• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.35
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• pp.7-34
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• 2014

This essay explores how Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and Storyteller encourage human's sympathetic relationship with the nonhuman animal-Other, paying attention to her posthumanist voices against anthropocentric mistreatment of animals which is inseparable from white Americans' environmental and racio-ethnic subjugation of nature and Natives in the colonialist history of the United States. As a way of dissolving the problematic anthropocentrism and embracing the animal-Other as a fellow creature, Silko employs and transforms Native American oral tradition in her own idiosyncratic posthumanist storytelling. In order to highlight the ethico-political examination of the animal issue in her storytelling, this essay refers to contemporary posthumanist thinkers such as Jacques Derrida, Giorgio Agamben, and Gilles Deleuze who are all in their own ways critically engaged with Western metaphysical anthropocentrism. Arguably, in a similar vein with the posthumanist critics, Silko disrupts the mischievous hierarchical opposition of humans/animals that have directly or obliquely warranted violence against the animal-Other. In order to demonstrate Silko's ethico-politicality concerning the animal issue, this essay inquires her critical perception of humans' misunderstanding (or misbehavior) toward animals in terms of the suffering and death of animals. Besides, Silko's posthumanist storytelling of the animal's gaze (as Derrida notes as an event of revealing human aporia and vulnerability) and "in-between" (as a reification of crossing the boundary of humans/animals) is discussed with the exemplification of Tayo's encounter with a mountain lion and a bear-man Shush. The posthumanist approach to thinking about the animal-Other in Ceremony and Storyteller would shed light on the ethico-political significances of Silko's storytelling in our time in peril of losing the tie between humans and nonhuman animals.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.597-618
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• 2009

Leslie Marmon Silko, in her novel Gardens in the Dunes, primarily focuses on revealing the white colonialists' plan to exterminate and destroy American Indians and their culture. In this regard, this novel is clearly an Indian counter narrative to interrogate and abrogate the authority of the oppressive and destructive discourse of the whites who are full of colonialist impulses to sterilize Indians and their culture. However, it should be noted that Silko is very careful not to insist on cultural exclusivism and reverse ethnocentrism, since these only mean a return to the violent colonialists' discourse based on dualism and cultural authenticity which, she believes, has led to the marginalization and eventual deterioration of Indians and their culture. White values and culture are something to recognize and tolerate as long as they are not the products of witchery, also known as the destroyer or evil for Silko, which promotes disruption and antagonism between races and classes. As she reveals in her interview, her major concern in the novel is to dismantle political and/or racial distinctions like Native Americans versus EuroAmericans and thus to enhance the idea of the reconciliation and coexistence of whites and Indians. Silko's Gardens in the Dunes can be regarded as an experiment in the possibility of the universal and homogeneous (at least in its roots) global culture which tolerates all forms of culture. Global culture does not mean a uniform totalitarian culture but a vision of a harmonious world characterized by hybridity and heterogeneity, in which different cultures associate freely without the notion of inferiority or superiority of any one culture. Silko's belief in syncretism emphasizes the spirit of tolerance and exchange between different cultures, dismantling the authority of exclusive ethnocentrism. The ultimate message implied in Gardens in the Dunes is that the syncretic spirit is not only an effective means to correct the white colonialists' hegemonic desire aimed at the extermination of Indians and their culture but also a source of energy for the life and prosperity of modern Indians and their societies.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.55 no.2
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• pp.293-314
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• 2009

Leslie Marmon Silko's Storyteller does not belong to a typical category of books, for it looks more like a family album with photographs, poems and Pueblo narratives as well as short stories authored by her. This 'book' without any chapters defies a traditional concept of books we are familiar with. In addition to refusing to be labelled as a conventional book, I argue, Storyteller defies the tradition of Western personal writing in that it shows the collective power of stories. That is, stories have the collective power which is impersonal beyond personal, internalized identity. It does not mean, however, the collective power comes from groups rather than individuals. It is not the conventional opposition of group and individual but that of group and collectiveness that matters here. I draw a distinction between group and collectiveness on the ground that the former actually groups individuals into categories with which individuals identify themselves. It is not group but collectiveness where stories find their power. "Storyteller," the first of eight short stories in the book, tells the story of an unnamed protagonist, a Yupik Eskimo girl, who takes revenge of her parents who died after drinking poisoned alcohol sold by a white storeman. There are four layers of stories in this short story. The first one is the old man's story of a blue glacier bear; the second one is a revenge story of the Yupik girl; the third one is a story told by the girl to the attorney after being arrested for the death of a storeman. And the final one is the story told to us by Silko, entitled "Storyteller." Although the structure of story within story resembles a technique of metafiction at a glance, it surely is a characteristic of Pueblo narratives in general, according to Silko. This kind of stories within stories refers to the collective power of story which, like a spider's web with many little threads radiating from the center and crisscrossing one another, is also a characteristic of stories on the Web today.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.97-125
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• 2014

This paper delves into the question of universality in Native American Literature focusing on Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, exploring some different definitions of universality and looking at the work in the light of these definitions. In this paper I proposed four possible definitions or faces of universality applicable to the narrative of the oppressed people. Firstly, the colonizers indoctrinate their colonized persons with the colonialists' beliefs through the process of assimilation purposefully imposed in the name of universality. In Ceremony Rocky and Emo are the victims of assimilation including militarization. Secondly, the colonized people hold on to their traditional values in face of colonizers' universalism. In Ceremony Tayo shows an attachment to tribal stories in opposition to whites' lies. Thirdly, the colonized can get together by sharing experiences of violence, occupation, and loss of their land and language, forming a bond of "commonality" among them. In Ceremony the story of a medicine man, Betonie, suggests oneness of victims against the evil power of destroyers represented by nuclear bombs. Fourthly and lastly, the universal consists in the subject's trial and practice attempting to achieve universalism against the existing order, not in the stipulation defining what is universal. In the story Tayo endeavors to retrieve his cattle by transgressing whites' property and makes a hole in the established dichotomy of whites and Indians. In sum, Ceremony as a minor literature shows the developmental aspects of universality, culminating in Tayo's refusal to assimilate himself to whites' lies.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.5
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• pp.823-850
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• 2010

In this paper, I will explore disparate voices embedded in the interactions of stories in which personal, cultural, historical, and mythical consciousness brings up diverse ideas about the experiences of Native Americans. The accommodation of differences and changes is clearly manifested through the healing ceremony of Tayo, which poses some practical questions: what could be the authentic tradition of Native Americans?; which direction should it be led to? As these questions suggest, Tayo needs to think over and work through the way that Native oral stories will enrich the signification of being Indian within multicultural U. S. society. In other words, Tayo should transfer the oppositional relationship between Anglo and Native American world into an interactive one to bring forth new meanings concerning their interactions. As a hybrid, Tayo begins to recognize that his fragmented consciousness could represent the pervasive but surmountable anxiety about the cultural clash between Native and White Americans. Going through the multiple layers of his stories, Tayo learns that Native Americans need to hold a balanced viewpoint firmly: this demonstrates that storytelling brings restoration and renewal to him. As a result of Betonie's healing ceremony and his intimate relationship with Ts'eh, Tayo comes to have a holistic comprehension about how all the living things are interconnected to one another. After acquiring this recognition, Tayo succeeds in his quest to get back Josiah's cattle and recovers his identity as a Laguna Pueblo Indian, still letting diverse voices, cultures, and stories flow into the process of storytelling. As the last scene in which the conversations among Tayo, Auntie, and Grandmother took place illustrates, Tayo has newly secured a position that will require him to create a new, alternative story, not just repeating previous stories.

• Journal of Popular Narrative
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.107-142
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• 2021

Emergence of new media platform had changed relationship between the broadcaster and the viewer, which used to form 'performer-audience' structure. This research has focused on the transition of 'streamer-viewer' role in single-media broadcasting, such as Youtube or Twitch, and identify how they progress group storytelling as a team. Walter Benjam and Leslie Marmon Silko's notion of 'story and storyteller' and Erving Goffman's 'social role theory' was used to define participants' role in new media broadcasting. channel, on Youtube, was selected and analyzed as example case. The domain of 'front stage' was broadened in recorded contents comparing to live streaming. The audience of live streaming is included to the front stage during the expansion. The role of streamer, game participant, and live stream contents viewer is also adjusted during the change, which leads to group-creation of the contents. Streamer plays a role of main-storyteller and suggest identity of the community. Game participants work as sub-storyteller, filling in the blank space in game storytelling and making it sophisticated. They also perform based on community's identity, which streamer has built in advance. Lastly, live steam viewers are intermittent sub-storyteller, which seldom add up the narrative. Though, their main role is to preserve identity of game broadcasting community by reacting according to community's identity. As a result, the game broadcasting narrative is developed by combining and adding up pieces of story made in different level and role of participants. The research redefine the role of viewer and storytelling method in new media, especially in single-person broadcasting. Considering the rapid shift in recent media and contents, a new approach to the streamer-veiwer role and group storytelling of this research can be one of the new method to analyze contents produced in new media, such as Youtube.