Survival,Rebellion And Redemption

Gerald Vizenor is beyond doubt one of the most diverse and prolific writers in Native American literature,whose works won numerous awards including the American National Book Award.Vizenor is renowned not only for his exquisite writing skills,but also for his rich imagination and comic treatment of Native American survival.Vizenor's Hotline Healers published in 1997 can be regarded as such a representative of describing Native Americans' indomitable spirit of survival,which has attracted attention from scholars at home and abroad.From the perspective of carnival theory,this thesis explores the humorous and subversive spirit of the Native Americans in Gerald Vizenor's famous novel Hotline Healers,thus revealing his appeal for the equality and freedom of the Native Americans.Gerald Vizenor and Mikhail Bakhtin both disclose the true nature of society through different artistic forms.The core concepts in Bakhtin carnival theory are presented faithfully in this novel,such as the carnival images,square language,carnival rituals and carnival spirit,which run through the whole novel.In the mid of the seemingly humor and mockery,Vizenor exposes the readers to the hypocrisy,corruptness and downfall occurring in the official government.Besides introduction and conclusion,the body of this thesis is composed of three chapters.Chapter One is a brief introduction to Gerald Vizenor,his novel Hotline Healers,and the literature review on it at home and abroad.Chapter Two focuses on the carnival collectives and carnival language.In order to live on,the cheaters,fools and other clown-like characters from the carnival collectives employ the distinctive or abusive language,emerging on the reservation.Chapter Three mainly employs the mockery and satire to analyze the carnival spirit of rebellion in the novel.After surviving on the reservation,the Native Americans attempt to challenge the official utterance in the carnival atmosphere.Chapter Four mainly interprets the carnival ritual and the carnival square.Though the protagonist can be a professor or a champion,he also could be mercilessly decrowned into a beggar or a vulgar in the novel.Furthermore,both the reservation and the college are places like a carnival square where the Native Americans redeem their traditional culture to develop the reservation.By elaborating on Vizenor's novel Hotline Healers,this thesis tends to express Vizenor's concern about Native American' survival predicament,which is threatened by the colonist invasion.In the carnival atmosphere,Vizenor breaks various restraints,implying his deep thoughts about the survival strategies of the Native Americans,which provides a reference for the ethnic minorities.