A Postcolonial Ecocritical Study Of Contemporary American Indian Novels In English

Since the1970s, researchers have been exploring American Indian literature from theperspective of postcolonialism or ecocriticism. Much has been achieved in these fields.Most research emphasizes the destructive effects of inner colonialism on American Indiansociety, or regards American Indian ecological consciousness as a remedy for thedestruction inflicted by European settlers/colonizers. However they neglect the roleseconomic development, environment and animals play in colonial practice and discourse.They also fail to discern the vital role that these elements play in the construction ofanticolonial consciousness and the decolonization of the mind in the inner colonial context.Whether as a material practice or discursive practice, American inner colonialism isclosely linked with development, environment and animals. Mainstream society scrabblesfor the last resources on American Indian land on the pretext of development. Theenvironment faces the threat of degeneration, and animals lose their dwelling place and goextinct. In colonial discourse, globalization is propagandized as a mark of development. Atthe same time, the law for the protection of animals are in conflict with American Indiancultural rights promised by the treaty between the white and the Indian. Colonialconsciousness psychologically justifies political conquest by the colonist so that thecolonist can accomplish cultural penetration and domination and to make colonialconsciousness cater for white-centered consciousness. In fact, development may become aform of neocolonialism, and the association between the protection of animals and thecultural rights of the native may constitute a gray area that needs to be studied, which arethe crucial presuppositions for the study of contemporary Indian novels from theperspective of postcolonial ecocriticism. Inner colonialism has destroyed the society and environment of American Indian and the dwelling place of the animals. The binaryopposition between European American, environment, animals and American Indian is thefundamental discursive paradigm of inner colonialism.American Indian society and the once-colonized countries, in their struggle to survivein this age of globalization, find it a challenge to rethink the history and reality of innercolonialism, study the legacy and the representation of colonial experience in modern age.Because of the systematic association between colonialism and development, environmentand animals, complete decolonization and resistance against neocolonial consciousness anddiscourse require the dismantling of neocolonial consciousness and discourse ondevelopment, environment and animals. Contemporary American Indian writers are thepivotal intellectuals who attempt to subvert the colonial discourse. From the perspective ofpostcolonial ecocriticism, this research aims to investigate American inner colonialism andits association with development, environment and the dwelling place of the animal asreflected in contemporary American Indian novels. In addition, it studies four differentmodes of resisting the colonial discourse by examining the cultural implication of theimagery of the wilderness, the dam, the garden and the animal and the relation between theimagery and human beings in the following masterpieces of four American Indian novelists:Louis Owens’ Wolfsong (1991), Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water (1993),Lesley Marmon Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes (1999) and Linda Hogan’s Power (1998).With imagery as an avenue of exploring colonial psychology and power discourse, theseAmerican Indian writers have attempted to make their own explorations into theassociation between colonialism, ecology and various means of decolonizing the mind.This dissertation falls into six parts.The “Introduction” centers on the three stages of American Indian literature, the statusquo of the postcolonial and ecocritical study of American Indian literature at home andabroad and points out the problems with the critics’ neglect of colonialism and itsassociation with development, environment and animals. This dissertation seeks to exposethe damaging effect of economic development on both the environment of American Indian and the dwelling place of animals, as well as indicate the conflict between the lawof animal protection and the culture right of American Indian.Chapter one investigates the history of colonial dispossession of American Indian landand resources, probes the concept of wilderness and its destructive effect on the identity ofthe American Indian and illustrates the protagonist takes an extreme form of individualeco-sabotage against neocolonialism. This chapter firstly investigates the discourse aboutthe so called wilderness, such as the conquest of wilderness, the protection of wildernessand the development of wilderness, and its systematic association with the dispossession ofland and the deploration of resources by the colonist. In accordance with the ideas ofwilderness, the mainstream society holds prejudices of American Indian, including theimages of savage Indian, ecological Indian and vanishing Indian. Within this wildernessdiscourse lies the binary oppositions of the white and American Indian, civilization andland, which has led American Indian into the abyss of rootlessness and speechlessness, andtherefore, to some degree, accept American cultural assimilation. The protagonist, however,retains the stories of his ancestor and wrecks individual eco-sabotage to countercolonialism, reestablishing his identity by entering the wilderness to reconstruct his senseof place and identity.Chapter two focuses on the function of water in rewriting and subverting the idol ofenvironmental racism represented by a dam and the significance of water in the collectiveeco-sabotage as a method to counter neocolonialism. This chapter shows the meaning ofwater in traditional American Indian culture, namely, the quality of creativity, sacrednessand circular movement, then reveals the harmful effect of the dam on the American Indian,such as the damage of their lifestyle, forced displacement and uprooting of their culture.The double power of water gives American Indian individuals a new beginning in life, andAmerican Indian mythological characters and people in reality combine their power withthat of water, demolish the dam in a way of collective eco-sabotage illusion.Chapter three concentrates on a non-violent means of resistance against colonialismwhich is based on the material production and cultural implication of gardens. This chapter delves into the garden ethics of the mutual benefit for the land and the human beings in anancient Indian garden, which is cultivated in subsistence economy. The ecological thinkingembedded in the stories keeps the harmony of the garden. In contrast to the indigenousgarden, the nature of a modern Victorian garden is the conquest of the American Indian andtheir land. Also, Christianity provides religious support for colonialism, which pervades theinternational plant trade. But the writer does not advocate binary opposition. The culturalcollection and the blank flower in the Ancient European gardens reflect the mythology ofancient European Great Goddess and the earth-based early European Christianity, whichrewrite the negative Christian symbol of the female, the black color and the snake. Thetrans-Atlantic axis of nativism subverts the discursive paradigm of the binary oppositionbetween white culture and native culture.Chapter four elaborates on the issue of environment of both animals and AmericanIndian, and the complexity and conflicted relationship between animal protection and thecultural rights of the American Indian in the context of international environmentalism.Linda Hogan suggests a contradictory way of resistance and cooperation of the white andAmerican Indian for the future of the land. This chapter explains the environmental justicetheme of Hogan’s works, connects the hunting of a panther in reality and the plot ofpanther killing of the novel, and explores the similar survival crisis faced both by theAmerican Indian and the native animals. The characters hold a ceremony of regeneration toresist their doomed destiny. Then this chapter traces the history of the relation of the whiteand animals from the slaughtering of wild animals to the protection of endangered animals,and illustrates that the true cause of the extinction of animals is the threat to the dwellingplace by capitalist industrialization. To transcend the binary oppositions of white andIndian, white and animals, Hogan explores the conflicts in the gray area between animalprotection and the cultural rights of the American Indian. She suggests cooperation of thewhite and America Indian, which is based on the earth rather than nation. This is amanifestation of a contradictory modality of resistance.The conclusion of the dissertation points out that the study of contemporary American Indian novels from the perspective of postcolonial ecocriticism indicates that modernAmerican Indian society cannot avoid modernity, globalization and destructivedevelopment.“Catch-up” development, which is based on the double principles ofWestern cultural hegemony and economic advancement, is unsustainable. It is in essencethe misuse of humans and natural resources in the name of development. Innercolonialism has resulted in the unbalanced development of the society and environment ofthe American Indian world. Since the landscape of American Indian world has changed, itis difficult for the contemporary American Indian to return home to be healed andconstruct their cultural identity. In addition to the negative influence of development onenvironment, environmentalism of the first world, rather than protection of theenvironment, is a war to scrabble for the last resources of poor countries and societies.Environmental problems threaten the survival of the American Indian. The solution to theproblem is related to ecology. But it is doubtful whether traditional American Indianecological rules can be applied in modern American Indian society. To protest against thesuppression upon nature and native people by the colonist, American Indian novelistsquestion the definition of agency and state that wilderness, rivers and animals are agentsthat can speak and take action to resist the colonization of the oppressed. The novelistsexpose the religious roots of colonialism, and rediscover the ecological base of earlyChristianity. The change from the means of individual eco-sabotage resistance, collectiveeco-sabotage illusion, to non-violent modality of resistance and contradictory way ofresistance, and even earth-based cooperation that transcends the boundary betweendifferent species and societies, serves to deconstruct the binary oppositions. Thecomplicated relationship between development, environment, animals and the AmericanIndian illustrates that global development should be aligned with local economicconditions. An inclusive and intercultural environmentalism, united with other socialmovements will benefit the co-existence of both humans and non-humans in the world.