Multiple Perspectives Narrative And Cyclic Pattern In The Plague Of Doves

As the representative of the second wave of Native American Renaissance and one of the most prolific and accomplished contemporary American writers,Louise Erdrich adopts in her thirteenth novel The Plague of Doves(2008)the unique narrative technique,which differs from the traditional western monologue narrative style.Four narrators tell in turn twenty stories,both independent and interdependent,presenting readers with complicated town histories.This thesis is an attempt to analyze The Plague of Doves,and it is expected to make contribution to studies of Louise Erdrich and even Native American literature.Multiple perspectives narrative in the novel coincides with Mikhail Bakhtin's polyphonic theory and dialogism—great dialogues are formed among the narrations of four narrators of different identities and ethnic groups;at the same time,many micro dialogues are also implied in the internal world of each narrator.Erdrich controls and reduces the omniscient narrative voices as much as possible so that narrators can narrate the stories from their own perspectives with relatively independent self-consciousness and mutually reinforcing and intertwined versions.In addition,based on Native American belief in circle,this thesis analyzes the temporal dislocation and cyclic pattern adopted in the novel.It seems that the plots shuttles back and forth between the past and present with a circular structure,and the narrative time arranged by the author is of no consistence with real story time.The plotline is actually supplemented and pushed forward in twists and turns.It is believed in this thesis that such a unique narrative strategy is rather inevitable than incidental in some sense.As the essence of American Indian literature,orature has declined in mainstream American culture,but it makes a profound influence on Erdrich and her writing,which finds expression in The Plague of Doves—an organic combination of orature tradition and written text.Meanwhile,Erdrich's polyphonic narrative strategy expresses her efforts to reproduce and reconstruct histories,the equal distribution of discourse power and her diverse value orientation,which is neither a complete assimilation into the current mainstream civilization,nor a complete return to native culture.