A New Historic Interpretation Of "Love Drugs"

Since the 1960 s and 1970 s, American Indian literature has manifested its value and become an important part of American literature. Louise Erdrich, a representative writer of the second wave of “Indian Literature Renaissance”, remains a popular figure among readers and critics for her ingenious writing techniques and profound demonstration of American Indians’ life. Erdrich’s masterpiece, Love Medicine, does credit to her and also becomes the first American Indian novel translated in Chinese. Through the creation of two Indian families on reservations, Love Medicine displays the conflicts and amalgamations between the White and the Indian. It also reveals Indians’ confusion and struggle for their life. These Indians finally return to their national root and understand the connotation of “Love Medicine”.People can learn more about Indian history from this novel. However, Erdrich doesn’t give an objective account of these historic events. Instead, she creates two Indian families, attaching to smart narrative and symbolic modes, which is a textual way to illustrate the history. Here meets the views of New Historicism. Therefore, the thesis catches this pointcut and interprets the novel in the approach of New Historicism.The thesis consists of three parts, including the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. The introduction gives a brief account of Erdrich’s biography, writing experience and literature review of Love Medicine at home and abroad. The main body is made up of three chapters. Chapter One is the general introduction to New Historicism. This part emphasizes on its new historical concepts, which are also its core, namely, “the textuality of histories” and “the historicity of texts”. And then, the thesis tries to use the theory to interpret Love Medicine respectively. On the basis of “the textuality of histories”, the thesis presents how Erdrich textualizes real historical eventsand creates the text Love Medicine in Chapter Two. In Chapter Three, according to “the historicity of texts”, the thesis illustrates that Love Medicine mirrors Indians’ crises and also has its historical significance. In order to remold their history, the Indian should return to national roof and ponder over the relationship between the Indian and the White in a critical way. The conclusion is to restate the main contents and indicate the value of further studies.