of America) and the ICPSR Summer Program in the Quantitative Methods of Social Research (University of Michigan). He received the Dr. Paweł Stępka Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in the Field of Electronic Media (2012). Dr. Kuś is the author of numerous scholarly papers and two monographs.

  • Maciej Smółka, Jagiellonian University

    Holds a PhD degree in cultural studies (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, 2021), and specializes in popular music studies and popular culture studies. Since 2024 he has been a Secretary general of newly-established IASPM Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe (CESE) branch, and a vice-director of the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at the Jagiellonian University. A critic and researcher of popular music, specializing in the history of American popular music, contemporary music industry, local music scenes, and specificities of popular culture. Author of Say Yes! To Michigan (AT, 2017), The Sound of a City (Peter Lang, 2023), and The Minneapolis Sound (Intellect, forthcoming).

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Published

2025-12-01

Issue

Vol. 26 (2025): Focus on Ad Americam. 25th Aniversary Volume

Section

Contributions from the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora

License

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

“Constructing Representation: Dakota and Ojibwe in Minnesota Literary and Media Narratives”. Ad Americam, vol. 26, Dec. 2025, pp. 33-56, https://doi.org/10.12797/AdAmericam.26.2025.26.02.