셔만 알렉시의 『얼굴』(Face)에 나타난 탈 부족주의 담론 연구

Abstract

This paper examines the meanings of the trans-tribalism in Sherman Alexie’s Face, a collection of poetic proses. By the trans-tribalism I mean the combination of Inderpal Grewal’s transnationalism in Transnational America and Shari M. Huhndorf’s transnationalism in Mapping the Americas. Grewal shows how the people from India succeed in getting adjusted to multicultural America, making themselves transnational, without yielding their inherited Indian culture at all. Huhndorf exemplifies specific ways how Native Americans in Canada and arctic areas globalize their indigenous culture by making cultural compromises with the surrounding alien cultures. With the help of the two theoreticians, I elaborate proper meanings of Alexian versions of transnationalism, which I name trans-tribalism, by analyzing six selected works. “Tuxedo with Eagle Feathers” suggests the hybridity between Native American art and American luxury clothing will stimulate Indians’s understanding of American capitalism. “Inappropriate” tells the American dream mythology can be applied even to Native Americans, teaching themselves they are indigenous immigrants. “Vilify” maintains the necessity of making new definitions of heroes, Indian and whites alike. “Bird-Organ” indicates the inefficacy of Indian authenticity. “On the Second Anniversary of My Father’s Death” and “On the Second Anniversary of My Father’s Death” point out how Indian fundamentalism and traditions are too out-dated to navigate Indians in the 21st century.