My project is on Sherman Alexie’s 1996 novel Indian Killer. The major thrust of my
paper will be on Indian Killer’s
theory of indigenous identity as it is developed through the four
questionable/ing Native characters: John Smith, an Indian adopted
and raised by white parents, Marie Polatkin, a reservation Indian matriculated
at a Seattle university, Jack Wilson, a writer claiming indigenous blood, and
Reggie Polatkin, a mix-raced Indian struggling with self-loathing.
Though questions of identity take up voluminous space in the
novel, it is the pairing of these identity questions with the mysterious and
horrific murders that drive the plot of the novel that, I will argue, bridge
issues of individual identity practices with macro issues of inequality. By focusing on the violence and the anger
within the novel, what might be read as a postmodern ethnic American piece of
literature can change shape into a critical commentary about how instances of
inequality and histories of injustice relate to the psychologies and life
choices of individuals. As such, my reading
of Indian Killer will not only
present the theory of Native identity propounded in the novel, but it will also
pull out the narrative techniques that highlight the relationship between
individuals’ intrapsychic development and interpersonal relationships and their
socioeconomic statuses and relationship to the state apparatus.
In many ways, this project relates to my larger interest in
the novel as a utopian form of experimentation and activism—a space where
language and narrative innovations link the symbolic violence that is often tied
to issues of identity with the structural violence that commands the attention
of many social scientists.
I really look forward to everyone’s thoughts and comments!
Lauren Silber
Ph.D student in English and American Studies
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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