| Summary: | The Native American novel is inherently a “cross-cultural” device with roots both in the
western written tradition and Indigenous oral tradition; a mix that oftentimes makes these novels
difficult for readers, especially non-Native ones. What makes these texts particularly challenging is
that the need for clarification in what and who an American Indian is becomes central to the text,
and the way in which myth is enmeshed within the text plays a crucial role in answering that
question.
In this thesis essay, I examine two broad reoccurring thematic trends that emerge from
Native American literature to help illuminate the ways in which myth is used in the project of
recreating identity. Through the use of literary illustrations that represent each of these broad
trends or strains, I will examine the means through which movement either away from or towards
the larger cultural narrative aids the reader in recognizing the issues connected with each of these
strains, and how that movement achieves the ends of either healing or subversion. Next I compare
the two strains showing how myth as part of oral tradition is interwoven into a palatable western
literary form, or how through the use of postmodern devices it is used as part of historical
revisionism. The result of this analysis reveals recreating identity is not just a project for Native
Americans, but non-Natives as well, as the reader is confronted with issues about the “other” that
is a part and a genesis of our own heritage. === Thesis (M.A.)--Wichita State University, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Dept. of English
|
|---|
