This thesis seeks to examine history, trauma and healing in Linda Hogan¡¦s People of the Whale. For Native American people, the disease is not conceived of a pure pathology but bears on inscriptions of colonial power and disharmony with Nature. Through the body of the protagonist Thomas, Hogan articulates the Makah¡¦s silenced history and trauma. I argue that Thomas¡¦s body epitomizes the once ill and then healed earth and tribal society.
This thesis proceeds in five chapters. The first chapter is an introduction. Chapter Two, ¡§Violence and Tribal Histories,¡¨ sheds light on the historical context of the Northwest Coast Makah people on which Hogan bases her novel People of the Whale. The harsh impacts of colonialism on the Makahs, as Hogan¡¦s collaborative work Sightings with Brenda Peterson reveals, persist to the present. Chapter Three, entitled ¡§Representing Traumatic Experiences,¡¨ reads Thomas¡¦s silent body as a site of his tribe¡¦s repressed colonial history. Appropriating notions from Michel de Certeau and Paula Gunn Allen, I ask how Thomas¡¦s individual tortured body conflates with another body, ¡§the altered earth,¡¨ to disclose the act of colonial violence. Thomas¡¦s oblivion of ancestral ¡§body language¡¨ and ill sense of alienation exemplify his tribe¡¦s collective ill relationship with Nature. Chapter Four, entitled ¡§A Healing Journey,¡¨ illustrates how Thomas retrieves the tribal ways to reestablish his relationship with Nature. The tribal ways, stories and memories stored in his body are never lost but simply forgotten. In N. Scott Momaday¡¦s words, it is the ¡§memory in the body¡¨ or the ¡§blood memory¡¨ that preserves what the white colonizers have erased. For Native American people, this memory enacts healing. Thomas learns to regain the ancestral ¡§body language¡¨ and in so doing recovers from his ailment and reconnects himself with his tribe, his past, and the natural world. The bodily experiences function as crucial stimuli to awaken memories buried in his body. Thomas¡¦s retrieval of ¡§body language¡¨ is an articulation of his tribe¡¦s long-silenced voice. Chapter Five, the conclusion, recapitulates the main themes of this thesis and their import. Utilizing a mythical ending of Thomas¡¦s afterlife living in the tribe and then underneath the ocean¡Xa symbol of ¡§great being¡¨¡XHogan shapes a ¡§universal¡¨ and ¡§communal body¡¨ as a powerful challenge to resist against globalization and the colonial project. People of the Whale is an anchor text in which Hogan envisions a will and a hope that Native American values will emerge and prevail.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0827110-013237 |
| Date | 27 August 2010 |
| Creators | Chiang Lin, Chien-yi |
| Contributors | Hsiu-li Juan, Hsin-ya Huang, Min-hsiou Hung |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0827110-013237 |
| Rights | not_available, Copyright information available at source archive |
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