THE LAND, COMMUNITY, AND STORYTELLING: COLLECTIVE MEMORY AND SOCIAL IDENTITY IN LOUISE ERDRICH’S TRACKS

Year 2018, Volume: 16 Issue: 1, 345 - 366, 31.03.2018

Aslı Değirmenci

Abstract

Native American writer Louise Erdrich’s novel Tracks (1988) focuses on the history of a Native American tribe at the beginning of the twentieth century as many people in the community are about to lose their tribal lands due to the laws of the federal government. Since the land is what ties these people to their past, community, and culture, it becomes significant to tell the story of how these lands were lost in hope of preserving the past, and surviving culturally as well as physically. The novel is narrated alternately by two first person narrators: the tribal elder Nanapush who is attached to the old Indian ways and a mixed-heritage young woman Pauline, who is on the way of denying her Native identity and complying with the dominant white culture. In order to show how Louise Erdrich creates a collective memory and social identity for Native Americans through this novel, this article firstly examines the theories of collective memory and illustrates the exclusion of Native American point of view from the official history and thus their need to preserve their own sense of past and history. Secondly, through examples from the novel, it is explained how three elements brought together in the novel -the land, community, and storytelling- are vital to gaining a collective memory and social identity for Native Americans.

Keywords

Louise Erdrich, Tracks, collective memory, social identity, Native American history

TOPRAK, TOPLUM, VE HİKÂYE ANLATMA: LOUISE ERDRICH’IN İZLER ADLI ROMANINDA TOPLUMSAL HAFIZA VE KİMLİK

Abstract

Louise Erdrich’in İzler adlı romanı 20. Yüzyıl başlarında zorlu bir dönemden geçen bir Kızılderili kabilesinin tarihini anlatır. Bu kabiledeki birçok insanın toprakları federal hükümetin kanunları dolayısıyla ellerinden alınmak üzeredir. Toprak, bu insanları geçmişlerine, toplumlarına ve kültürlerine bağladığı için bu toprakların nasıl kaybedildiğini anlatmak geçmişi korumak ve aynı
zamanda hem fiziksel hem de kültürel açıdan hayatta kalmak için önemli hale gelmektedir. Roman iki anlatıcı tarafından anlatılmaktadır. Bunlar kabilenin saygı duyulan yaşlılarından ve kabilenin eski geleneklerine bağlı olan Nanapush ile melez bir genç kadın olan ve Kızılderili kimliğini inkâr edip egemen beyaz kültürüne boyun eğme yolunda ilerleyen Pauline’dir. Louise Erdrich’in bu roman aracılığıyla Amerikan Yerlileri için nasıl toplumsal hafıza ve sosyal kimlik oluşturduğunu göstermek için, bu makale öncelikle toplumsal hafıza üzerine bazı teoriler incelemekte ve yazılı resmi tarihte Amerikan Yerli bakış açısına nasıl yer verilmediğini ve bu sebeple bu insanların kendi geçmiş ve tarih olgularını korumaları gerektiğini göstermektedir. Aynı zamanda, romandan örnekler verilerek, Amerikan Yerlilerinin toplumsal hafıza ve sosyal kimlik kazanması için toprak, toplum ve hikâye anlatma unsurlarının büyük önemi ifade edilmektedir  

Keywords

Louise Erdrich, Tracks, toplumsal hafıza, sosyal kimlik, Amerikan Yerli tarihi

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