Genre Reconsidered in Louise Erdrich’s The Round House
This article discusses the significant shift in terms of genre to be observed in Louise Erdrich‘s fourteenth novel, The Round House (2012). This novel, which explores the effects of a sexual assault on an Ojibwe reservation, can be seen to use narrative styles and generic conventions that are quite...
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Estado: | Versão publicada |
| Data de publicação: | 2016 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repositório: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/57935 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/11441/57935 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Native American novel Genre criticism Fiction and Social action Louise Erdrich The Round House Ficción nativo-americana Teorías sobre géneros literarios Novela y cambio social |
| Resumo: | This article discusses the significant shift in terms of genre to be observed in Louise Erdrich‘s fourteenth novel, The Round House (2012). This novel, which explores the effects of a sexual assault on an Ojibwe reservation, can be seen to use narrative styles and generic conventions that are quite different from those found in Erdrich‘s earlier works. The article considers the possible reasons that could explain Erdrich‘s decision to hybridize different genres (coming-of-age, thriller, etc.) in The Round House and how that decision may have conditioned the reception of the novel among Native and non-Indian readers alike. A number of socio-cultural and rhetorical theories of genre (Miller, Bitzer, Bakhtin) are used to discern the author‘s logic in opting for a specific blend of literary genres. The article concludes that Erdrich‘s generic choices are best understood in the light of the socio-political urgency and activism that the vulnerable situation of Native women on reservations demands. |
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