An Analysis Of The Characters’ Cultural Identities In Love Medicine In Post-Colonial Context

As a multiracial country, the United States also has a distinguished feature of cultural pluralism. Among these diverse cultures, the Native American culture, which serves as the spiritual fulfillment of the Indians, occupies an important position. However, it is now at the center of the vortex, being stroked by other cultures. This has changed the cultural identity of the Indians, who have great difficulties in the process of identity reconstruction.Louise Erdrich is one of the most significant and productive writers in contemporary Native American Literature. As a writer with a strong sense of social responsibility, Erdrich has always been active in her career. The fate of the discriminated and oppressed Indians is the long-last focus of her novels. Her first book, Love Medicine, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1984, tells an intricate story about sixty years’ life history of two Chippewa families living on the Reservation in North Dakota. Having drawn much from the Indian mythology, tale-telling tradition and the western culture, Erdrich explored issues such as the tricksters(in the Native American tradition), the relationship between people and land, the Indians’ searching for new identities, and also their lives in the modern society.This thesis analyzes the characters’ cultural identities in the context of post-colonialism with the aid of Homi K. Bhabha’s hybridity theory. Through analyzing the arduous process of identity reconstruction, the thesis reveals the important issue about how the Native Americans reconstruct their cultural identities through cultural conflict and transition. It has great significance in understanding the Indians’ living situation and their resistance to cultural invasion.This thesis consists of the following six parts:The Introduction gives a briefing on the author and the book, together with the related study from home and abroad, and also the central argument and framework of the thesis. In Chapter one, the theoretical basis of this thesis--the background and development of post-colonialism, hybridity, and cultural identity are discussed together with the way they are employed. In Chapter two, by taking Margret, Fleur, Mosses Pillage and Nanapush as examples, the author analyzes the crisis the first generation faced—anxiety of their cultural identities. Furthermore, the loss of social orientation and the cultural invasion during the conflict of two cultures are also mentioned. In Chapter three, the author takes June and Lulu as examples to reveal the recognition of cultural identity of the second generation. Through analyzing the different destinations of the two heroines, the author shows a reasonable way to the recognition of cultural identity--neither orients themselves blindly in the white community, nor separates themselves from their traditional culture. The Native Americans must recognize their cultural identities objectively under the impact of western culture, rather than simply accepting or rejecting either of the two cultures. Chapter four exhibits the stories about Lipsha seeking for the love medicine, helping his father escape and bringing his mother’s soul home, which shows the process of cultural identity reconstruction by the youngest generation. This chapter indicates that Native Americans would better retain their tradition, and treat the post-colonial issues with an open mind. They should accept hybridity, and reconstruct their cultural identities with both cultures in order to keep flexible to various impacts.The significance of this thesis lies here: the developing process of cultural identity(anxiety, recognition and reconstruction) of the characters described by the Native American writers provides reflections to the survival and development of other people under the background of cultural pluralism. Besides, it also draws the readers’ attention on marginal people and cultures.