Browsing by Subject "war traumas"

Abstract Faculty: Faculty of Arts Degree programme: MA Programme in English Studies Study track: General Line Author: Salla-Mari Ackrén Title: Ceremony: Representing Native American Cultures through Trauma and Healing Level: Master’s Thesis Month and year: May 2022 Number of pages: 48 Keywords: Native American literature, Native American culture, trauma, healing, colonialism, war traumas, Leslie Marmon Silko Supervisor or supervisors: Merja Polvinen Where deposited: Helsinki University Library Additional information: - Abstract: This thesis reviews a Native American novel, Ceremony, published by Leslie Marmon Silko in 1977. In her narration, Silko mixes traditional Laguna poems with the experiences of the contemporary protagonist, Tayo, relayed in prose. With this reading, I want to raise awareness of Ceremony and its real-life themes for Native Americans, such as cultural crisis, post-colonial traumas, and mental health problems, along with the importance of nature and animals in Native American cultures. As a group of minorities, Native American literature has not always received the respect and understanding it deserves, which is why I want to raise awareness about Native American culture and the traditions influencing it. In this thesis I use a close reading method to analyze the protagonist Tayo, who has an identity crisis between Anglo American and Laguna cultures. Tayo also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and an alcohol problem due to his experiences in the Pacific theatre in World War II. I analyze his cultural identity development with the help of the narratological theories of James Phelan (1989), the effects of colonialism analysed by Patrick Hogan (2000) and discuss his war traumas with the help of theories by Cathy Caruth (1996) and Suzanne LaLonde (2018). At the beginning of the novel, Tayo blames himself for surviving a war that killed his cousin and for the droughts in his pueblo. He is taken to a Native American ceremony to heal from his depression. However, the first, traditional ceremony does not help him. Instead, the second medicine man, Betonie, performs a ceremony that combines traditional rituals to modern world problems (the war and colonialism), which gradually heals Tayo. During his journey to healing, he has many confrontations, for instance with his alcoholic war veteran friends. However, Tayo benefits from mythical guides along his journey, such as Betonie, a woman called Ts’eh, and Tayo’s lost cattle. At the end of the novel, when Tayo heals and finds his place in Laguna society, also the rains come back, emphasizing the succeeded ceremony, and healing in both the individual and the Native American culture as a whole.