Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Silko, Leslie, 1948-. Ceremony'

La présente recherche a pour but de procéder à une étude comparative du processus régénératif au cœur de deux romans phares de la fiction autochtone contemporaine, soit Ceremony de Leslie Marmon Silko et Green Grass, Running Water de Thomas King. Trois volets principaux sont examinés : le rôle de la nature en tant que référent culturel dans le processus de régénération des personnages principaux de chaque roman, l’évolution de la quête identitaire dans un environnement post-contact, ainsi que les répercussions de la réactualisation de l’identité de chaque protagoniste sur la communauté à laquelle il appartient. Cette comparaison entre les procédés employés par Silko et King permettront, en un premier temps, d’identifier des éléments de continuité entre les deux auteurs. Ces similarités incluent la centralité de la nature dans la reconnexion des protagonistes avec leur culture et leur identité ainsi que l’emphase sur la nécessité d’une identité hybride dans un environnement post-contact. De plus, la comparaison entre ces deux auteurs issus de deux contextes socio-historiques distincts permet d’isoler certains éléments du contexte propre à chaque roman afin de déterminer le rôle de la réalité autochtone sur la fiction produite à chaque époque. De façon plus spécifique, il sera entre autres question de l’influence de la montée du mouvement environnementaliste euro-américain sur la valeur symbolique du retour à la nature, ainsi que de l’importance grandissante de la classe moyenne autochtone éduquée et de la façon dont ce nouveau phénomène est exprimé dans l’œuvre de King.
La présente recherche a pour but de procéder à une étude comparative du processus régénératif au cœur de deux romans phares de la fiction autochtone contemporaine, soit Ceremony de Leslie Marmon Silko et Green Grass, Running Water de Thomas King. Trois volets principaux sont examinés : le rôle de la nature en tant que référent culturel dans le processus de régénération des personnages principaux de chaque roman, l’évolution de la quête identitaire dans un environnement post-contact, ainsi que les répercussions de la réactualisation de l’identité de chaque protagoniste sur la communauté à laquelle il appartient. Cette comparaison entre les procédés employés par Silko et King permettront, en un premier temps, d’identifier des éléments de continuité entre les deux auteurs. Ces similarités incluent la centralité de la nature dans la reconnexion des protagonistes avec leur culture et leur identité ainsi que l’emphase sur la nécessité d’une identité hybride dans un environnement post-contact. De plus, la comparaison entre ces deux auteurs issus de deux contextes socio-historiques distincts permet d’isoler certains éléments du contexte propre à chaque roman afin de déterminer le rôle de la réalité autochtone sur la fiction produite à chaque époque. De façon plus spécifique, il sera entre autres question de l’influence de la montée du mouvement environnementaliste euro-américain sur la valeur symbolique du retour à la nature, ainsi que de l’importance grandissante de la classe moyenne autochtone éduquée et de la façon dont ce nouveau phénomène est exprimé dans l’œuvre de King.
This thesis compares the regenerative processes at the heart of two milestone novels of contemporary Native American literature, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water. My comparative study will be divided into three main sections: the role of nature as a cultural referent in the main characters’ regenerative processes in each novel, the evolution of the identity quest in a post-contact environment, and finally, the repercussions of the protagonists’ re-actualization of identity on the rest of their community. Through the comparative study of the processes employed by Silko and King with respect to one’s relationship to nature, cultural identity and social relations, I will be able to identify several similarities shared by the two novels, which demonstrate that they belong to the same Native artistic continuum. These resemblances include the central role of nature in reconnecting the protagonists to their identity, as well as a predominant emphasis on the emergence of a hybridized identity in a post-contact environment. Moreover, the comparison of two novels emerging from two different eras of Native American Literature –that of the 1970s and of the 1990s- will allow me to isolate the influence of the cultural context to which each particular work belongs. In doing so, it becomes possible to determine the influence of some transformations in Native lifestyle on the fiction produced at a given time. More specifically, the modifications I chose to focus on include the rise of Euro-American environmentalism on the symbolic value of returning to nature for Natives as well as the increasing presence of middle-class, educated Natives and their representation, mostly present in King’s fiction.
This thesis compares the regenerative processes at the heart of two milestone novels of contemporary Native American literature, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water. My comparative study will be divided into three main sections: the role of nature as a cultural referent in the main characters’ regenerative processes in each novel, the evolution of the identity quest in a post-contact environment, and finally, the repercussions of the protagonists’ re-actualization of identity on the rest of their community. Through the comparative study of the processes employed by Silko and King with respect to one’s relationship to nature, cultural identity and social relations, I will be able to identify several similarities shared by the two novels, which demonstrate that they belong to the same Native artistic continuum. These resemblances include the central role of nature in reconnecting the protagonists to their identity, as well as a predominant emphasis on the emergence of a hybridized identity in a post-contact environment. Moreover, the comparison of two novels emerging from two different eras of Native American Literature –that of the 1970s and of the 1990s- will allow me to isolate the influence of the cultural context to which each particular work belongs. In doing so, it becomes possible to determine the influence of some transformations in Native lifestyle on the fiction produced at a given time. More specifically, the modifications I chose to focus on include the rise of Euro-American environmentalism on the symbolic value of returning to nature for Natives as well as the increasing presence of middle-class, educated Natives and their representation, mostly present in King’s fiction.

In order to fully understand contemporary Native American literature like the works written by Leslie Marmon Silko, one must have a sufficient knowledge of the Native American worldviews expressed in their oral stories that have been handed down for unremembered generations. The study has to include what the oral tradition has meant to the indigenous people and their communities, how it has been kept and passed down, and what it can do to the tribal peoples for securing their identity and power to cope with contemporary issues. Indigenous people have different worldviews from other culture groups; theirs are different in the conception of time and space, the importance of land, of the spirit beings, and the relationships with all the beings in Nature and in the universe. This study examines how Silko weaves tradition of oral storytelling and worldviews in her writing to pass invaluable messages across the boundaries of culture. Silko has a skill and knowledge ingrained in her blood to write from her tradition, and her works are not only compatible with the worldviews of the Native Americans but also she ingeniously expresses her messages in her works, including Ceremony. Silko makes her efforts to convey it to a wider readership. This makes Ceremony one of the most significant novels written in the twentieth century.

Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2003.
Title from electronic submission form. ETSU ETD database URN: etd-0713103-222427. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via Internet at the UMI web site.

This essay discusses the perceived case of post-traumatic stress disorder in Leslie Marmon Silko's character Tayo from the novel Ceremony, using personal accounts of actual PTSD-suffering war veterans as a point of reference. The goal is to fathom the influence that culture may have in the development and healing of PTSD, and to identify possible trans-cultural aspects. The main focus of the analysis is therefore on personal background, interpersonal relationships, post-war experiences, and experienced symptoms.

xi, 233 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
This dissertation argues that a fundamental paradox underlies U.S. environmentalism: even as it functions as a critique of dominant social and economic practices, environmentalism simultaneously reinforces many social hierarchies, especially with regard to race, immigration, and disability, despite its claims to recognize the interdependence of human and ecological well-being. This project addresses the related questions: In what ways does environmentalism--as a code of behavioral imperatives and as a set of rhetorical strategies--ironically play a role in the exploitation of land and communities? Along what lines--class, race, ability, gender, nationality, age, and even "sense of place"--do these environmental codes and discourses delineate good and bad environmental behavior? I contend that environmentalism emerged in part to help legitimize U.S. imperial ambitions and support racialized and patriarchal conceptions of national identity. Concern about "the environment" made anxieties about communities of color more palatable than overt racism. Furthermore, "environmentalism's hidden attachments" to whiteness and Manifest Destiny historically aligned the movement with other repressive ideologies, such as eugenics and strict anti-immigration. These "hidden attachments" exist today, yet few have analyzed their contemporary implications, a gap this project fills. In three chapters, I detail nineteenth-century environmentalism's influence on contemporary environmental thought. Each of these three illustrative chapters investigates a distinct category of environmentalism's "ecological others": Native Americans, people with disabilities, and undocumented immigrants. I argue that environmentalism defines these groups as "ecological others" because they are viewed as threats to nature and to the American national body politic. The first illustrative chapter analyzes Native American land claims in Leslie Marmon Silko's 1991 novel, Almanac of the Dead . The second illustrative chapter examines the importance of the fit body in environmental literature and U.S. adventure culture. In the third illustrative chapter, I integrate literary analysis with geographical theories and methods to investigate national security, wilderness protection, and undocumented immigration in the borderland. In a concluding fourth chapter, I analyze works of members of the excluded groups discussed in the first three chapters to show how they transform mainstream environmentalism to bridge social justice and ecological concerns. This dissertation contains previously published material.
Committee in charge: Shari Huhndorf, Chairperson, English; Louise Westling, Member, English; David Vazquez, Member, English; Juanita Sundberg, Member, Not from U of 0 Susan Hardwick, Outside Member, Geography

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2008.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 219-226). Also available online in Scholars' Bank; and in ProQuest, free to University of Oregon users.

Cette étude comparative de la littérature amérindienne, aborigène et post-coloniale montre les stratégies subversives utilisées pour la survie de la voix amérindienne et aborigène. D'abord, sur un plan pantibal, nous étudions le réseau complexe des relations entre la terre, les contes et les peuples dans les oeuvres écrites par les écrivains amérindiens. Ensuite, sur un plan aborigène, nous étudions comment certains personnages servent à faire le lien entre le "réalisme" et les éléments mythiques dans Ceremony de Leslie Marmon Silko et Potiki de Patricia Grace, liant en même temps le présent au passé et à un présent mythique. Nous nous intéressons au trickster subversif chez Gerald Vizenor et Louise Erdrich pour montrer comment la chance et la bonne-fortune sont interprétées par deux écrivains anishinaabe. Enfin, sur un plan post-colonial, nous nous proposons d'élargir notre comparaison afin d'étudier les interrelations entre histoire, fiction et mythe concernant le personnage de Billy the Kid dans The Ancient Child de N. Scott Momaday et dans Billy the Kid de Michael Ondaatje
A comparative study of Native American, aboriginal and post-colonial literature demonstrating the subversive strategies employed by these authors for the survival of their voice and their community. On a pan-tribal level, the study examines the complex interrelationship between the land, the stories and the people which forms the base of Native American literature. On an aboriginal level, in Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and Potiki by Patricia Grace, certain characters serve as the link between realism and myth, tying the present both to the past and to a mythical present. In works by two Anishinaabe authors, Gerald Vizenor and Louise Erdrich, the trickster plays an integral part in the interpretation of chance and luck by each author. Finally, on a post-colonial level, the interrelation between history, fiction and myth are explored through two interpretations of Billy the Kid in The Ancient Child by N. Scott Momaday and Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

No presente trabalho faz-se uma reflexão sobre as narrativas de vida indígenas a partir da hipótese de que, em contraposição ao modelo canônico ocidental, elas apresentam uma concepção de self marcada por uma posicionalidade social diversa tanto a nível de experiência histórica quanto da visão epistemológica e ontológica. Meu objetivo é mostrar como os escritores indígenas se apropriam de um modelo ocidental que, na sua configuração canônica, servia para sustentar narrativas de individuação e o utilizam para curar feridas históricas resultantes da violência do processo colonizatório e suas conseqüências e, com isso, criar possibilidades de sobrevivência coletivas. Com esse propósito, faço uma breve revisão de dois momentos fundamentais do desenvolvimento do gênero no ocidente que, num primeiro momento, confundem a história da autobiografia com a confissão cristã e, num momento posterior, com o processo de individuação. Numa perspectiva mais contemporânea, discute-se a impossibilidade lingüística de se falar do eu sem se deparar com uma série de descontinuidades e becos sem saída que parecem impor uma fragmentação total do eu, a ponto de se pensar ser impossível dizer o dêitico "eu." A esta visão canônica da história do gênero, contraponho as narrativas indígenas que se valem das histórias de vida como forma de buscar as experiências que lhes dão sustentação tanto como forma de reavaliação do vivido quanto como abertura para novas possibilidades no futuro. Num segundo momento, reviso a noção de tempo ocidental mostrando como, apesar da concomitância de várias cronosofias que definem o tempo como cíclico, linear ou a-direcional, nossas sociedades se estruturam a partir do modelo de progresso, que fundamenta o binômio modernidade/colonialidade. Em outras palavras, a visão linear do tempo aliado ao processo histórico de subjugação dos povos e conquista de territórios, estabeleceu um modelo que se auto-define como inovador, ou de ponta, relegando todas as outras formas de organização humanas a estágios mais atrasados do mesmo processo. Baseando-me no paradigma de co-existência, discuto outras visões epistemológicas, contrapondo esta visão do tempo linear e progressivo à forma como os indígenas concebem o espaço como catalisador das histórias que sustentam as relações indígenas com o Outro. Importante ressaltar que a noção de Outro usada aqui abrange tudo aquilo que está em relação com o eu, incluindo, além dos seres humanos, animais, plantas, rios, a terra, o sol, e mesmo entidades não físicas. Finalmente, analiso em Storyteller de Leslie Marmon como os escritos de vida indígena manifestam este modo de ser e seu potencial curativo.
In this dissertation, I reflect upon Native American life stories building on the hypothesis that, in opposition to Western canonical autobiographies, they present a different conception of self derived from a social positionality marked by different historical experiences and different epistemological and ontological views. My aim is to show how indigenous writers have appropriated a Western model which, in its canonical configuration, was used to sustain narratives of individuation and how they use it to heal historical wounds resulting from the violent colonization process and its consequences so as to envision collective survival. To do that, I briefly revise two foundational moments in the Western development of the genre which, in a first moment, mingle the history of autobiography with Christian confession and then with the process of individuation. From a contemporary perspective, much has been discussed about the linguistic impossibility of saying "I" without bumping into a series of discontinuities and dead ends, which seems to impose the total fragmentation of self to the point where it may seem impossible to utter the deictic pronoun "I" I contrast this canonical history of the genre with indigenous narratives which use life stories to rescue experiences to sustain themselves both as a reevaluation of the past and as an opening to future possibilities. In a second moment, I revise the Western conception of time showing how, despite the fact that several chronosophies that define time as linear, cyclical or non-directional coexist, our societies are structured on the idea of progress, which sustains the binomial modernity/coloniality. In other words, the linear view of time allied to a historical process of subjugation of peoples and territorial conquest has established a model that defines itself as innovative, or state of the art, classifying all other human forms of organization as primitive stages of the same process. Using the paradigm of co-existence, I present other epistemological views, contrasting this linear and progressive time to the ways Native Americans discuss space as a catalyst of the stories that sustain indigenous relationships to the Other. It is important to emphasize that the concept of Other used here encompasses everything which is in relation with the self, including besides other human beings animals, plants, rivers, the land, the sun, and nonphysical entities. Finally, I analyze how indigenous life writing manifests this way of being and its healing potential in Leslie Marmon Silko's Storyteller.

碩士
國立彰化師範大學
英語學系
89
This thesis aims to explore the web of identity in Leslie Silko’s Ceremony, and to apply these identity issues to English teaching. Five chapters constitute this thesis. The first chapter discusses hybridity in Ceremony. The two most obvious aspects of hybridity manifest in Ceremony are textual hybridity and ethnic hybridity. Silko’s hybrid writing strategies create ‘third Spaces,’ to use Homi Bhabha’s term, and migrations from ‘third spaces’ to further ‘third spaces’. Using Bhabha’s understanding of hybridity, I argue that Silko’s writing strategies parallel her concept of identity. Silko purposely chooses a hybrid Indian instead of a full-blood Indian as her protagonist in order to show that mixed-blood Indians are authentic Indians too. The second chapter analyzes the influences of Euro-American narrative discourses on American Indians in Ceremony. Two kinds of readers are presented in this chapter─naive readers and radical readers. The difference between these two kinds of readers is that naive readers read authentic narrative discourses blindly, while radical readers do not. Chapter Three emphasizes the significance of oral tradition, especially for storytelling. Storytelling is not only an entertainment but also something powerful which can defend against ‘the witchery of evil’ coming from the white hegemony. By situating himself in the Indian mythic world, Tayo finds his position in Indian myth and confirms his ethnic identity as an Indian. Chapter Four focuses on the application of Ceremony to the EFL senior high school classroom in Taiwan. Chapter Five presents and discusses the results of the teaching application.

Tese de Doutoramento em Literatura na especialidade de Literatura Norte-Americana apresnetada à Universidade Aberta
As obras de Leslie Silko e James Redfield apresentam vectores temáticos diferenciados, porém, comungam da mesma perspectiva na abordagem que fazem da espiritualidade – “we are One, we are All Related”. Silko descreve com um realismo inquietante as perturbações do foro psíquico que podem despoletar problemas diversos quer a nível social, económico, ecológico e humano, e conduzir à prática de actos sórdidos. Redfield, nos seus quatro romances, propõe soluções, de forma a que as fragilidades que assolam um paradigma socioeconómico e cultural que ainda preza a posse material em detrimento da essência humana sejam ultrapassadas, ao mesmo tempo que desperta no leitor imagens arquetípicas que o religam a um passado longínquo, no qual havia uma ligação de total interdependência entre tudo e todos. Assim, partindo da análise da obra dos dois autores, o presente estudo, intitulado – Leslie Silko e James Redfield, mentores de uma nova consciência: da fragmentação à Unidade – pretende questionar os valores em que assenta a sociedade pós-moderna e reflectir sobre as causas que, ao longo dos tempos, têm originado guerras insanas, seres humanos confinados à miséria no meio de um mundo de abundância, relações disfuncionais, corrupção, massacres, criminalidade, entropia climática, entre outros. Este estudo tem ainda como objectivo perscrutar se os Estados Unidos estão dispostos a (re)erguerem-se e a (re)afirmarem-se como um modelo sagrado para todo o mundo, símbolo do berço de um novo Homem, pronto a viver em uníssono, no qual a Fragmentação cede lugar à Unidade.
The works of Leslie Marmon Silko and James Redfield pursue unlike thematic lines, although they share the same perception in their approach to spirituality – "we are One, we are All Related". Silko depicts, realistically, the psychic disorders which may activate diverse problems at a social, economic, ecological and human level and lead to acts of sordidness. In his four novels, Redfield proposes solutions in order to overcome the weaknesses concerning the current social, economical and cultural paradigm, according to which Having is still valued over Being. Meanwhile, his works awaken archetypal images connecting the reader to an archaic past at the deeper levels of his/her psyche wherein there was a harmonious interrelatedness. So, the aim of this study, based on the writings of Silko and Redfield and entitled “Leslie Silko and James Redfield, mentors of a new consciousness: from fragmentation to Oneness” envisages to question the values upon which post-modern society is grounded and reflect on the causes that, over time, have been creating insane wars, human beings confined to misery amidst a world of abundance, disfunctional relationships, corruption, slaughter, crime, climactic entropy, etc. It also purports to assess the potentialities of the United States of America, inquiring whether this nation is willing to (re)build and (re)establish itself as a sacred model for the whole world, symbol of the cradle of a new Man, ready to live up to the demand for Oneness.

"Storied Voices in Native American Texts: Harry Robinson, Thomas King, James Welch and Leslie Marmon Silko" approaches Native American literatures from within an interdisciplinary framework that complicates traditional notions o f literary "origins" and canon. It situates the discussion of Native literatures in a Native American context, suggesting that contemporary Native American writing has its roots in Native oral storytelling traditions. Each of these authors draws on specific stories and histories from his or her Native culture. They also draw on European elements and contexts because these are now part o f Native American experience. I suggest that Native oral tradition is already inherently novelistic, and the stories that lie behind contemporary Native American writing explicitly connect past and present as aspects o f current Native reality. Contemporary Native American writers are continuing an on-going and vital storytelling tradition through written forms. A comparison of the texts o f a traditional Native storyteller, Robinson, with the highly literate novels of King, Welch and Silko, shows how orally told stories connect with the process o f writing. Robinson's storytelling suggests how these stories "theorize" the world as he experiences it; the Native American novel continues to theorize Native experience in contemporary times. Native writers use culturally specific stories to express an on-going Native history. Their novels require readers to examine their assumptions about who is telling whose story, and the traditional distinctions made between fact and fiction, history and story. King's Green Grass. Running Water takes stories from Western European literary traditions and Judeao-Christian mythology and presents them as part of a Native creation story. Welch's novel Fools Crow re-writes a particular episode from history, the Marias River Massacre, from a Blackfeet perspective. Silko's Almanac of the Dead recreates the Mayan creation story o f the Popol Vuh in the context o f twentiethcentury American culture. Each of these authors maintains the dialogic fluidity of oral storytelling performance in written forms and suggests that stories not only reflect the world, but that they create it in the way that Robinson understands storytelling as a form of theory.