Review of \u3ci\u3e Native American Representations: First Encounters, Distorted Images, and Literary Appropriations\u3c/i\u3e Edited by Gretchen M. Bataille

The misrepresentation, commodification, and distortion of indigenous identities have existed from the moment of first contact between Native peoples and Europeans, Editor Gretchen Bataille observes in the introduction to Native American Representations. The problems are familiar to literary scholars: power relations produced by colonization determine who has the authority to represent Native peoples in the broader culture, and these representations in turn tend to reinforce European dominance and to obfuscate the violence, and even the fact, of colonization. The questions of how Native peoples have been represented throughout the centuries of colonialism, by whom, and for what purposes comprise the focus of this anthology. Most of its contributors analyze the problems raised by historical and contemporary representations in a series of essays that examine a range of interdisciplinary materials including postcolonial theory, WPA papers of the 1930s, popular films, and the production of collaborative personal narratives. Other contributors examine the ways in which Native thinkers and scholars engage and contest conventional representations, defining their societies and cultures on their own terms and providing critical perspectives on European colonization in such forms as fiction, oral histories, films, and traditional stories. The contributors are newer as well as established scholars in Native American studies, including Native writers Katherine Shanley and Louis Owens. Together, they aim both to provide critical perspectives on conventional representations and, in some cases, to offer challenging alternatives more consistent with the concerns of Native communities. The essays cover a wide range of subjects that focus for the most part on the twentieth century, and they include a number of topics that have already received scholarly attention as well as more original and innovative studies. Because one of the goals of Native American Representations is to examine critically who has the authority to represent Native peoples, a subject that has also been the focus of recent debates in the field, the collection would have been strengthened by more contributions by Native scholars and a greater emphasis on Native perspectives. In addition, the collection as a whole (with a couple of notable exceptions) is remarkably inattentive to images and voices of Native women, even though the silencing and marginalization of Native women is one consequence of the colonial processes that the volume seeks to criticize. Overall, however, Native American Representations provides a valuable addition to the growing body of scholarship in the field on the complicated relationships among race, colonialism, and representation

Gold catalysed selective oxidation of alcohols in supercritical carbon dioxide

The oxidation of benzyl alcohol to benzaldehyde over different supported gold catalysts in supercritical carbon dioxide has been investigated in a high-pressure batch reactor. Only molecular oxygen was used as oxidant and no base was needed. Different supports and preparation methods for the catalysts were tested and parameters like reaction temperature, pressure and molar ratios of the components were varied to study the catalytic behaviour. Gold colloids deposited on a titania support (1%Au/TiO2) yielded a conversion of 16.0% after 3h and a high selectivity to benzaldehyde of 99% under single-phase conditions. The reaction rate was significantly higher than in a corresponding "solvent-free” reaction without CO2. Even higher rates were found when a CO2-expanded phase was present. Monitoring of the oxidation in a high-pressure view cell via infrared transmission spectroscopy unravelled a slowdown of the reaction rate above 15% conversion. In addition, 1-octanol and geraniol were oxidised as well under similar conditions, yielding conversions of 4% and 10%, respectively, with selectivities towards octanal and geranial of 90% and 30%. Thus, the combined application of gold-based catalysts and supercritical CO2 offers an interesting alternative to the known methods of alcohol oxidatio

Probing Active Sites During Palladium-Catalyzed Alcohol Oxidation in "Supercritical” Carbon Dioxide

Structural information has been gained during aerobic benzyl alcohol oxidation in "supercritical” carbon dioxide at 150 bar on alumina-supported palladium by X-ray absorption spectroscopy while monitoring simultaneously the performance of the catalyst. The reduction of the catalyst by benzyl alcohol could be monitored by the analysis of the near-edge region of the Pd K-edge. The palladium constituent was mainly in metallic state under operating conditions. Partial reoxidation was observed when only oxygen in "supercritical” carbon dioxide in the absence of alcohol was fed. The catalytic activity of the PdOx/Al2O3 catalyst during benzyl alcohol oxidation was comparable to that in a conventional continuous fixed-bed reactor and depended on the oxygen concentration in the feed. The rate of alcohol conversion went through a maximum when the oxygen concentration was increased. At maximum rate, part of the palladium was in the oxidized state. Upon further increase of the oxygen concentration, the activity decreased because of the formation of surface palladium oxide. The reaction rate in "supercritical” carbon dioxide was strikingly higher than that observed for the corresponding liquid-phase oxidatio