An Exploration Of Indianness In Louise Erdrich's Books For Children

There are many works in American children's literature with Indians as the main characters.However,the biased and stereotyped Indian image in some classic works gives rise to Indian culture falsification among children readers.Erdrich thereby comes up with the Birchbark House series and presents a true picture of the American Indian culture.The Indiannness discussed in this thesis refers to the Indian culture which features the view of nature that believes in the spirituality and unity of all beings.This thesis attempts to demonstrate how Erdrich weaves the American Indians' view of nature into the representation of Indian culture in The Birchbark House and The Game of Silence,the first two books in the series.Here,Erdrich's cultural revision connotates ecological significance of American Indian culture in the field of children's literature.The body of the thesis consists of three chapters and explores the Indianness from three aspects: American Indians' veneration for land,the unity of American Indians and animals,and women's role in the transmission of American Indian culture.The introduction sums up the main content of the research work and provides the the theoretical basis for the core argument of the thesis.The first chapter is the literature review on the two books both at home and abroad,and points out the feasibility of this study.The second chapter examines Indianness about land in the two books through American Indians' ethic of land and their relation to land physically and mentally,which contributes to children's increasing love for land.The third chapter unfolds the spirituality of animals in the novels,and points out that the view of nature presented in children's book plays an important role in establishing the concept of coexistence and cooperation between human and animal among children.The fourth chapter investigates the role of two female elders in the novels in guiding children's understanding of nature.It expounds that Erdrich stresses women's role in the transmission of the Indian culture to future generation,aiming at presenting to readers the authentic American Indian culture.The conclusion of the thesis emphasizes the significance that in her children's novels,Louise Erdrich's representation of Indian culture,especially their view of nature,helps to cultivate children's ecological consciousness.