The decolonial perspective on America’s founding mother myth: a study of Paula Gunn Allen’s Pocahontas

Juliana Pimenta Attie

doi:10.18468/letras.2019v9n2.p27-34

Abstract

Western History and Literature have been perpetuating the image of women who have played an important role in the creation of the nation. According to those narratives, they emerge as figures that have helped European men to understand, connect and be part of native culture.Most importantly, they abandoned their own culture in order to build a more “civilized” nation in alliance with the Europeans and therefore they are seen as traitors. However, more recent studies tell us different stories about those women, stories that reveal that, in fact, these women were subjugated and/or discredited. From this perspective, this article aims at reflecting upon the oppressive patriarchal colonial forces that build the narrative of native people as the other. In that intent, we will analyze the poem “Pocahontas to Her English Husband, John Rolfe,” as well as the biography of Pocahontas, both written by Paula Gunn Allen, a native American writer, who gives voice to the silenced native woman and the tradition of her people.

Highlights

One of the main features Literary Canon that needs to be revised is the way it portrays indigenous people in the most celebrated texts throughout the cultures
We can notice it through the famous Disney cartoon that has been shaping the view of Pocahontas as the “princess warrior”, whose love for the white man is the reason for all her heroism
She tells the trajectory of Pocahontas through the point of view of the native woman

Summary

Introduction

One of the main features Literary Canon that needs to be revised is the way it portrays indigenous people in the most celebrated texts throughout the cultures. In contrast to the typical depiction of the Indian heroin as a passionate and even tragic character, Allen's Pocahontas is an important woman to her people who, due to her powers a “Beloved Woman” – which will be detailed – helped shape the fate of the Powhatan Alliance2, negotiated with Europeans, served as a spy to her people, knew the science of healing through nature and spirituality, and taught the art of cultivate tobacco.

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Results

Conclusion