Hybridizing Identity: Erdrich As Mixed-blood A Postcolonial Study Of The Novels Of Louise Erdrich

Erdrich’s poetry are clearly marked by her mixed-blood heritage in her representations of German American and Chippewa cultures,but a more figurative use of the term “mixed-blood” also applies to her fiction,which might be termed as.“the mixed-blood narrative”..It is a dynamic combination of two different cultural as well as literary contexts: the European American and the Native American.Accordingly,Erdrich does not aim to enact culture,as traditional storytellers do.She shows that neither conformity to contemporary Anglo values nor a retreat to native culture provides access to wholeness.In her novels,Erdrich tries to reconstruct a new historicity by collecting pieces of memories from the past.This dissertation distinguishes itself by approaching Erdrich’s five novels from four perspectives: narration,religion,mythology,and gender to examine the notion of hybridity in Erdrich’s construction of her literary world under the influence of dominant white culture and explore her reconstruction of the Native American literary identity.The present dissertation will employ the theoretical notion of hybridity and the third space(Homi Bhabha)to examine the literary hybridization techniques and their literary representations as well as functions in the novels.From hybridization perspective,the study on them will be comprehensive and original in the survey of Louise Erdrich’s literary strategy of literary and cultural preservation and resurrection in her North Dakota series.As she is one of the leading and representative figures of the contemporary native writers,the study on Louise Erdrich’s novels will not only lead to a better understanding of her works,but also help to unveil the literary resurrection strategy of the contemporary Native American writers on the whole.The dissertation begins with an examination of the evolution of the notion “hybridity” from a biological term to a cultural one,which lays a theoretical foundation of this dissertation.The dissertation then proceeds to examine the hybrid mechanism from four aspects.The second chapter approaches Erdrich’s hybridized feature from the perspective of narration.Her novels are characteristic of the multiple narrative perspectives and linguistic pluralism.The third chapter examines hybridity in Erdrich from a religious perspective and dwells on the context set by religious hybrdization where character,structure and image are examined.The fourth chapter is mainly devoted to a survey of the trickster image in Native mythological tradition and its role in challenging the white ruling orders.As a transgressor,it is free from social constraints and active in challenging taboos.The fifth chapter approaches hybridity from gender perspective,focusing on the image of berdache in Erdrich’s novels.Similar with trickster,berdache is a cultural figure with native pecularities,which has become a powerful challenge towards the white colonial system.By applying hybridization techniques,Erdrich challenges the western norms that are denying and suppressing the identity of Native Americans and their culture.Through her works,Erdrich successfully creates a third space,where her characters,armed with the privilege of hybridization,launch the revolt against the suppressive western ideology and fight for a space of their own.In constructing the space,Erdrich encourages the dynamic place of hybridization in contemporary multicultural American society.The revelation of Erdrich’s hybrid writing technique is,to a certain extent,helpful for exploring the thoughts and strategies of the contemporary Native American writers from a postcolonial perspective.Contemporary Native American writers have “changed by opening itself,also to a broader audience;thus revealing that the narrowness of the canonized definition of ‘American Indian Literature’ could not hold the great diversity of contemporary native fiction.”(Schulz 6)The hybridized discourse Erdrich has applied has also raised critical debates about the key features of Native American literature within a dominant Western discourse.In the three decades between the publication of the first and the latest in the series,the body of criticism has recognized the implications of Erdrich’s recreation of the history of Native and Western interaction.Thus the critical reception of the novels has often engaged in a debate about(post-)postmodern writing’s political impact,especially because the novel’s dedication to continued formal innovation is married to a deep and wide vision of Native and the U.S.history.