A Study Of The Character Father Damien In The Last Report On The Miracles At Little No Horse:an Androgyny Perspective

This thesis aims to analyze the character Father Damien in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, with the theory of Virginia Woolf’s androgyny.Androgyny refers to a combination of male and female characteristics in one person. It’s the complete and perfect state of human gender. The concept has a long history in human society and Virginia Woolf puts forward this notion into the field of literary criticism. It is one of Woolf s major contributions to the female literature and feminists refer to it as an ideal personality for both males and females. As an experiencing manner and an expectation of ideals, the meaning and value of androgyny are worthy of research and attention.Louise Eridrich is a prolific and versatile contemporary Native American writer. Her writings especially her novels have won her great popularity and readership both home and abroad. In her novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse she creates a man-acting woman priest Father Damien, displaying both masculine and feminine traits. He ministers to the Ojibwes on the Little No Horse reservation through years’of famine and epidemic, forgiving and absorbing their sins, learning their language and becoming their friend. Virginia Woolf s theory of androgyny provides a new perspective to understand this disguised priest, and worthy of deep exploration. The Androgynous qualities in Father Damien reflect Erdrich challenges to the binary oppositions of gender, and her attempt to understand and reconcile between Catholic and Ojibwe beliefs, and exploration into the great love that she feels in both cultures. Whether Catholic or Ojibwe, male or female, there is a shared human experience among us.This thesis is composed of four chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction. It introduces Louise Erdrich’s life story, her writings and researches about her novels. It also makes an introduction to her novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and the literature review.Chapter Two introduces the theory of androgyny. It introduces the origin of androgyny, various ideas of androgyny and Virginia Woolf s androgyny. Androgyny is the complete and perfect state of human gender. It is Virginia Woolf who put forward this concept in the field of literary criticism. According to Woolf, Androgyny is not only a writer’s optimal state, but also an ideal relationship between two sexes. Chapter Three analyzes Father Damien’s androgynous qualities. The first part in this chapter is about the traditional binary oppositions between male and female; the second part is about Father Damien’s androgynous qualities, including Agnes’s masculine traits, Father Damien’s feminine features, Father Damien’s embodiment of harmonious androgyny, and Ojibwe people’s acceptance of Agnes/Father Damien’s cross-dressing; the third part is the significance of Father Damien’s androgyny.Chapter Four is the conclusion. By creating the androgynous Father Damien, Erdrich deconstructs the gender binary system and comes up with a solution to the problem of cultural conflicts, that is, harmonious coexistence between genders, cultures and religions.