Black Elk Faces East: Beb Vuyk, Cultural Translation, and John G. Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks

This essay examines the work of the Dutch-Indonesian author Beb Vuyk in producing one of the first foreign-language translations of John G. Neihardt’sBlack Elk Speaks: the 1964 Dutch editionZwarte Eland spreekt. Published in the Netherlands, Vuyk’s translation connects the 1932 as-told-to autobiography of the Oglala Lakota heyoka Black Elk to the career of one of the most important Dutch-Indonesian authors after World War II, who had a prominent voice in debates on Indonesian decolonization. Linking the literary history of two different colonial contexts, Vuyk’s edition also connectsBlack Elk... Mehr ...