The Image Construction Of Indians In Fools Crow From The Perspective Of Narratology

James Welch(1940-2003)was a renowned Native American writer.He contributed his life to illuminating the richness of his culture and the heartache of its dislocation.As a pioneer of American Indian Renaissance,he had produced plenty of poems and fiction to draw people's attention to Indian culture and its survival.Fools Crow,Welch's third novel,provides the reader with a panoramic view of the Indian traditions.The book was chosen as the year's best work by Los Angeles Times in 1986 when it was first released.It has caused many reviews abroad from the perspectives of Bildungsroman theory,historicism,focalization and feminism.However,those previous studies have not yet set foot on the analysis of the image construction of Indians in the novel.From the perspective of narratology,this thesis is going to discuss how the images of Indians in American mainstream literary works and media are depicted bullhead,evil and brutal and how truthful images of Indians are constructed in Fools Crow.The thesis argues that Welch's Indian image construction is to deconstruct the stereotyped Indian images and to show his accusation of the white oppression.From the perspectives of narrative point of view,discourse patterns and narrative time,this thesis analyzes how the image subversion is achieved and the different images of Indians are rebuilt in Fools Crow.