Other narratives: Representations of history in four postcolonial Native American novels (Denton R. Bedford, Louise Erdrich, Linda Hogan, James Welch)

Ever since its emergence as a mode of critical and cultural analysis, postcolonial theory has been generally marked, as many have indicated, by its avoidance of American culture. This avoidance has been justified by reference to the United States's early independence from England compared with other British colonies, or to its development into an imperialist power, or both. This line of reasoning, however, ignores the fact that the founding of the United States has been made possible through the subjugation and dispossession of the original inhabitants of North America.; Given Native Americans' condition of internal colonization in the United States, Native American novels, as a major tributary to Native American literature, are worthy of consideration in postcolonial culture studies. This study proposes to demonstrate the postcolonialism of the Native American novel by analyzing representations of history in four novels: Denton R. Bedford's Tsali (1972), James Welch's Fools Crow (1986), Louise Erdrich's Tracks (1988), and Linda Hogan's Mean Spirit (1990).; Chapter 1 reviews the definitions of postcolonialism formulated by some of the prominent postcolonial theorists and critics. It synthesizes a working definition for the purpose of this study, and explains the analytic approach adopted in this study. Chapter 2 analyzes Bedford's writing of the story of the Cherokee hero, Tsali. Chapter 3 deals with the historical and cultural recovery in Welch's Fools Crow. Chapter 4 analyzes the depiction of the collapse of the Chippewa society in Erdrich's Tracks. Chapter 5 examines the portrayal of the effects of the U.S. policy on the Osages in Hogan's Mean Spirit. Chapter 6 sums up the points raised in each of the four novels, and concludes that Native American literature must not be overlooked in postcolonial studies.