AUTHORIAL CUSTODY AND STORY STEWARDSHIP: CENTERING RELATIONALITY AS AN INDIGENOUS APPROACH TO TEXTS

Abstract

This dissertation looks to position authorial custody and story stewardship as useful tools for author, audience, and critic. As a critical creative methodology, it can be used to identify custodial markers indicating the level of ownership an author or audience has of a story, which allows for the meaning-making apparatus to be engaged in an ethically informed way such that anyone applying it to a work can function as ethical stewards of stories. The custody of a text is broadly categorized as either personal, communal, or collaborative, and each has its subsequent set of instructions regarding the stewardship moving forward with the text. Applying the methodology across three Muscogee authors’ works, it becomes clear that: -Authorial custody is determinable -Story stewardship is invitational -Tribally specific critique can generate broadly applicable outcomes Furthermore, it becomes clear that the reclamation of colonized images from settler colonial custody is not only a possible outcome of literary analysis and critique, but a necessary one informed by the intentional work of artists and authors in marginalized communities. Ultimately, the methodology proves useful for authors and audiences alike, and can be leveraged as both a tool and an outcome in and of itself.