Homing In And Reconstructing Native American Identity

Leslie Marmon Silko (1948-), dedicated to the cause of reviving Native American culture, is reputed as one of most prominent contemporary Native American writers. She has integrated strong Indian color to her works by perfectly mixing diversified genres such as poetry, painting, photographs and mythical stories into the literary pieces, by connecting the writing closely to nature, and by implementing oral tradition and storytelling. Her writings reflect a profound understanding of Native American cultural heritage and an intense awareness of Indianness.This dissertation examines how Leslie Marmon Silko, as a Native American author, interprets and reconstructs Indian identity in face of the mainstream white culture. The study focuses on Leslie Marmon Silko's three novels Ceremony, Almanac, and Gardens in the Dunes, and two of her story collections Storyteller and Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit. There always appears in her writing a modern Native American generation in the modern world who are at the crossroad of making the choice of where they belong and defining who they are. In each of these books the homing in journey to recollect Indian heritage is an elemental aspect of restoring Indian identity. The use of storytelling and mythology is conductive to the portrayal and recognition of Indianness in Silko's literary contexts. Ecofeminism is adopted as a crucial tool to demonstrate that harmonious coexistence and syncretism is the way to survival for Indian culture and identity.The first chapter generally identifies the identity formation of Native Americans and the impact of Indian traditions on Leslie Marmon Silko and her writing. The mainstream Euro-American culture, as it penetrates deeper and deeper into the core of the Indian lands, is devouring the Native American heritage. Under such circumstances, Native American culture and identity is severely threatened. Leslie Marmon Silko, along with other Native writers, seeks the cultural survival in the form of literature. The comparative approach applied in the investigation of how Native American literature differs from Euro-American writing facilitates an understanding of strategies employed in Silko's works.Chapter Two is a close study of Indian traditions as presented in Silko's writings. In view of the oral tradition, memory is the primary means for Native Americans to keep their history and culture. Indian people tell stories with what they remember when they have heard their elders telling stories. Storytelling creates a chain in time and space that links past, present and future. In the reading of Silko's storytelling, the dissertation points out that storytelling is essential for Indian culture, but it is even more significant for the storytelling to change with the time so that Native American identity can be much better fitted into the modern Euro-American society.Chapter Three investigates the relationship between the Indians and nature, Indian people's cyclic time concept, as well as the position of female figures in Native American society, and argues that Silko tries to recollect Native American identity by highlighting the distinct conception of time and nature. Silko sees herself as a composite of community, the natural environment, ancient male and female voices, and all kinds of stories in language combinations.Chapter Four moves toward the more substantive exploration of how, in Silko's writings, Native American identity can be traced back and how the identity for the hybrid Native Americans who live on the margin in society and are confused where they belong can be reconstituted. The survival and sustenance of Indian culture and identity lie in the open attitude towards other cultures, which helps promote different cultures to merge and enrich each other. Silko blazes a path with tradition, and at the same time, beyond tradition.This dissertation points out that Silko seeks to recollect Indianness by means of self-expression as well as taking in and fusing with other cultural elements. It raises the point that Silko' s presentation of Indian cultural values and patterns of development, and her approach to maintain Native American identity and vitalize Indian culture, may very well guide Native Americans to a reciprocity and smooth communication among different cultures. The adoration of nature in Indian culture as presented in Silko's writing reveals that one should realize the importance of harmonious interconnection and interdependence among all peoples and communities.