Laughing in the Dark: Weird Survivance in the Works of Bunky Echo-Hawk and Daniel McCoy Jr.

Abstract

“Laughing in the Dark” is a bold leap in the research on the Vizenorian paradigm of survivance. Considering the surreal, strange, outraging and simply weird elements in the artwork of Bunky Echo-Hawk and Daniel McCoy Jr. this article introduces weird survivance to encourage readers to remember that survivance is not exclusively produced by positive and pleasing images. On the contrary, it can also be effected through dark humor – a kind of dark laughter that is spurred by confrontation with the weirdness of our reality, that comes from a place of sadness, frustration or even disgust, and that spurs renewal and resistance. Rather than an attack on the word survivance that holds such a prominent position in Indigenous literary studies, “Laughing in the Dark” begs for nuance, and for the continued playful exploration of critical categories in the spirit of transmotion.