Chapter 26 Multiethnic Literature(I
Chapter 26 Multiethnic Literature(Ⅱ)
Introduction x In the last few decades, diversity has been particularly prized as a strength of American culture and literature. Interest in multiculturalism has been on the increase and along with it the enthusiasm for the literatures of the different ethnic groups in America. This has had to do with the 1960s and 1970s when multiracial awareness grew among the various ethnic groups in America. The African Americans took the lead, and the other minority groups like the Hispanic Americans and the Asian Americans folllowed suit. This consciousness received instant literary expression. As a result, American literature is now no longer seen as one monolith of Anglo-American writings for which Hawthorne, Whitman, Eliot, Frost, Hemingway, Faulkner, Lowell and Bellow have been well known. It needs rethinking The re conceptualization of American literature is bringing its so called"mainstream"and"tributary" components closer
Introduction ＊In the last few decades, diversity has been particularly prized as a strength of American culture and literature. Interest in multiculturalism has been on the increase and along with it the enthusiasm for the literatures of the different ethnic groups in America. This has had to do with the 1960s and 1970s when multiracial awareness grew among the various ethnic groups in America. The African Americans took the lead, and the other minority groups like the Hispanic Americans and the Asian Americans followed suit. This consciousness received instant literary expression. As a result, American literature is now no longer seen as one monolith of Anglo-American writings for which Hawthorne, Whitman, Eliot, Frost, Hemingway, Faulkner, Lowell and Bellow have been well known. It needs rethinking. The reconceptualization of American literature is bringing its so called "mainstream" and "tributary" components closer
multi-ethmic writers A more authentic American literal t and American literature is becoming more inclusive to its history is now in the process of being written which will exclude none of its multiracial facets. The recent literary scene is already becoming amazingly colorful X Let's begin with the Native American literature first.The image of the American Indians in American literature has been for a long time a distorted one, presented by non Indian authors; they appear good or bad not as the American Indians see themselves, but as some white authors conceive of them. Thus, whatever portrayal of them there is in mainstream literature has been once or twice removed from the truth k At the time of European settlement, well over three hundred Indian cultures existed in the north American continent. The different nations of the American Indians such as Lakota, Hopi, chickasaw, and Mohawk all had their own separate civilizations
and American literature is becoming more inclusive to its multi-ethnic writers. A more authentic American literary history is now in the process of being written which will exclude none of its multiracial facets. The recent literary scene is already becoming amazingly colorful. ＊Let's begin with the Native American literature first. The image of the American Indians in American literature has been for a long time a distorted one, presented by nonIndian authors; they appear good or bad not as the American Indians see themselves, but as some white authors conceive of them. Thus, whatever portrayal of them there is in mainstream literature has been once or twice removed from the truth. ＊At the time of European settlement, well over three hundred Indian cultures existed in the North American continent. The different nations of the American Indians such as Lakota, Hopi, Chickasaw, and Mohawk all had their own separate civilizations
-D'Arcy McNickle(1904-1977) x the writer who devoted his life to improving the lot of his fellow American Indians Singing a MCNickle was a half-breed. born to a cree DArcy McNickle mother and a white father and adopted into the Flathead Indian tribe. He grew up on a reservation and attended the University of Montana. Later he sold his allotment on the reservation in order to enroll in Oxford University. As a young man he rejected his heritage, but later he came to embrace it and did his best to better the lives of his fellow Indians he wrote a number of nonfiction workS, the most important of which is Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals(1973). But he is best known as the author of the novel The surrounded (1936), a milestone in the history of Native American literature
D'Arcy McNickle (1904-1977) ＊the writer who devoted his life to improving the lot of his fellow American Indians. McNickle was a half-breed, born to a Cree mother and a white father and adopted into the Flathead Indian tribe. He grew up on a reservation and attended the University of Montana. Later he sold his allotment on the reservation in order to enroll in Oxford University. As a young man he rejected his heritage, but later he came to embrace it and did his best to better the lives of his fellow Indians. He wrote a number of nonfiction works, the most important of which is Native American Tribalism: Indian Survivals and Renewals (1973). But he is best known as the author of the novel, The Surrounded (1936), a milestone in the history of Native American literature
x Masterpiece: The Surrounded The Surrounded tells a tragic story of cultural dislocation and split identity. There is a visible silhouette of the young McNickle in the character of Archilde. The story reveals the painful process of the disintegration of the Native American culture. It points its accusing finger directly at the intrusion of the whites into the traditional lives of the Indians. To begin with, Archilde is torn between divided allegiances to the different elements of his heritage: Indian and white, and he runs away But the curse of being a half-breed follows him and he is destined to run into his own undoing. The gun as a technological advance introduced from outside makes the world a lot more violent and deadly. Archilde, who is too tenderhearted to kill a deer and who never kills anyone in his life, is doomed as a scapegoat for the deaths that have occurred during his stay home. The Indians start wondering about the change for the worse in their existence and about the loss of their powers: whereas in the old days tribal fighting was a game, it is now a slaughter, and their powers no longer protect them. In their desire to establish a connection with some spiritual powers, they are ready to em brace christianity, which is to be a dubious blessing at the best. The journal entries of Father Grepilloux, a character in the novel, show that he is complicit, probably unconsciously, in the collapse of the Indian traditional way of life as well
＊Masterpiece: The Surrounded The Surrounded tells a tragic story of cultural dislocation and split identity. There is a visible silhouette of the young McNickle in the character of Archilde. The story reveals the painful process of the disintegration of the Native American culture. It points its accusing finger directly at the intrusion of the whites into the traditional lives of the Indians. To begin with, Archilde is torn between divided allegiances to the different elements of his heritage: Indian and white, and he runs away. But the curse of being a half-breed follows him and he is destined to run into his own undoing. The gun as a technological advance introduced from outside makes the world a lot more violent and deadly. Archilde, who is too tenderhearted to kill a deer and who never kills anyone in his life, is doomed as a scapegoat for the deaths that have occurred during his stay home. The Indians start wondering about the change for the worse in their existence and about the loss of their powers: whereas in the old days tribal fighting was a game, it is now a slaughter, and their powers no longer protect them. In their desire to establish a connection with some spiritual powers, they are ready to embrace Christianity, which is to be a dubious blessing at the best. The journal entries of Father Grepilloux, a character in the novel, show that he is complicit, probably unconsciously, in the collapse of the Indian traditional way of life as well