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Magic and Mediation in Native American and Chicano/A Literature

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Magic and Mediation in Native American and Chicano/A Literature Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 2000 Within the Realm of Possibility: Magic and Mediation in Native American and Chicano/A Literature. Amy Greenwood Baria Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Baria, Amy Greenwood, "Within the Realm of Possibility: Magic and Mediation in Native American and Chicano/A Literature." (2000). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7337. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/7337 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. Bell & Howell Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. WITHIN THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY: MAGIC AND MEDIATION NATIVE AMERICAN AND CHICANO/A LITERATURE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English By Amy Greenwood Baria B.A. , Baylor University, 1991 M.A., Baylor University, 1993 December 2000 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9998656 Copyright 2000 by Baria, Amy Greenwood All rights reserved. _UMI __ _® UMI Microform 9998656 Copyright 2001 by Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©Copyright 2000 Amy Greenwood Baria All rights reserved ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE A METHOD TO THE MAGIC: DEFINING MAGICAL REALISM AND MEDIATION ............................ 1 TWO MAGICALLY COMING OF AGE: YOUTHFUL MEDIATIONS IN ANAYA, ERDRICH, HOGAN, AND CASTILLO ........ 26 THREE MASSACRE OF THE DREAMERS: KEY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN NATIVE AMERICAN AND MEXIC AMERINDIAN FICTION ...........................................95 FOUR A BALLOON TIED TO AN ANCHOR: THE LIMITS OF MAGICAL REALISM IN MEXIC AMERINDIAN FICTION ... 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY .............................................. 195 VITA ....................................................... 204 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Bloodlines create an overlap in Native American and Chicano/a history, but this dissertation studies these ethnic groups together for reasons beyond this. Native Americans and Chicanos/as share more than blood; overlaps occur in language, religion, and United States geography. Psychic geography for each group also presents a kinship, for in the search for a redemptive personal identity (to stand against the forcible near-extinction of Native Americans and the cultural dismissal of Chicanos/as by their "native" land) each cultural group recognizes its difference. Having very little in dominant culture upon which to build an identity, Native Americans and Chicanos/as have turned inward to create their own texts of rediscovery. To achieve this personal rediscovery, Chicano/a and Native American writers often turn to magical realism. Through an examination of contemporary novels written by and about Native Americans and Chicanos/as, this dissertation explores the impact of magical realism on cultural mediation. Whether because of mixed ancestry or a liminal, borderlands setting, characters of the novels discussed in Chapters Two and Three face conflicting iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. cultures (their own culture versus the dominant culture), and, because of magical intervention, are able to emerge from their respective conflicts with a blended sense of identity, taking the best each culture has to offer to form a new perspective. The works presented in Chapter Four study what I believe to be a uniquely Chicano/a trait: nearly magical writing. Chapter Two presents four characters and five novels as examples of the coming of age story, or bildunqsroman, and the role of magical realism in this rite of passage. They are Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, Louise Erdrich's The Bingo Palace and Love Medicine, Linda Hogan's Solar Storms, and Ana Castillo's So Far From God. Chapter Three explores adult reactions to magical realism, noting the differences in Chicano/a and Native American perspectives. Under discussion are Ana Castillo's So Far From God, Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, and Paula Gunn Allen's The Woman Who Owned the Shadows. The final chapter addresses what I have termed nearly magical literature, using Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek to illustrate this idea. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER ONE A METHOD TO THE MA6ZC: DEFINING MAGICAL REALISM AND MEDIATION Why write about magical realism in Native American and Chicano/a literature? First of all, despite cultural similarities between the two groups, writings by Native Americans and Chicanos/as have rarely been connected. And, more importantly, Chicano/a and Native American writers create novels in which the vehicle of magic realism enhances the cultural identity of its characters. I believe that magic realism serves a distinct function for both Native American and Chicano/a writers (not to mention writers of other backgrounds): that of aiding in cultural mediation between dominant society and Chicano/a or Native American culture respectively In her article "Magical Realism: The Latin American Influence on Modern Chicano Writers," Catherine Bartlett defines magical realism as "[t]he admixture of fantasy and reality, the logical development of an absurd premise to its ambiguous end and the playful devotion to language as the ultimate reality" (27). Bartlett cites the influence of magical realism as being most tangible on "the generation of Americans writing from the late 1950s through the early 1970s," such as Thomas Pynchon and Donald Barthelme (27). The time period from the 50s through the 70s ushered in the Chicano/a movement as well (Pocho in 1959, Yo Soy Joaquin in 1967), and in her 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 examination of this latter group of writers, Bartlett asserts that modern Chicano/a writers take "their literary sustenance . not from their Anglo-American counterparts," such as Pynchon and Barthelme, "but from their Mexican and South American contemporaries" (27). Bartlett ultimately concludes that "contemporary Chicano literature reflects a solidly based understanding and incorporation of major thematic and technical devices and characteristics of the new Latin American literature," such as that found in the works of Julio Cortazar, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and Jorge Luis Borges, "specifically the literary mode called 'magical realism'" (27). While Bartlett's argument that the roots of contemporary Chicano/a magic realist writing lie in Latin America seems logical, Wayne Ude finds a different source for Native American magical realist writing. Ude argues in "Forging an American Style: The Romance-Novel and Magical Realism as Response to the Frontier and Wilderness Experiences" that present-day North American magic realist writing results from the American response to frontier and wilderness, which he traces back to the European Romantic
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