Eco-social Crisis And Construction Of Hybrid Identity In Native Indian Writing: A Postcolonial Ecocritical Analysis Of Mean Spirit

Linda Hogan is a very influential American Indian writer in the Renaissance of Native American literature,who has made tremendous contribution to the flourishing of diversity on the North American continent.One of her novels,Mean Spirit,a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize,unfolds the reckless exploitation of the oil beneath the Indian Territory in the 1920 s on the part of the white settlers.Drawing on postcolonial ecocriticism,by taking Mean Spirit as a case study,this research intends to make a systematic exploration on the collusive relationship between speciesism and racism which exposes the mean spirit of the western imperialists,and displays the great efforts the indigenous Indian people have made to resist the impact of western culture and reconstruct their identity.In light of the postcolonial ecocriticism,the author explores the ecological and social crisis caused by the greedy white colonists which consequently leads to the identity crisis of the local people.By disclosing the collusive relation between speciesism and racism and the devastating consequences of Eurocentrism and anthropocentrism,Mean Spirit exposes a mean soul and a cruel spirit of the white settlers.Firstly,their mean spirit is fully displayed in the way that the white plunder the Native Indian's land,exploit the oil resource and slaughter animals.The white's abuse of the land has caused a severe ecological crisis in the American Indian Territory.Secondly,their mean spirit is also shown in their cruel persecution of the local people.Physically,in order to rob the Native Indian of their wealth,they murder the local people inhumanly and regard the marriage with an Indian woman as an investment.Mentally,the settlers enforce assimilation in education which is indeed a form of cultural imperialism.Under the double oppressions both physically and mentally,some of the Native Indians,especially the younger generation suffer from serious identity crisis.They can neither be fully accepted by the western mainstream society nor identify with their own traditional culture.Under such circumstances,the displaced Native Indians are faced with the overwhelming task of reconstructing their identity.In the novel,Linda Hogan provides two ways to help her own people to get rid of the identity crisis.One is the two dimensional Native Indian writing by herself and the character Horse in the novel.Native Indian writing is an attempt to create the “land-based language” which is a creative resistance to speciesism and racism.By employing English,the white's language,this kind of writing puts the indigenous people at the centre of narration by reclaiming the history and eco-social cultures of the Native Indians and creating the middle place between the American Indian tradition and western modern cultures.The other way is the construction of hybrid identity.As identity construction is a dynamic process,people need to constantly recognize themselves and construct the new self under the modern historical context.To sum up,a postcolonial ecocritical interpretation of Mean Spirit reveals how the white exploit the land and oppress the indigenous people,and unfolds how the Native Indian writing and the construction of hybrid identity can help people tackle their identity crisis.