Story Cycle: Community Imagination and Imaginary Community

聯篇故事與社區想像

Spring, 2007

A Seminar with Prof. Chen Chi-szu
Latest Update: 2007/04/17

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Notes on Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine (I): 2007/04/17

 

“Embodies in each of these figures, operative in every story, Erdrich’s collective protagonist demonstrates the healing power of love medicine. . . . And Erdrich’s family-tribal collective protagonist survives against all odds, challenging the future with the power of their Chippewa ancestry.” Maggie Dunn and Ann Morris, “(E)merging Protagonist(s): The Collective Protagonist as Concept and Connective,” The Composite Novel: The Short Story Cycle in Transition, p73.

 

I.                    Structure:

1.          cross-referencing and inter-weaving among stories.

2.          complex interrelated families

II.                 Theme: “confluence”

III.               Characters

1.          Lulu Nanapush and June Morrissey are two knots in the web of relationship in this story cycle. They share some character traits and marriage status.

2.          Lulu Nanapush and Marie Lazarre are a pair of contrast.

3.          Mixed blood

IV.              Symbolism:

1.          Water images (lakes, rivers, etc.) represent “confluence” of different families, tribes, races, and cultures. The problems of the “mixed blood” are revealed through the permutation of such an image.

2.          Island (story 4, “The Island”)

3.          Bridge (story 9, “A Bridge,” the central section of the 18 stories)

4.          Love medicine

 

No1. “The World’s Greatest Fishermen” (1981)

 

  1.  Why does the title signify?
    The title may refer us to the ancestors of the characters, the Chipewyan, whose original homeland ranged over much as western Canada between Great Slave Lake and the Churchill River, and presently inhabits the country of western Great Lakes, especially around Lake Superior. Traditionally, the Chippewa native (Anishenabe) were farmers, hunter-gathers. However, the only hunter in this story is Eli. King, who wears a hat with the inscription—“World’s Greatest Fisherman”—is by no mean a fisherman.

  2. Why do the pies and smashed pies symbolize? Why does the King’s murderous fight with his wife Lynette along with the chaos call to a stop, as they were informed by Albertine that “All the pies were smashed”?

  3.  What is June’s unfulfilled homecoming signify in a historical perspective? (June’s homecoming is completed symbolically by his son Lispha, when he wins his half brother, King’s insurance car in a poker game, uses it for an adventure to Canada (Ojibwa homeland), helps his father Gerry to escape, and then brings “her” home to the reservation.) What does June’s death mean to all the members of the extended family?

  4.  Cultural identity: From the diverse attitudes toward June’s life style and her death, we may recognize the conflict of cultural identities in the family. Compare Albertine’s and her mother, Zelda’s attitude toward June and Lynette—“the other” to the Kashpaw family.

  5. What is the symbolic function of the car, bought by King with the insurance money for June’s death?

  6. Characteristics of the landscape: p11 (the reservation), p37 (the Northern light)

  7. Structure: what does the four sections of this story interact with one another?

 

No. 2. “Saint Marie”

  1. Suggested by the ironic tone of this story, what does Catholicism function in this story?

  2. Symbols: dark fish, walleye

  3. Notice the effect of the juxtaposition of the figure of Sister Leopolda and the “Dark One” in Marie’s imagination (45-47).

  4. In this story, the traditional tribal knowledge of the wilderness is regarded as evil in Catholicism. Is it distorted by Sister Leopolda’s version of Catholicism, or a cultural fact?

  5. Ironies:

    How devil is fostered through Sister Leopolda’s preaching:

    How “Saint Marie” is created through Sister Leopolda’s scalding on Marie: The process of scalding and its effect is interpreted by Sister Leopolda as exorcizing, passion, and stigmata.

 

No. 3. “Wild Geese”

  1. Compared with “Love Medicine”: Nector’s relationship to Marie is linked through the “wild geese,” and he chokes to death on a raw turkey heart brought by Lipsha as “love medicine” for bringing him back to Marie. The original ingredient of the love-potion is a “wild-goose heart.”

  2. Ironies:

    1. The virginal Marie was raped by Nector (a mock Joseph)

    2. The hunter, Nector, was hunter by his intended pray—Marie Larzarre.

　

　

Chen Chi-szu,
Assistant Professor,
English Department,
Tamkang University

kiss7445@mail.tku.edu.tw:

Office: 
(02)26215656 ext.2966
Room: FL632