Superheroes Do Not Live on the Rez: The Nomadic Identity for Native Indian Young Adults in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Set-Byul Moon

doi:10.22901/trans.2016.9.1.151

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탈경계인문학Trans-Humanities 2021 KCI Impact Factor : 0.74

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Superheroes Do Not Live on the Rez: The Nomadic Identity for Native Indian Young Adults in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

탈경계인문학Trans-Humanities
2016, 9(1), pp.151-170
DOI : 10.22901/trans.2016.9.1.151

Publisher : Ewha Institute for the Humanities: EIH
Research Area : Other Humanities

Published : February 28, 2016

Set-Byul Moon ¹

¹이화여자대학교

ABSTRACT
열림/닫힘 버튼

Sherman Alexie’s 2007 young adult fiction, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian, depicts the life of a young Spokane Indian boy named Arnold Spirit Jr., and the writer tries to show how this young protagonist deals with his identity issues both on the reservation and at a white school. Off the poor reservation where limitations make him a loser, he needs to balance his Indian identity and agency with the white American identity he has come into contact with. The final answer, outcome, or resolution of his long search and struggle is to become a nomad (an old-time Indian way of life) or to become Nomad (an alternative superhero identity of Captain America). Following Junior’s track, Alexie implies that there should be a new form of identity for the young generation, because obviously there is none, for them, available now. Giving them a reachable, accessible form of identity and heroic figure would lead young readers like Junior to dreams of being someone important.
KEYWORDS
열림/닫힘 버튼

Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Nomad, Native American identity, nomadic identity, Native Indian literature

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REFERENCES (11)
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* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[book] Alexie, Sherman / 2004 / Ten Little Indians / Grove Press

[book] Alexie, Sherman / 2009 / The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian / Little, Brown and Company

[book] Alexie, Sherman / 2013 / The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven / Grove Press

[book] Bauman, Zygmunt / 2006 / Liquid Modernity / Polity

[journal] Dittmer, Jason / 2005 / Captain America’s Empire: Reflections on Identity, Popular Culture, and Post-9/11 Geopolitics / Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95(3) : 626~643

[other] Jaggi, Maya / 2008 / All Rage and Heart / The Guardian

[journal] Kertzer, Adrienne / 2012 / Not Exactly: Intertextual Identities and Risky Laughter in Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian / Children’s Literature 40 : 49~77

[journal] Nelson, Joshua B / 2010 / Fight as Flight: The Traditional Reclamation of Exploration / World Literature Today 84(4) : 44~47

[journal] Nelson, Joshua B / 2010 / Humor Is My Green Card: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie / World Literature Today 84(4) : 38~43

[journal] Nygren, Åse / 2005 / A World of Story-Smoke: A Conversation with Sherman Alexie / MELUS 30(4) : 149~169

[journal] Ryan, Jennifer / 2011 / Truth Made Visible: Crises of Cultural Expression in ‘Truth:Red, White, and Black’ / College Literature 38(3) : 66~96