"Too Big to Swallow All at Once": Consumption and Posthuman Healing in Ceremony and House Made of Dawn

<p>This project examines the roles of animals and animal figures in the Native American novels <em>House Made of Dawn </em>(1968)<em></em>by N. Scott Momaday and <em>Ceremony </em>(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.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year dc:date.available

2016

Author dc:creator

• Craft, Matthew Thomas

Contributors dc:contributor

• Linda Allen
• Martina Sciolino
• Craig Carey

• Native American
• Posthuman
• Animal Studies
• Cannibalism
• English Language and Literature
• Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority

Repository record dc:identifier

https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/200

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:aquila.usm.edu:masters_theses-1221