第3章 Abstract

Leslie Marmon Silko (1948— ) is a generally ignored Native American writer among Chinese scholars of contemporary British and American literatures, but she is well-acclaimed abroad. Her first notice came through poetry. She won a National Endowment for the Arts award, an award from Chicago Review in 1974, MacArthur “Genius” Award in 1981 and Lifetime Achievement Award for Native American Writer in 1991. For a decade, Silko is among the well-discussed Native American writers on the key journal—Studies in American Indian Literatures. Silko's studies are focused upon post-colonialism, ecologism, psychoanalysis, feminism, postmodernism and cultural studies, etc. At present, with the development of multiculturalism, the theme of home becomes heatedly discussed in ethnic literature and gains increasing attention among Native American writers. Silko examines the historical, political and cultural issues in the process of the contact and collision between Native American culture and mainstream culture to express her contemplation upon the way out of the marginalized plight and the revival of national culture.

This book aims from the perspective of mind, memory and myth, to scrutinize Silko's quest for cultural home, historical home and spiritual home in Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead and Gardens in the Dunes to disclose Native Americans' living predicament under the oppression of colonialism and imperialism, exhibit their unending efforts to pursue their cultural, historical and spiritual home, and in the course of clarifying history, enable their alternative historical narrative to surface and the silenced minority groups to re-step into the space of historical discourse. By analyzing Native Americans' persistent pursuit of cultural home, historical home and spiritual home in Silko's three novels, this book, on one hand, uncovers the historical and cultural implication hidden behind home quest, on the other hand, demonstrates Silko's worries about Native Americans' living circumstances to highlight current significance of home quest.

This book consists of three parts: introduction, body and conclusion. The body part contains three chapters and each chapter deals with one dimension of home quest. Beginning with the discussion on Silko's literary achievement and reputation, the introduction lays out the main argument of this book. A complete critical survey of Silko and her works at home and abroad is conducted in this section. Besides, this part ends with a summary of each chapter.

Chapter one explores the pursuit of cultural home in Ceremony, from the perspective of traditionalism, assimilationism and nativism. Ceremony could be contextualized in the thriving of Native American movements in the late 1960s, during which, being defined “nations within”the US, Native Americans' struggles for political visibility and cultural sovereignty never ceased. With Native Americans' historical deprivation of their “home, ” it is a cultural home without the territorial boundary. Native Americans' traditionalists uphold exclusiveness to white culture and attempt to return to the tribal past to revitalize Native American traditional culture, exemplified by two famous historical movements: the Delaware Prophet's movement and the Shawnee Prophet movement. Assimilationists disassociate themselves utterly from Native American traditional culture, and unselectively immerse into American mainstream culture. Native American veterans' homing-in dilemma and universal identity crisis are the historical symptoms of assimilationism. Nativists place stress upon selective inclusiveness and selectively absorb alien culture to revive native culture in order to realize the self-decolonization and build a cultural home to which Native Americans really belong.

Chapter two focuses on triple features of memory: the continuity, politics and activism of memory, while analyzing the image “memory”, and aims to explore the relationship among memory, history and politics to criticize the Politics of Denial, the Historical Amnesia and the History of Denial popular in American society. The believers of the Politics of Denial deny the existence of alternative history, make American domestic genocide absent from the historical narrative of the US by denying history and argue against any radical action adopted by Native Americans to achieve their political rights. This novel foregrounds the continuity of the memory and the continuous connection between the past and the present, opens a space for the voices of minority groups, and denounces the popular Politics of Denial and the notion of closure of history. The politics of memory is an effective weapon against Euro-American Historical Amnesia. Memory is also a way the dead ask the living for justice. The “absence” and “presence” of the dead renders the history into the system of representation without historical amnesia. In the novel, the revolutionary actions are utilized to refute Historical Denial. The power of memory and history can give rise to active political action to revoke the collective memory of the tribal people, call upon Native Americans to struggle for the reclamation of their land and seek for their historical home.

Chapter three reveals the trauma inflicted upon Native Americans by Euro-American patriarchy, colonialism and imperialism in the 19th century. In indigenous tradition, garden and home of which they are an integral part are a microcosm of society's belief which relates to the spiritual pursuit of national identity, the restoration of human rights and the survival of tribal culture. The roots of the racism and patriarchy of American history lie in Christian theology, which serves as the justification for the subordination of women, the colonization and enslavement of Native peoples. Gnostic theology asserts that the self and the divine are identical and subverts the Church authority, affirms women's dominant role in creation myth, and greatly improves women's status. The Ghost Dance could be viewed as another automatic resistance organized by American Indians to rebel against whites' colonial oppression and characterized by non-violent and syncretic revolutionary movement, aiming to reestablish native control over Indian cultures and lands. Native American animalism can find expression in their horticultural myth. The cut-and-burn or cut-and-run horticultural philosophy practised by the whites is in stark contrast with Native American horticultural view of subsistence agriculture. After experiencing the enlightenment and resistance by gnostic myth, the syncretism and healing by ghost dance myth and the revival and rebirth by horticultural myth, the protagonists achieve their spiritual redemption while returning home.

The conclusion of this book reviews the main argumentations in each and points out that home quest is the significant theme in Silko's three novels, Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead and Gardens in the Dunes. Home quest reflects the realistic living condition of Native Americans in the haze of imperialism and colonialism, poses a question to American history and politics, and provides a solution to Native American problems in the context of contemporary globalization.

Key Words: Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, Almanac of the Dead, Gardens in the Dunes, Home Quest