Reimagining Nativeness:Parody And Tricksterism In The Heirs Of Columbus

Gerald Vizenor(1934-)is one of the most prolific and innovative Native American writers.In most of his works,he writes about his land and writes for his people,dealing with critical situations of the Natives with his unique sense of humor and responsibility.His novels Griever: An American Monkey King in China(1987)and Shrouds of White Earth(2010)won him the American Book Awards.Being both a writer and a professor,he has made a great contribution to Native American literature and research.The Heirs of Columbus is an imaginative novel written in the Columbus Quincentennial in 1992,narrating the stories of the “heirs of Columbus”-a group of mixed-blood tribal tricksters-and describing the “post-indian utopia community” established by them.In the novel,there are no tragic struggles against the dominant culture,but the trickster strategies to mock the notions of history,law,culture,and assumed superiority held by the Whites.This thesis intends to explore how Vizenor utilizes parody and tricksterism as his trickster strategies to humorously and subversively reimagine Nativeness in The Heirs of Columbus.The discussion focuses on three aspects: parody of the Columbus Myth and Columbus' s journals;trickster characterization that disrupts the stereotypical representations of the Native images;techniques of trickster narrative that defy the readers' one-dimensional interpretations of the texts.Firstly,the authoritative Columbus image is violated by ridiculed descriptions of his physical and symbolic impotence through parody of the Columbus myth,and the acknowledged historical presence and absence in American history are also challenged through parody of Columbus' s journals.Secondly,trickster figures,the storyteller Stone Columbus,the rebellious poacher Felipa Flowers,and the shaman bear Samana,keep the trickster play as one way of resistance to the “evil side” and win the game at last,deconstructing the stereotypes of both the “Indians” and the “Whites”.Lastly,Vizenor employs trickster narrative to liberate his texts: the dominant language is deconstructed through wordplay;time and space are not stable elements any more and they help the heirs' trickster play;the boundary between history and reality is blurred through the nonlinear and multilayered narrative structure.Based on the above analyses,the thesis concludes that Vizenor uses parody and tricksterism as humorous weapons to remove the historical burden imposed on the Natives and imaginatively reconstruct both the images of “Indians” and “Whites” as well as the colonial history as a whole.A trickster writer,Vizenor challenges readers to read across the cultural and historical preoccupations through his trickster storytelling.Turning the tragic memories into “comic acts of survival”,he heals the Native world with humor.