Magic Realist Analysis Of Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine

Louise Erdrich (1954- ) is one of the most prominent Native American writers. Until now she has published three poetry anthologies, four omnibuses of children's tales and ten novels, all of which, especially novels, have received popular acclaim. Hereinto, Love Medicine, published in 1984, revised in 1993 and 2009 respectively, [1] is her representative work, which has won her considerable reputation. It is also the first Native American novel having been translated into Chinese and comes into the spotlight of Chinese readers. Critics have examined the book from different angles, and what this thesis intends to do is to analyze it from the perspective of magical realism. The thesis is composed of five parts, including the introduction and conclusion.Coming into Introduction part are a review of the history of Native American literature, Erdrich's life and major works, literature reviews about Love Medicine and an introduction of magical realism.The first chapter explores the novel's structurally magical features. The novel doesn't follow the traditional stereotype of novel creation. It is composed of seventeen chapters. Each chapter is a relatively independent short story and narrated by different characters. Consequently, there is not a clear chronological clue threading the novel and the events are not logically organized. What's more, the same event is often repeatedly mentioned by different narrators. The peculiar structure tints the novel with rich magical color.The second chapter deals with the novel's magic features in terms of its plot design. The novel abounds in ridiculous and absurd plots. The coexistence of the living and the dead, the dialogue between the human and the ghost, together with the dreamlike scenery and abnormal illusions, vividly reveal the magical quality of the novel.The third chapter analyzes the novel's magic features in its writing technique. The symbolic technique of expression is mainly examined with the following three examples: the symbolic meaning of June's death; the symbolic meaning of water imagery; and the symbolic meaning of salt and sugar.The last section is the conclusion, in which the major points of the thesis are summarized. With the marginalized status of Indian Americans, Louise Erdrich endeavors to promote her native Ojibwa culture. However, When facing the oppressive history she, couldn't express her indignation directly. Otherwise she would run risk of making fault, a kind of fault in literature. That the writer artfully employs a large number of magic factors in the novel both carries forward her native culture and effectively resists the assimilation of the mainstream.