The Memory Healing Of Trauma: Memory Study In Louise Erdrich’s The Plague Of Doves

As one of the most famous and prolific Native American women writers,Louise Erdrich has received wide attention from the critics.The Plague of Doves is her twelfth novel.Healing trauma has always been a subject of ethnic literature,and Erdrich’s work is no exception.The lynching event in the novel brings insurmountable trauma to both the victims and their descendants.From the perspective of trauma and memory theory,the thesis tries to analyze the family,historical and cultural traumas encountered by Native Americans in Louise Erdrich’s The Plague of Doves,and explain how Native Americans heal their trauma in their own way.This thesis consists of three parts: introduction,body and conclusion.Chapter One is the introduction part which introduces Louise Erdrich’s life,her literary achievement,reputation and her novel The Plague of Doves.This chapter expounds studies on Erdrich and her works at home and abroad as well.The trauma and memory theory is presented in this chapter to provide a theoretical framework for this thesis.From Chapter Two to Chapter Four is the body part of this thesis.This thesis analyzes the novel from three aspects: individual memory,historical memory and cultural memory.Chapter Two focuses on the family trauma resulting from the family’s indifference.The individual heals his own family trauma in his individual memory with music.Chapter Three elaborates on the double historical trauma of life and land brought by the lynching event and the urbanization of Pluto town.Through traditional oral narrative,Native Americans restore the truth of lynching in history and trace the history of town building.Therefore,Native Americans are encouraged to re-examine the historical memory and heal the historical trauma.Chapter Four explores the cultural trauma suffered by Native American communities.Native Americans fail in many attempts to survive in the white society,which eventually leads to cultural trauma.When Native Americans discover the symbols of their traditional culture and decide to return to their native tribes,they recover the lost cultural memory of their own tribe and heal the cultural trauma.Chapter Five is the conclusion part which reviews the major discussions in each chapter.It also points out the significance of this thesis to Native Americans’ survival and development.On the basis of summarizing the main points,this thesis points out that memory healing of trauma is the deep theme of the novel The Plague of Doves.By advocating for Native Americans to speak out,Louise Erdrich tries to subvert the history and racial discrimination of the white mainstream culture.Through an in-depth interpretation of the novel,this study reveals Louise Erdrich’s concerns for American history and ethnicity,as well as her deep concerns for the living conditions of Native Americans.