University of Alberta Indigenized Modernism: Native Worldviews and the Modernist Novel by Colleen Anna Irwin A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature Interdisciplinary Studies ©Colleen Anna Irwin Fall 2009 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. •+• Canada Examining Committee Jonathan Hart, CLit/English/Film Studies Massimo Verdicchio, CLit/MLCS Irene Sywenky, CLit/MLCS Jerry Varsava, CLit/English/Film Studies Keavy Martin, English/Film Studies Karin Beeler, English, University Northern British Columbia Dedication To my sons Tony, Derek, and Sean, daughter-in-law Suzanne, and grand-daughter Lily, thank you for your emotional support lo these many years while I fulfilled a long-held dream. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to Dr. John Browning, McMaster University, who mentored me through my B.A. and M.A. levels and whose encouragement inspired me to dream big. Abstract In this thesis I propose that the neo-indigenista and Native novels of Guatemalan author Miguel Angel Asturias, Peruvian author Jose Maria Arguedas, and Native American authors N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Silko can be compared and interpreted as a unique development identified in this analysis as 'indigenized modernism.' I approach these authors' reconstructions of contemporary indigenous worlds as local manifestations of modernism that have been 'indigenized' to articulate 'mixed-blood' and mestizo identifications with indigenous cultures as assertions of heritage. An examination of contemporary modernist and sociological theory demonstrates that 'indigenized modernism' comprises two inseparable components. First, it exhibits both an adaptation and a modification of existing traits of modernist primitivism: an interdisciplinary comparison reveals the use of standard modernist techniques, the perpetuation of primitivism's idealization of Native spirituality, and the Native experience relativized by universal and/or pan-Indian elements. Additionally, the shift to Native worldviews 'indigenizes' narrative by displacing the Western worldview to create a new dominant structuring device for the inclusion of elements variously regarded as either spiritual or magical. The consistent presence of these features is both synchronic and diachronic in scope. Second, an examination of contemporary Latin American and Native criticism indicates that the insider perspective is problematic. The use of the sociological concept of the 'Stranger' repositions the authors so that they can be examined not as insiders but rather as culturally estranged individuals who 'perform' the inside by using the above strategies to consolidate the mestizo and 'mixed-blood' relationship to indigenous heritages. Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Dr. Jonathan Hart for keeping me on track during the long process of writing, and the members of my committee, Dr. Massimo Verdicchio, Dr. Irene Sywenky, Dr. Jerry Varsava, Dr. Keavy Martin, and Dr. Karin Beeler for providing valuable comments and suggestions. Table of Contents Introduction 1 Chapter One: Toward a Theory of 'Indigenized' Modernism 20 Modernism, Triangulation, Internationalization, Globalization 26 The Primitive...,..,,... ,..,.......,..„.,.,.....,.,„.,.,....,.......,...,„.., ,,..,,,,..31 Modernist Primitivism 38 'Indigenized' Modernism 49 Spirituality 62 Conclusion 70 Chapter Two: Mestizos & 'Mixed-Bloods:' Cultural 'Strangers' 74 The Authors 80 Miguel Angel Asturias 80 Jose Maria Arguedas 85 N. Scott Momaday 90 Leslie Marmon Silko 93 Indigenous Worlds 95 The 'Stranger' and Self-Definition 102 Conclusion 110 Chapter Three: Where Worlds Collide 113 'Indian Country' 121 The 'Homecoming' Motif. 123 Highland - Lowland Dichotomy 124 Asturias 124 Arguedas 130 Rural - Urban Dichotomy 141 Momaday 141 Silko 145 Conclusion 155 Chapter Four: Indigenous Worldviews: Transformative Elements 157 Transformative Elements 165 Tricksters 165 Visions, Vision Quests and Ceremony 179 Momaday and Bear Myth 190 Conclusion , ,...,....,,.,,.., ,„.,,,. 194 Conclusion 197 Works Cited 209 1 Introduction The Search for an Alternate Approach to 'Mixed - Blood' Literatures: From its origins to its execution, this study reflects more than ten years of exploring Latin American and Native representations of 'mixed-bloodedness' as a personally relevant issue. The novels of Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala), Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay), Juan Rulfo (Mexico), and later, those of Jose Maria Arguedas (Peru), all equally wonderful in their complexities, struck a resonant chord in me for their ability to explore contemporary indigenous realities, Native-White relations, the historical and personal implications of migration, urbanization, and westernization, and the ease with which issues of 'Indianness' are co-opted by class struggles. The equally complex aesthetic novels written by the early Native American writers associated with Native literary Renaissance - Scott Momaday (Kiowa-Cherokee), Leslie Silko (Laguna- Mexican-White), James Welch (Blackfoot), and Louise Erdrich (Chippewa- German) - likewise dealt with all but the class issues so that all together, both the tribal-specific and nation-specific literatures contributed to a larger understanding of 'mixed-bloodedness' as a phenomenon of sufficient import to engage the literary imaginations of writers across the Americas. In this study, narrowed to consider four of the above authors, Miguel Angel Asturias, Jose Maria Arguedas, Scott Momaday, and Leslie Silko, the contemporary novels, I intuited, were very much alike, although the various local identity-based claims, respectively anchored in local Guatemalan, Peruvian, and Native American political concerns 2 appeared to place Momaday and Silko's focus on tribal nations on opposite sides of the fence, in a manner of speaking, from Asturias and Arguedas' contributions to the development of the national literary traditions of Guatemala and Peru. Nevertheless, I initially responded to them as three literary traditions that similarly responded to contemporary Native issues and the experiences of identifying with indigenous heritages in ways that were very different from prior forms of representation in which the 'Vanishing Indian' was a foregone conclusion. Cultural influences served me well as the basis for a previous inter- American analysis of Miguel Angel Asturias and Leslie Marmon Silko and their use of meso-American sacrificial motifs.1 The culture-only approach to literary interpretation, although interesting up to a point, proved to be a woefully inadequate tool on its own for dealing with Native academics who, like their Latin American counterparts, explore local indigenous realities and engage with international trends. The lack of consideration of the modernist dimension of the Native novel, I finally concluded, simply raised more