Love Medicine: Construction Of Modern Amerindian Culture

The thesis takes Louis Erdrich's Love Medicine, as the research text, tries to interpret the writer's intention to construct the North American Indian culture and display her thinking on how to construct the Indian culture and her exploration to the way for the development of the Indian culture.The thesis stresses Erdrich's unusual identity, the important position the novel Love Medicine holds in the history of Indian American literature and Erdrich's attempt and exploration to the construction of the Indian culture through the novel Love Medicine, and presents necessary information on the author and the book as well as relevant background knowledge.The Indians are facing many difficulties in the process of cultural construction, among which the most important ones are the three crises including identity crisis existing crisis and spiritual crisis. This part concentrates on the perplexity characters from the two Indian families showed, and displayed the identity crisis modern Indians are now suffering and the embarrassing situation to which they were reduced after their land was lost and the spiritual anxiety caused by long time colonial extermination.The thesis holds that the proper way of cultural construction recognized by Erdrich is not simply to resist the white culture, it is not fair to put all the blame on the mainstream white culture, and instead it is appropriate to take the way to launch proper resistance against the invasion of the white culture, to focusing on mutual understanding and assistance within the Indian tribe and inherit and develop the Indian culture.The thesis holds the view that Louis Erdrich as a writer has a high sense of responsibility, and she has showed her concern with the Indians'cultural construction through the writing of Love Medicine. She has demonstrated to us all an old Indian culture at the verge of extinction by the characterization of so many different images in the novel. At the same time, she also pointed out a way for the Indians to get over with the dilemma, which she believes will work. Thus, the novel holds a unique position in the history of the Indian American literature just as Louis Erdrich has an irreplaceable place in the history of the US literature.