Unfinished War against Whites: Sherman Alexie's Use of Humor, Wit, and Imagination in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
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Sherman Alexie has been persistently articulating the agonizing lives of the Indian people on the reservation and realistically representing their world for more than two decades. He points out the importance of Indians’ discovering cultural and individual identity damaged and ruined by white prejudice and culture. What distinguishes him from other prominent American Indian writers is his frequent use of humor and wit in his narrative, subverting the politics and culture of whites. This paper examines the way Alexie uses humor and wit in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. His moral satire poignantly reprimands whites for their oppression of Indian people and distortion of Indian images. To subvert whites’ stereotypical representation of Indians, Alexie has created Indian characters who might seem to be representing the controversial stereotypical features. For this reason, he has been criticized by many Indian critics for pandering to what whites expect and want. This paper demonstrates that their hasty assessment has come from a misunderstanding of Alexie’s literary and creative techniques, and further that he portrays Indian people as they are on and off the reservation, using the stereotypical images of Indians as a strategical literary technique.
Abstract
Sherman Alexie has been persistently articulating the agonizing lives of the Indian people on the reservation and realistically representing their world for more than two decades. He points out the importance of Indians’ discovering cultural and individual identity damaged and ruined by white prejudice and culture. What distinguishes him from other prominent American Indian writers is his frequent use of humor and wit in his narrative, subverting the politics and culture of whites. This paper examines the way Alexie uses humor and wit in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. His moral satire poignantly reprimands whites for their oppression of Indian people and distortion of Indian images. To subvert whites’ stereotypical representation of Indians, Alexie has created Indian characters who might seem to be representing the controversial stereotypical features. For this reason, he has been criticized by many Indian critics for pandering to what whites expect and want. This paper demonstrates that their hasty assessment has come from a misunderstanding of Alexie’s literary and creative techniques, and further that he portrays Indian people as they are on and off the reservation, using the stereotypical images of Indians as a strategical literary technique.
참고문헌 (14)
- Alexie, Sherman, "Indian Killer" (1996), New York: Warner Books
- Harper Perennial, "________. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York" (1993)
- Bird, Gloria, "The Exaggeration of Despair in Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues", pp.47~52 (1995), Wicazo Sa Review
- Coulombe, Joseph L, "Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor Sherman Alexie's Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven", 26(1), pp.94~115 (2002)
- Cox, James, "Muting White Noise: The Subversion of Popular Culture Narratives of Conquest in Sherman Alexie's Fiction", 9(4), pp.52~70 (1997)
- Deloria, "Vine Jr. Custer Died For Your Sins. London" (1969), Macmillan Co.
- Evans, Stephen F., "Open Containers': Sherman Alexie's Drunken Indians", 25(1), pp.46~72 (2001)
- Hafen, Jane P, "Rock and Roll, Redskins, and Blues in Sherman Alexie's Work", 9(4), pp.71~78 (1997)
- Kenneth. Indi'n Humor, "Bicultural Play in Native America. New York" (1993), Lincoln Oxford University Press
- ________. Native American Renaissance. Berkeley, "University of California Press" (1983)
- McFarland, Ron, "Sherman Alexie's Polemical stories", 9(4), pp.27~38 (1997)
- Owens, Louis, "Mixedblood Messages: Literature, Film, Family, Place" (1998), Norman: University of Oklahoma Press
- Purdy, John, "Crossroads: An Interview with Sherman Alexie", 9(4), pp.1~18 (1997)
- Vizenor, Gerald, "Discursive Narratives", pp.79~94 (1999), Postindian Conversations. Lincoln: University of Nebraska P,