TRANSCULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRAVEL MOTIVE IN LOUISE ERDRICH’S LAROSE

Apply

TRANSCULTURAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THE TRAVEL MOTIVE IN LOUISE ERDRICH’S LAROSE

Journal Title: Наукові праці. Серія "Філологія. Літературознавство" - Year 2018, Vol 316, Issue 304

Abstract

Spatial experience of mobility and movement has a pivotal role in human life and is often built on the essential paradigms inherent in a particular culture. However, the latest developments in the field of transport and communication as well as the global tendencies for eradicating borders and levelling the differences between cultures lead to active transformations in spatial patterns of mobility inscribing them into transcultural paradigms. For many indigenous peoples of North America mobility is often linked with the old-ways traditional nomadic way of life, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, with the colonial history of forced dislocation and resettlement to reservations. It has previously been observed that the motive of travel and homecoming are the defining features of Native American writing, which often reflects the ontological uprootedness and unhomeliness. Although, the motive of travel proved an important component in the novels by Louise Erdrich, a Native American writer, far too little attention has been paid to it in one of her most recent novels LaRose. The aim of this paper is to examine the way in which the motive of travel is developed in the novel. This study has been able to demonstrate that Louise Erdrich‟s LaRose addresses both universal meanings of the road, namely a road as a metaphor for life and death, the liminal space symbolizing the transitional situation, the link that connects various loci and people and the key postcolonial metaphors of mobility such as homecoming and post-nomadism. Adapting them to the realities of the USA, the author, nevertheless, preserves and activates multiple indigenous connotations which makes the motive of mobility in the novel a transcultural concept.

Authors and Affiliations

S. Kot

Keywords

Native American literature; postnomadism; spatial images; transculturation; travel motive

EP ID EP615687
DOI -
Views 108
Downloads 0