Date of Award
Summer 8-2016
Degree Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
Committee Chair
Linda Allen
Committee Chair Department
English
Committee Member 2
Martina Sciolino
Committee Member 2 Department
English
Committee Member 3
Craig Carey
Committee Member 3 Department
English
Abstract
This project examines the roles of animals and animal figures in the Native American novels House Made of Dawn (1968)by N. Scott Momaday and Ceremony (1977) by Leslie Marmon Silko. Both novelists consistently evoke animal imagery within their respective texts often pairing this imagery alongside symbolic and metaphorical depictions of cannibalistic identity violence. Through the use of posthuman and postcolonial methodologies and ideas, I contend that the pairing of these two distinct types of imagery that both Momaday and Silko intentionally align the animal figures with premodern, indigenous belief systems while the cannibalistic violence is more often envisioned as a consequence of Western modernity. Thus, I conclude that both Momaday and Silko juxtapose the animal imagery within the texts against these depictions of metaphoric cannibal violence to challenge modern perceptions of the human/nonhuman continuum. Both novels postulate that recognition of the premodern continuum is a method to facilitate healing brought about through the imposition of cannibalistic Western ideals on indigenous peoples.
ORCID ID
orcid.org/0000-0003-0160-2751
Copyright
2016, Matthew Thomas Craft
Recommended Citation
Craft, Matthew Thomas, ""Too Big to Swallow All at Once": Consumption and Posthuman Healing in Ceremony and House Made of Dawn" (2016). Master's Theses. 200.
https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/200