On The American Indian Literature And Its Motifs In The Second Half Of The 20^th Century

In the second half of the 20 th century, the nationalities literature in America had been thriving under the great influence of the Civil Right Movement and all other ideological trends. The most distinguished among them is the American native literature. The House of Dawn, as an American native novel which won the Pulitzer Literature Prize for the first time in 1969, has been known as the symbol of the renaissance and development of American native literature ever. The subsequent native writers have been not only positively exploring and inheriting the tribal tradition,combining the simple conception of nature and religion with their works to form the unique national style, but also actively absorbing different modern ideological trends and combining them with the current situation of Indian tribes to reveal the contradictions an conflicts aroused and reconstruct the psychological process of struggle, compromise and acceptance of he Indians.The main purpose of this thesis is to discuss the cultural motifs and their cultural connotations that has been represented in the American native novels in the second half of the 20 th century, and it also discusses the details of the application on these motifs.There are six chapters in this thesis:In chapter one, the reason of the selection of the objects and its general development are discussed firstly, then the literature reviews are made. At last, the construction and the significance are also discussed.In chapter two, different cultural motifs in American native novels are general groomed in order to explore and analyze the common features that applied in the process of literal creation by the native Indian writers through the most popular and typical works, and then the images of prototypical figures that applied in the American native literature are summarized.In chapter three, the influential factors to form the cultural motifs of American native novels in American Indian traditions are mainly discussed. The traditionalcultural connotations and application are also expounded.In chapter four, the special influential factors from the perspective of the New Historism to form the cultural motifs of the American native novels are mainly discussed, then the formation and historical culture connotations of the consequential motifs of “Border” and “Return” are highly expounded.In chapter five, the motifs of “Border” and “Return” are further expounded in the view of culture through analyzing the American native works. The change of cultural border and the significance of culture inherit are respectively illustrated also.At last, the significance of the cultural connotation in the research of the motifs and the inspiration to the nationalities literature in China are both stated as the conclusion.