A Study Of The Crisis And Reconstruction Of Native American Identity In LaRose From The Perspective Of Cultural Memory Theory

Louise Erdrich is one of the leading writers of Native American literature and a pioneering figure in the second wave of Native American Renaissance.Her fiction writing is an essential part of Native American literature,as well as contemporary American literature,and an essential resource for the burgeoning study of Native American literature.La Rose is Louise Erdrich’s latest novel,published in 2016,and has been described by critics as the third book in Erdrich’s Justice Trilogy,for which Louise Erdrich won the 2017 American Book Critics Association Award.La Rose is told in multiple narrative lines,the main one being the story of Landreaux Allen,who shoots his neighbour Peter’s five-year-old son Dusty while hunting and gives his young son La Rose to Peter’s family to make amends.One of the novel’s subplots follows the saga of the first generation of La Rose,while another follows Landreaux Allen’s feud with Romeo.This thesis uses cultural memory theory as a guide to analyze the novel La Rose.The thesis focuses on three aspects: the manifestations of Native American identity crisis,the causes of Native American identity crisis and the reconstruction of Native American identity,leading readers to an in-depth understanding of the difficult survival situation of Native Americans and their arduous path of survival,and offering good suggestions for Native Americans to pursue their self-identity and build their ethnic identity.The thesis is divided into three levels: the introduction,the body and the conclusion.The introduction includes an introduction and overview of Louise Erdrich and the novel La Rose,the theoretical foundations of cultural memory theory,the basic framework of the thesis and the purpose and significance of the research.The main body of the thesis is divided into three chapters:The first chapter analyzes the manifestations of Native American identity crisis.Based on cultural memory theory,cultural memory needs to be attached to the carrier of reality,and ultimately has an essential impact on ideology.Therefore,this chapter analyzes the manifestations of Native American identity crisis from the perspectives of social reality and spiritual space.The estranged relationship from the land and loss of discourse power have severely damaged the realistic foundation of Native American culture.The feeling of loneliness and confusion after estrangement from ethnic group members,as well as the emptiness and despair in the face of suffering,reflect the Native American identity crisis in the spiritual space.The second chapter analyzes the main causes of Native American identity crisis.In social reality,the mainstream society uses external factors such as injustice and partiality in policy,suppression and destruction in cultural traditions to destroy the cultural memory of Native Americans,resulting in the crisis of Native American identity.On the ideological and spiritual level,Native Americans have been in a disadvantaged and oppressed state for a long time,which has led to changes in their own ideological identity.Their blind mentality and passive compromise at the ideological level eventually lead Native Americans into an identity crisis.The third chapter analyzes the reconstruction of Native American identity.Rather than describing the suffering and identity crisis suffered by Native Americans,Louise Erdrich allows Native Americans to reconstruct their own identity through the transmission of cultural memory.By Striving for justice and equality and inheriting history and traditions,Native Americans have reshaped their social identity in real life.By absorbing the essence of culture and establishing cultural confidence,Native Americans consolidate their spiritual identity construction in a more positive way.The final section is a conclusion of these chapters.Louise Erdrich deeply expresses her examination and reflection on the Native American identity in La Rose.Through the analysis of the novel,readers can fully understand that the most effective way for Native Americans to reconstruct their identity is to firmly grasp their own “cultural memory” and strengthen the connection with their ethnic culture and their own history,so that they can pursue a free and dignified life and gain wider recognition,thus establishing their own strong cultural identity and embracing a good and happy life.