《圆屋》中主人公乔的印地安身份构建

菜单

Abstract In her 13th novel The Round House (2012), Louise Erdrich, an American Indian writer, portrays the image of Joe whose attitude changes from rejecting, losing American Indian cultural identity to reconstructing identity, so as to subvert the white cultural hegemony, to enable American Indians to get out of the miseries and to find a new way to survive in the modern society. Through this novel, Erdrich faithfully delineates American Indian life and demonstrates American Indians’ desire to resist marginalization, and to become a significant part of the mainstream society.42286

The thesis analyzes the cultural identity construction of Joe under the guidance of the theories of cultural identity and postcolonialism. The thesis first introduces the significance from three aspects, and then presents the theories that will be applied and related researches. The body of the thesis analyzes the process of losing, awakening and reconstructing ethnic identity by Joe. On the basis of the analysis, the conclusion suggests that people living in the development of globalization should keep their national characteristics while embracing other fine cultures to establish a hybridized identity, only in that way can they succeed to finding themselves, surviving and developing in the modern society.

Key words: The Round House cultural identity loss reconstruction

摘要在她的第13部小说《圆屋》（2012）中，美国印第安作家路易斯•厄德里克塑造了一名由抵制、迷失美国印第安身份，到重构文化身份的少年形象，颠覆了美国文化霸权主义，使美国印第安人从苦难中挣脱并寻找到生存于现代社会的新途径。通过这部小说，厄德里克展示了美国印第安人民的生活，表达了他们反抗被主流社会边缘化，成为主流社会重要组成部分的愿望。

本文运用文化身份认同和后殖民主义相关理论着重讨论《圆屋》中主人公乔的文化身份构建。本文首先从三个方面介绍了研究课题的意义，接着进行了文献和理论综述。本文的核心部分在于分析主人公乔从迷失文化身份到觉醒、认同身份再到最后重构身份的过程。在以上分析的基础上，本文得出结论生活在全球化发展的时代，应该保持自己的民族特色，同时接受优秀的其他文化，建立多重文化身份，惟有如此他们才可以找到真正的自我，在现代社会生存下来并获得本民族的发展。

毕业论文关键词：《圆屋》文化身份迷失重构

Contents

Abstract i

摘要 ii

Contents iii

Introduction 1

1. Significance 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. Theoretical Framework 3

4. Basic Structure of the Thesis 6

Chapter One Denial and Loss 8

Chapter Two Gradual Awakening 13

Chapter Three Acceptance and Reconstruction 16

Conclusion 19

Works Cited 21

On the Construction of Joe’ s American Indian Identity in The Round House

Introduction

1. Significance

Louise Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe of North Dakota and remains one of the most productive and accomplished Native American writers. In 2012, she received the National Book Award for Fiction for her novel The Round House in which ethnic identity functions as an important motif. This novel not only tells the extraordinary experience of an American Indian boy named Joe but also carries deeper significance. “In her 13th and most concentrated novel yet, The Round House, Erdrich chops away at the knotty, complicated relationships that lead to rape and two murders, but its deepest ambition is to leave them intact as a faithful representation of American Indian life” (Meyers 76). When the reader reads the last sentence, “We just keep going”(317), he can’t help wondering “Where will they go?”. Proceeding from this question, the thesis aims to study how Indians understand their identity in the post-colonial aura; in other words, it aims to study the ethnic identity issue carried by the novel. Jorge Larrain attached great importance to ethnic identity, “In the formation of inpidual identity, many inpiduals share some group consciousness or characteristics, such as religion, sex, class, [. . .]. It is ethnic identity that plays important roles in the formation of subjects in modern times”(154). In this novel, it is through seeking his ethnic identity that Joe, a 13-year-old American Indian boy, gets over anxieties, becomes mature and survives in the conflicts of white culture and marginalized American Indian culture. Therefore it’s necessary to find out how Joe finally establishes a new identity. Besides, considering many modern people feel the same way as Joe does and they don’t know who they are, the thesis aims to inspire the reader how one can overcome his anxiety of ethnic identity and finds his way in the collision of different cultures.