Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach has many intriguing things which can be examined, however my blog will focus on the literature Lisa experiences during her education. Lisa explains her outburst at school surronding her resistance to reading a text out loud. Lisa states she found the text offensive because it describe indians eating humans. The issue of presenting Indians as savages in literature is an ongoing phenomena, I myself have seen a portrayal in literature. The presentation Lisa is faced with is a common stereotype. Individuals often "imagine indians" like Susan Moodie imagines the indian gentleman in text roughing it in the bush. Imaging is very dangerous since it is always built on stereotypes and usually is constructed through a binary. The binary seperates Europeans and other culture through placing what ever is not European on the other side of the binary. The "imagined other" is a recurrent issue which is pervasive in literature. Lisa confronts her teacher stating that is not what Native peoples do, her grandmother explained they didn't eat people it was similar to the Christian ritual of drinking the blood of Christ. Considering her grandmother's analogy shows different perspectives of viewing an act, one may see the Christian ritual as savage and misinterpret it similarily. It is dangerous to assume rather than understand and know. The information Lisa is confronted with illustrates how those who are not European get stereotyped and categorized into one group , rather than being thought of as individuals. The text Lisa is suppose to read assumes their ritual is cannibalistic and that all Natives act similariy , when one small group, or even one individual is not a representive of the whole. Stereotyping was not only seen in print, but media and photography as well. Many photographers took pictures of Indians however dressed them according to their stereotypes , and created photography which reflects stereotypes. Below I have posted a video I found interesting and certainly speaks to the imagined Indian found in media, and often in European literature.
www.nsi-canada.ca/i_m_not_the_indian_you_had_in_mind.aspx
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment