SEARCH ARTICLE

10 Pages : 91-98

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2020(V-III).10      10.31703/gssr.2020(V-III).10      Published : Sep 2020

Towards Harmonizing the Mythic and The Modern in Erdrichs Tracks: A Magical Realist Perspective

    This article is an endeavor to provide an insight into Native American novelist Louise Erdrich's use of the magical-realist technique in an attempt to harmonize the mythic and modern conceptions of reality represented by the Native American and Euro American subjects, respectively. The article demonstrates that in an attempt to seek a way possible to intertwine the two cultures, to wed the Native and the European ideologies of the world into accommodative space and to strike out the all-pervasive differences between the two people inhabiting the same land, Erdrich delves into the structuring principles of each culture's conceptualizing and internalizing the reality and the faith in it, and presents them as simultaneous albeit contrary versions of the same events, suggesting the possibility of simultaneous and harmonious co-existence of the two views, each retaining its essential outlook and yet respecting and accommodating the other. Employing Bower and Paula Gunn Allen's theoretical postulations of magical realism as a particular discourse embedded in the mythic and cultural beliefs of the Native American subjects, the article explores the mythic and modern formulations of female identity in Native American magical-realist fiction Tracks.

    Magical Realism, Myth, Native American Woman, Oral Tradition, Storytelling
    (1) Mumtaz Ahmad
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, Government Guru Nanak Postgraduate College, Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Asma Haseeb Qazi
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
    (3) Sahar Javaid
    Lecturer, Department of English, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

59 Pages : 487-493

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-IV).59      10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-IV).59      Published : Dec 2019

Magical Realism Revisited in Erdrich's Tracks: An Interactional Thick Inscription

    This study revisits Louise Erdrich's practice of 'magic realism' to explain how the realistic presentation of unreal elements in Erdrich's writings differs from the western expression of magic realism. With the interactional thick inscription of Erdrich's magic realism, this study argues that the unreal events in Tracks are not based on Erdrich's imagination but the spiritual facts of her inheritance. Her description of naturalcum-supernatural elements cohesively achieves a synthesis of the Chippewa Anishinaabe magic-realistic world and, simultaneously, derives the social and cultural hierarchy of the Native American world. She appropriates the western concept of 'magic realism' to enlighten her oral tradition in 20th-century non-native societies. This appropriation explores the individuality of Native American traditional ways of being that have been considered cultural nonsense in modern academia. This interactional thick inscription of delimited text systematically inscribes the pre-Columbian context of 20th century Chippewa Anishinaabe, the Canadian border, and defines Erdrich's quest for her native identity.

    Anishinaabe, Culture, Erdrich, Magic Realism, Myth, Oral Tradition
    (1) Qasim Shafiq
    PhD Candidate, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan.
    (2) Sardar Ahmad Farooq
    Lecturer in English, Department of English, Government Postgraduate College Mansehra, KP, Pakistan.
    (3) Asim Aqeel
    Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Linguistics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.

63 Pages : 517-524

http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-IV).63      10.31703/gssr.2019(IV-IV).63      Published : Dec 2019

Longing for Belonging in Erdrich's The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse

    part from its predecessors Tracks and Four Souls, Louise Erdrich's Last Report on the Miracle sat Little No Horse does not narrate the struggle and suffering of natives to preserve native lands,traditions, and culture, but the auto/biographical notes of the leading characters of the novel, their longing and belonging for/to the particular places or people. Both non-Native and native narratives of the novel critically engage this claim that Erdrich approaches indigenous values from many perspectives: the liminal, native, or western.This study claims that the contemporary tribal view of the indigenous culture cannot be restricted to pure Native American voice but is also determined by Euro-American voice because the contemporary Native American culture is the interaction of Native and non-Native elements.

    Belonging, Erdrich, Euro- American Voice, Native American Culture, Oral Tradition.
    (1) Nafees Pervez
    PhD Scholar, Department of English, Government College University, Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan.
    (2) Sidra Khalil
    Lecture in English, Department of English, Institute of Southern Punjab, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan
    (3) Muhammad Asaf Amir
    Assistant Professor, Department of English, Institute of Southern Punjab, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan.