Louise Erdrich's 20th Century Novels in the Context of Native American Literary and Cultural Traditions (Problems, Symbolism, Main Images)

Abstract

This thesis is for the Candidate of Philology degree in specialization 10.01.04. – Literature of Foreign Countries. – Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University. – Kyiv, 2010. The dissertation is a first in home literary studies attempt to complexly analyse the 20th century novels of an outstanding Native American writer Louise Erdrich. The basic research goals are the novelist’s work objective evaluation, its problems, symbolism, main images analysis in the context of Indian literary and cultural traditions, determining L. Erdrich’s personal contribution into the multi-cultural US literature. The research methods used by Native, Non-Native and post-Soviet literary critics to interpret the complicated phenomenon of L. Erdrich’s prose are considered in the paper. In addition, the writer’s search of style in the context of Native American and American literatures of the second half of the 20th century is shown in the thesis.As there are no overall techniques to interpret indigenous prose in Ukrainian literary criticism, the study of Louise Erdrich’s fiction with taking into account Indian literary principles is offered in the research. The writer’s work is a product of a great personal creativity influenced by oral tradition and postmodern literature. It also offers a rich canvas of Anishinaabe mythology and world perspective, the same as Catholic religious beliefs. Her prose also offers the following Anishinaabe and pan-Indian cultural insights and ceremonies as pipe ceremony, naming, purification, healing, vision quest, first hunting, traditional marriage, pow-wow, etc. Her exquisite psycho-analytical novels, offering a profound immersion into “female space”, are unique literary accomplishments fictional reality of which has often been confused with magical realism literary reality.Cultural, historical and literary contexts of the novelist’s prose are studied in the dissertation. The impact of Ojibwe folklore images, basic Indian and universal archetypes on L. Erdirch’s work are considered. Moreover, main motifs, plot schemes, semantics of colors, protagonists’ names and numbers used in the writer’s novels are discussed. This helps understand L. Erdrich’s fictional intentions, reflects the influence of important social, cultural and historical peculiarities of a Native person’s integration into a contemporary multi-cultural American society. Her prose is of a strong political influence in which the writer shows the dramatic consequences of social and cultural assimilation of Native peoples. On the examples of her characters’ lives she demonstrates the ruining impact of boarding school system on indigenous children. As a result of Indian “holocaust”, prohibition to speak Anishinaabe language and to practice native beliefs and ceremonies on their land many Ojibwe people became the victims of inferiority complexes and self-hatred. L. Erdrich shows the psychological drama of a contemporary Indian: complete return to the former way of life is as impossible as full acceptance of the new life style imposed by colonizers. The analyses of L. Erdrich’s fictional characters’ names, natural elements, main archetypes and images semantics, color and number symbolism are pioneer attempts in home American literary readings.Trickster-like multiple-voice narration, numerous versions of fictional truth, collective “we” and multiple allusions to Ojibwe myths make L. Erdrich’s novels often built in the form of short interconnected stories unique examples of clustering, which is discussed for the first time in home literary studies. The unique chronotope of Louise Erdrich’s prose is firstly considered in Ukrainian literary criticism. Her fictional chronotope – oneness of spherical space, vector, cyclical and generational time models – is a significant accomplishment not only of modern Indian, but also of American prose.The study of man-land relationship and its breaking after-effects in Erdrich’s prose is a substantial thesis accomplishment. The research expands the former boundaries of “mythical twins” category, offering protagonists’ and antagonists’ images discussion. Double names of novel chapters – in English and in Ojibwe – are considered to be a sign of indigenous languages revitalization. Special attention is given in the research to writer’s interpretation of the pan-Indian plot scheme and motif of road as its inseparable constituent. Detailed description of fictional characters’ initiation offers an alternative vision of urgent issues solution.The writer unites the following: various interpretations of Ojibwe folklore stories told by numerous narrators; storytelling from the perspective of collective “we”; L. Erdrich’s personal stories characteristic for communal narration, a new fictional form in Native literature. This broadens the horizons of Ukrainian literary criticism, enriching it with the knowledge of new types of narratives and compositional structure of a literary piece. The author’s unique style enriches both Native and American literary traditions. Further research in this direction is of critical importance for Ukrainian literary criticism because of the rich variety of important topics, teachings, symbols, literary techniques and genres of L. Erdrich’s sophisticated prose.