Myth in Black Elk Speaks and Aterui: The Empowering Matrix

Abstract

It is by no means a unique to any one country or region: communities of aboriginal groups come under the authority of a central admin* istration that comes to dictate the historical narratives of the countries. However, there are occasions when, in contradistinction to the dominating victors* voices, narratives of the defeated survive to tell a quite different story that continues to have social relevance and resonance several decades or even centuries after the actual occurrence of the factual events in question. Black Elk Speaks, the story of a Native American Sioux medicine man active in the nineteenth century, and Aterui, the tale of a northeastern Japanese tribal chieftain killed in the ninth century are two such narratives. Interestingly, key plot features in the two narratives show marked similarities: contact with an invading foreign power committed to economic and territorial hegemony, initial victory, followed by defeat, death, and return. Beyond the bones of structural parallels, however, lies a deeper point of comparison in the thematic heart of the narratives, namely the mythopoeic viewpoint that are their raison-d'etre. For Black Elk and Guantei Yusa1 there is truth implied in the mythic consciousness of their cultural group, and it frames their interpretation of history. Despite their formalistic disparities Black Elk Speaks is autobiographical memoir from direct personal experience, and Aterui is a solo theater piece recreated from historical records and folk tales the texts can be compared thematically due to analogous epistemological intentions to explain present