A Post-Colonial Interpretation Of Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography

Under the guidance of post-colonial criticism proposed by Ashcroft,Griffiths and Tiffin,this thesis interprets Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography written by American Indian author Mourning Dove,exploring Mourning Dove’s way to speak for the colonized and analyzing how Mourning Dove presents the living circumstances and coping styles of American Indians under the oppression of colonization.Firstly,this thesis interprets how Mourning Dove speaks for the colonized by means of appropriating and inheriting.On the one hand,Mourning Dove appropriates English and the power invested in writing which is firmly controlled by the colonizer to catch the opportunity to speak.On the other hand,American Indian oral tradition is inherited by Mourning Dove in Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography and the“original voice” of Native Americans is retained as much as possible.Therefore,Mourning Dove breaks up the silence of the colonized and ingeniously preserves American Indian traditional culture.Secondly,this thesis analyzes how Mourning Dove presents American Indian existential straits and spiritual predicament in her autobiography,intending to expose the bloody colonial plunder and cultural genocide inflicted on American Indians by Caucasians.By recording the tragic history of American Indians,Mourning Dove reveals that colonialism and assimilation policy not only result in the miserable life of American Indians but also prevent them from inheriting American Indian tradition from generation to generation.Finally,this thesis explores how Mourning Dove presents resistance and integration,which are their methods to cope with the plight of being colonized,in her autobiography.By presenting how American Indians resist colonization and integrate with the mainstream,Mourning Dove advocates that,when they are confronted with colonial genocide,American Indians should take advantage of integration strategy rather than the way of resistance so as to sustain their cultural heritage.By interpreting Mourning Dove: A Salishan Autobiography from the perspective of post-colonial criticism,this thesis draws a conclusion that Mourning Dove makes an active attempt to speak for American Indians by her autobiographical narrative and she discloses the atrocity of the colonizer and miserable destiny of American Indians.Meanwhile,Mourning Dove indicates the feasible path of integrating with the mainstream for American Indians,which is obviously advanced of the age in which Mourning Dove lived.