Tradition and narrative form in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

Abstract

Summary The story of her male protagonist's transformation into a heroic figure drives Leslie Marmon Siiko's novel Ceremony (1977). His struggle exists within the context of the feminine principle and in a world created by “Thought‐Woman”, an American Indian mythic figure. Ts'eh Montano, the woman who becomes Tayo's lover, represents the feminine principle; in loving Tayo she leads him to a recognition of female power or the power‐to‐transform. This feminist reading of Ceremony intersects with Siiko's use of the traditional stories of her tribe ‐ the Laguna/Keres of New Mexico, in particular the Yellow Woman stories of the Pueblo oral tradition. Siiko's own story, “Yellow Woman”, provides a useful template in understanding the lineaments of Ceremony. In creating her novel, Silko's impulse is, therefore, both feminist and tribal and she maintains a strong belief in the tribal stories. Like other American Indian writers, Silko roots her aesthetics in the oral tradition. She engages her readers in an act of remembering her earlier story, thus involving us in the creation of her narrative universe.