Sherman Alexie's Discursive Reconstruction of the Native
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The Transgenerational Trauma in Sherman Alexie's
Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Anna Vacková The Transgenerational Trauma in Sherman Alexie’s Autobiographical Writing Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. 2018 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Jeffrey Alan Vanderziel, B.A. for his helpful approach and valuable advice he provided me. I would also like to thank my family, friends, and my partner for their support. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1. SHERMAN ALEXIE .................................................................................. 3 The Analysed Works ........................................................................................ 7 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ...................................... 9 You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: a Memoir ...................................... 10 2. THE CONCEPT OF TRANSGENERATIONAL TRAUMA .............. 12 3. ANALYSIS ................................................................................................ 18 4. CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 30 5. WORKS CITED ...................................................................................... -
Sherman Alexie's Reservation: Relocating the Center of Indian
ABSTRACT SHERMAN ALEXIE’S RESERVATION: RELOCATING THE CENTER OF INDIAN IDENTITY by Tracey L. Connette NOVEMBER, 2010 Director: Ellen L. Arnold, PhD DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Indian reservations are territories within the United States recognized by the federal government as land reserved specifically for American Indians. Indigenous communities still referred to as tribes have some autonomy over the reserved lands, which allow tribes freedom to maintain and preserve cultural heritage. Indian reservations are societies within the larger mainstream America, making physical and social boundaries problematic for cross-cultural exchange. Indian writer Sherman Alexie challenges the misrepresentations of Indians which originated from a EuroAmerican perspective of the “outside looking in” to these cultures. Sherman Alexie presents the Indian perspective of “looking out” at mainstream society. Rather than evoking a desire for one homogenous society, Alexie’s narratives reveal Indian identity as a distinct identity compatible with other cultures. The homogenous element Alexie does include in all of his literature is the human condition. This thesis demonstrates how Sherman Alexie conceptualizes the reservation as a center of Indian identity in three of his novels, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993), Reservation Blues (1995) and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2009). In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven , the reservation functions as a center of post-colonial trauma rather than existing as a cultural hub. In Reservation Blues , Alexie portrays the center as a process rather than location of Indian identity. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian , the center of Indian identity is the Indian character him or herself; the reservation is only elemental as part of the process of Indian experience. -
Lesson Plans and Resources for War Dances
Lesson Plans and Resources for War Dances Table of Contents 1. Overview and Essential Questions 2. In-Class Introduction + Supplements - Map of early Indian tribes, West - Census Map of Indian Reservations, 2000 - Census Map Key - Abbreviated Historical Timeline of Indian History 3. Lesson Plan Suggestions 4. City-wide Essay Contest 5. Reader Response Questions 6. Literary Log Prompts + Worksheets - Remembrances - Native Identity 7. Vocabulary List 8. Suggested Analytical Assessments 9. Suggested Creative Assessments 10. Online Resources 11. Print Resources - Review of "War Dances" by Alan Cheuse for the San Francisco Gate - Interview by Joelle Fraser for the Iowa Review These resources are all available, both separately and together, at www.freelibrary.org/onebook Please send any comments or feedback about these resources to [email protected]. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS The materials in this unit plan are meant to be flexible and easy to adapt to your own classroom. Each chapter has discussion questions provided in a later section. However, for students reading the entire book, there are several themes that connect the stories. Students should be introduced to the following key questions as they begin reading, and keep them in mind as they work through the book: How should humans respond to injustice, especially those injustices in the world that can no longer be righted? Many of the pieces in the book involve sentimental remembrances of the past, but at one point nostalgia is referred to as a "false idol" (37). What role does nostalgia play in our lives? Is it a helpful or harmful force in the world? Many of the pieces also feature characters who identify the limitations of their identity or background, but are incapable of shedding this part of themselves. -
Antiseptic Humor: Using Comedy to Confront Realities and Refute
Antiseptic Humor: Using Comedy to Confront Realities and Refute Stereotypes in the Works of Sherman Alexie by Janie Lynn Bryan June, 2015 Director of Thesis: Dr. Su-ching Huang Major Department: English Sherman Alexie, a Native American author of poems, novels, plays, and film uses humor to expose and to explore lingering cultural stereotypes affecting people of Native American ancestry. These stereotypes often conflict with their actual identity and mainstream society’s ambiguous expectations of them in modern life. Analyzing various genres from his works, I propose that Alexie’s works include both positive and negative stereotypes not only to teach but also to delight. With observation and wit, Alexie refutes prevailing cross-tribal stereotypes of alcoholism, spirituality, and residence of Indian reservations, and he confronts the deeper, serious social problems that are bypassed by such stereotyping. Like a doctor designing a treatment plan for a chronic care patient, Alexie approaches the stereotypical views of Native Americans by identifying symptoms and providing antiseptic humor to help heal the pain caused by prejudices suffered by Native Americans on and off the reservations. Antiseptic Humor: Using Comedy to Confront Realities and Refute Stereotypes in the Works of Sherman Alexie A Thesis Presented To the Faculty of the Department of English East Carolina University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Masters of Arts in English by Janie Lynn Bryan June, 2015 © Janie Lynn Bryan, 2015 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………………. 1 CHAPTER ONE: THE DRUNKEN INDIAN …………………………………………...……... 7 CHAPTER TWO: THE NOBLE INDIAN …………………………………..………………… 26 CHAPTER THREE: RESERVATION LIFE ………...……………………………………....... 39 CONCLUSION ……………………………………………..……………………………….…. 56 WORKS CITED …………………………………………………..…………………………… 61 Introduction Often in literature, authors use stereotypes as a device to refute those they address in their works. -
Self- and Counter-Representations of Native Americans: Stereotypical Images of and New Images by Native Americans in Popular Media
Intercultural Communication Studies XX: 2 (2011) LIU & ZH ANG Self- and Counter-Representations of Native Americans: Stereotypical Images of and New Images by Native Americans in Popular Media Kedong LIU & Hui ZH ANG Harbin Institute of Technology, China Abstract Historically speaking, American mainstream media have distorted Native American images, which has misled the formation of young Native Americans’ identity. The emerging Native American writer and film maker Sherman Alexie has countered the distortion by uttering his own voice and presenting his own image of the new American Indians. Alexie has replaced the reticent, subservient, disappearing “Noble Savage” with the expressive, free, and surviving new Indians. Alexie depicts successful and resilient American Indian characters and plots in films, novels (sometimes with cartoon illustrations). He has also disintegrated the stereotypical mascot and ushered in a new Indian image. Racial genocide, assimilation, and oppression are substituted by syncretism. Keywords: Native American, film, TV, radio, novel, cartoon Introduction American mainstream media have always tended to distort Native American images. The film, Dances with Wolves; the radio and TV Western, The Lone Ranger; and the novel, by Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, to name just a few, present negative or romanticized images of American Indians, either nasty or cruel, or subservient and laconic, but all disappearing. 1These distortions have severely misled the formation of young Native Americans’ identity. As a counter strategy, native writers and film workers began to counteract by putting whites in their lenses and representing their own lives and images. This study2 takes examples from several media: film, TV, radio, books, cartoons, etc., and focuses on the works of the emerging Native American Artist Sherman Alexie. -
Reservation Blues"
University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 2001 "Old maps" and "new roads"| Confronting neocolonial despair in Sherman Alexie's "Reservation Blues" Matthew R. Burkhart The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Burkhart, Matthew R., ""Old maps" and "new roads"| Confronting neocolonial despair in Sherman Alexie's "Reservation Blues"" (2001). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 1440. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/1440 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Maureen and Mike MANSFIELD LIBRARY The University of Montana Permission is granted by the author to reproduce this material in its entirety, pnovided that this material is used for scholarly purposes and is properly cited in published works and reports. **Please check "Yes" or "No" and provide signature** Yes, I grant permission ^ No, I do not grant permission Author's Signature: Date. O] Any copying for commercial purposes or financial gain may be undertaken only with the author's explicit consent. 8/98 "Old Maps" and "New Roads": Confronting Neocolonial Despair in Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues by Matthew R. Burkhart B.A. University of Colorado, Boulder, 1996 presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The University of Montana December 2001 Approved by: Chairperson Dean, Graduate School Date UMI Number: EP34541 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. -
Sherman Alexie: a Collection of Critical Essays
Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays !"Edited by Jeff Berglund and Jan Roush The University of Utah Press Salt Lake City !"#$%"&'()&'*+++, -././0+++/0123+45 Copyright © 2010 by the University of Utah Press. All rights reserved. The Defiance House Man colophon is a registered trademark of the University of Utah Press. It is based upon a four-foot-tall, ancient Puebloan pictograph (late PIII) near Glen Canyon, Utah. 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5 [cip to come] Photo credit for cover [if necessary] Permission acknowledgments [if necessary] Printed and bound by Sheridan Books, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan. !"#$%"&'()&'*+++, -././0+++/0123+45 Contents Acknowledgments xx Introduction: “Imagination Turns Every Word into a Bottle Rocket”: An Introduction to Sherman Alexie ! Jeff Berglund vii 1. Dancing That Way, Things Began to Change: The Ghost Dance as Pantribal Metaphor in Sherman Alexie’s Writing " ! Lisa Tatonetti 1 2. “Survival = Anger x Imagination”: Sherman Alexie’s Dark Humor " ! Philip Heldrich 25 3. “An Extreme Need to Tell the Truth”: Silence and Language in Sherman Alexie’s “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire” " ! Elizabeth Archuleta 44 4. Rock and Roll, Redskins, and Blues in Sherman Alexie’s Work " ! P. Jane Hafen 62 5. This Is What It Means to Say Reservation Cinema: Making Cinematic Indians in Smoke Signals " ! James H. Cox 74 6. Native Sensibility and the Significance of Women in Smoke Signals " ! Angelica Lawson 95 7. The Distinctive Sonority of Sherman Alexie’s Indigenous Poetics " ! Susan Berry Brill de Ramírez 107 !"#$%"&'()&'*+++, -././0+++/0123+45 8. The Poetics of Tribalism in Sherman Alexie’s The Summer of Black Widows ! " Nancy J. -
The Rez and the Rest
The Rez and the Rest American Indian Identity and the Negotiation of Space in Selected Works by Sherman Alexie Jenny Pascale Luco, 3033929 Master Thesis RMA Literary Studies, Utrecht University Supervisor: Professor P.R. de Medeiros Second Reader: Professor G.D.M. Huggan (Leeds University) 10 June 2011 Contents Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Within the Boundaries of the Reservation………………………………….6 Chapter 2: Boundary-Spaces…………………………………………………………..22 Chapter 3: Away from the Reservation; Towns and Cityscapes……………………....34 Chapter 4: Cosmopolitan Patriots?.................................................................................50 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..57 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...60 Appendix: Summaries………………………………………………………………….64 1 Introduction When it comes to American Indian1 literature, there is still much work to be done. As Arnold Krupat states: “Although there exists at present a solid body of criticism demonstrating the importance of Native American literature in its own right and in relation to ethnic, minority, or difference literature of a variety of kinds, Native materials still continue to be badly neglected” (Krupat vii). He traces this to media inattention to Indians, and a general lack of Indians in academia, or of academics of other ethnicities who are interested in Indians. There is a lack of awareness of American Indian issues, which not only hurts Indian people, but, as Krupat explains, “also hurts Americans in general. This is because it is simply not possible to achieve any remotely adequate understanding of the „ethical and intellectual heritage of the West as a whole‟, or, locally, that enormous powerful offshoot of „the West‟ known as the United States of America, without engaging ethically and intellectually the treatment here of blacks and Indians” (Krupat ix). -
Diplomova Prace- Hana A..Pdf
MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature Young Adults in the Writing of Sherman Alexie Diploma Thesis Brno 2010 Supervisor: Author: PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D. Bc. Hana Adámková Prohlášení: Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných literárních pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právech souvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů. Brno, 7 December 2010 Hana Adámková Acknowledgements: I would like to thank my supervisor, PhDr. Irena Přibylová, Ph.D., for her patience, kind guidance, and valuable advice. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 6 1. Children‘s and Young Adult Literature ............................................................................. 9 1.2 The Definition and Characteristics of Children‘s Literature .................................... 9 1.3 The Concept of Childhood and Brief History of Children‘s Literature ................ 11 1.3.1 Pre-modern Childhood and literature ........................................................................ 11 1.3.2 Age of Industrialization and Children’s Literature ................................................... 12 1.3.3 Postmodern Era and Children’s Literature............................................................... -
Falling Down, Falling Apart, and Finding Home in Reservation Blues
Journal of Working-Class Studies Volume 3 Issue 2, December 2018 Easton & Dixon Falling Down, Falling Apart, and Finding Home in Reservation Blues Terry Easton, University of North Georgia Castiel Dixon, University of North Georgia Abstract This essay explores journeys toward and away from ‘home’ in Sherman Alexie’s 1995 novel Reservation Blues. The textual analysis is grounded in Janet Zandy’s (1993) literal and figurative conceptions of home. Situating Alexie’s magical realism within the matrix of poverty-class, race, ethnic, and postcolonial lenses, this essay reveals a range of tragic and hopeful responses to Indigenous colonization on the Spokane Reservation. Keywords American Indian, Spokane Reservation, fiction, working class, poverty class, historical trauma Introduction In Sherman Alexie’s 1995 novel Reservation Blues, set in the town of Wellpinit, Washington, in the early 1990s, a group of five American Indians, led by Thomas Builds-the-Fire, embark on a musical journey encouraged by Black Blues Legend Robert Johnson.1 Appearing mysteriously at a reservation crossroads with his guitar, Johnson, ‘a small man with very dark skin and huge hands,’ is searching for Big Mom, the spiritual matriarch housed in the hills above Wellpinit (Alexie 1995, p. 3). Johnson, who has a striking resemblance to the Mississippi Blues guitarist of the same name, ‘made a bad deal years ago’ and needs help curing his ‘sickness’ (Alexie 1995, p. 6). Readers soon learn that Johnson is not the only character who needs help: Coyote Springs band members Thomas, Junior Polatkin, Victor Joseph, and Chess and Checkers Warm Water also need to heal. -
'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' and 'Flight'
IOSR Journal Of Humanities And Social Science (IOSR-JHSS) Volume 20, Issue 4, Ver. IV (Apr. 2015), PP 63-68 e-ISSN: 2279-0837, p-ISSN: 2279-0845. www.iosrjournals.org Enlightenment and Reconciliation in ‘The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian’ And ‘Flight’ T.Sunith Kumar "I write about the kind of Indian I am: kind of mixed up, kind of odd, not traditional. I'm a rez kid who's gone urban" - Sherman Alexie. I. Introduction Sherman Alexie is one of the most prolific Native American writers of the modern age. His works deal with Native American life especially their life on the reservation. He depicts the lives of Native Americans and illuminates their situation of mass murder, loss of language and land rights through alcohol and other forms of self-abuse. He says "Indians are an endangered species." Through his works Alexie voices his concern for the survival of American Indians as they are more susceptible to alcoholism, accidents and deaths. He started his literary career writing poems, short stories, novels and screen plays for films. His first poetry collection The Business Of Fancydancing was published in 1991 followed by I Would Steal Horses(1992?). His other poetry collections are First Indian on the Moon (1993), One Stick Song (2000) and Face (2009). His first collection of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was published by Atlantic Monthly Press in 1993. This work received a PEN/Hemingway Award for Best First Book of Fiction, and was later awarded a Lila WallaceReader's Digest Writers' Award.