Ceremony Annotated Bib Draft

David Lyon
Eng 254
Professor Rouzie
April 29, 2009
Ceremony: Annotated Bibliography
We can read this novel through a post-colonial lens, and by doing so we can learn a great deal. I want to focus on the binary relationships and the way Silko blurs the lines but also, how she shows the connectedness between cultures. That we are different, but also connected to each other and to nature. Focus on how the American Indian condition is a unique case in the realm of post-colonial cultures, in that our empire has been built around their homeland, it is not geographically on the periphery, as with European colonies, eg. Africa, India, the Caribbean etc. Discuss how this is problematic and how Silko deals with these issues in the novel. And how Silko’s writing might differ from other post-colonial writers. Does the AI’s proximity to the metropole help or hurt the possibility of healing and cohabitation? Tayo as a character at a crossroads, living on the border of several identities, how does he begin his prescencing? Tayo’s mixed ethnicity itself is an example of how binaries can be complicated and how they do not accurately describe the world. Ultimately, I would like to focus on how Silko uses Tayo’s story to offer a message of healing and self-discovery.

McLaughlin, Becky, and Bob Coleman. Everyday Theory: A Contemporary Reader. 1st ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print. Homi Bhabha. Border Lives: The Art of the Present.
This essay describes binary relationships in a general sense. It gives many examples of post-colonial binary relationships but does not focus on one in particular. He describes the way that binary thinking has been used as a powerful tool to colonize the hearts and minds of “native” cultures. Through the article it becomes clear that Bhabha is seeking to break down these binary relationships. He also discusses several related topics such as, the beyond, the exotic, and the periphery. Each of these has, both in the past and present, been used as a tool to exclude native culture and establish European hegemony. Throughout this essay Bhabha also discusses the issue of identity. Specifically the identity of the subaltern. He concludes his essay with a section titled “Looking for the Join,” in this section he asserts his belief that art and fiction can serve to bring together seemingly separate cultures of this “unhomely” world, and promote unity.

McLaughlin, Becky, and Bob Coleman. Everyday Theory: A Contemporary Reader. 1st ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. Print. Frantz Fanon. On National Culture.
This essay deals specifically with the methods of colonialism, the colonizing of the mind. Specifically, the way that the colonizer seeks to not only destroy the culture of the colonized, but to convince the colonized that their culture never was relevant. One way this is achieved, argues Fanon, is to convince the colonized that their culture was barbaric before the European culture saved them through colonization. He also documents three phases of the native writer: in the first phase the native writer assimilates the oppressor’s culture and writes as a loyal subject. In the second phase the native writer disassociates with the oppressor and realizes that their own culture is legitimate. However during this phase the native writer still does not feel a part of their native culture, they still feel disconnected. In the third phase the native writer tires merely of learning about the past of his people and becomes a revolutionary, and sets out to inspire his fellow natives to reject the culture of the oppressor and embrace their own heritage.

Evasdaughter, Elizabeth N.. "Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony: Healing Ethnic Hatred by Mixed-Breed Laughter." MELUS 15(1988): 83-95. Print.
This article argues that Ceremony was written as a way to use humor to mock the way that we experience race. Evasdaughter asserts that Silko’s intention was to illustrate how we are similar, not how we are different. She spends a great deal of time in this article discussing how Silko challenges our western thought processes. She discusses how, as white readers, we may have a difficulty finding the humor in this novel. She also claims that as white readers we may have a difficult time accepting the way Ceremony challenges traditional ideas.

Swan, Edith. "Healing Via the Sunwise Cycle in Silko's "Ceremony"." American Indian Quarterly 12(1988): 313-328. Print.
This article focuses on the journey of Tayo through the “Sunwise” cycle.

Bird Summary Application

David Lyon
Eng 254
Professor Rouzie
April 23, 2009
Summary and Application: Bird Essay
Summary: In her essay Bird explores the nature of the American Indian, and the struggle to find identity in a post-colonial America. She applies post-colonial theory to the canonical American Indian text Ceremony. One of the main themes of this essay is language, she relates her own personal experience with the power of language to the character Tayo from Ceremony. Bird also discusses how hegemony becomes internalized in the minds and culture of American Indians. She notices that it is not only the white man who makes American Indians feel a sense of otherness and exclusion, but that also the American Indian culture itself perpetuates these ideas.
Bird also deals with the issue of perspective, she argues that Silko’s novel challenges Western paradigms by offering a narrative from the perspective of the “other.” Therefore, this novel is in contrast to other texts about American Indians, in that it does not rely on a European point of view, but rather gives us an insightful view from the perspective of the colonized. Bird also argues that the novel is “de-centered” once again this novel reflects the American Indian culture itself. This is a culture on the periphery of society, a marginalized culture. Therefore the novel itself seems peripheral and alien to a European mind.
Bird notices how this novel departs from the normal western models of writing, particularly in how it deals with time. Bird argues that Silko is trying to express a sense of “connectedness” throughout the novel. This influences nearly every aspect of the book. Time is not linear in this novel, Silko seems to be interested in blurring binaries between whites and American Indians, and in doing so, facilitate cultural healing. Bird also states that the hegemony of white culture infects the minds of the marginalized so that Tayo and other characters judge their identity by their own racial appearance. Bird argues that Silko was trying to illustrate the fact that change is internal, and that external characteristics have little bearing on this process.

She Had Some Horses

In the first stanza of this poem the speaker seems to be comparing her "horses" to various aspect of American Indian life and history. The maps drawn with blood could be referring to the blood that was shed when colonists began forcing the American Indians out of their home territories (trail of tears etc.) Also, the blue skies, the fur and teeth, and the red cliffs bring to mind American Indian culture. The second stanza gets a little more obscure, the line "She had horses with eyes of trains." is tricky. Does this mean that she has seen the trains with her eyes? It almost gives the impression that the trains have been absorbed by the culture, that the culture of the oppressors has been assimiliated into the American Indian culture. Another line that stuck out was, "She had horses that were much too shy, and kept quiet in stalls of their own making." These could represent the speakers feelings that remain unexpressed. I honestly don't know what to make of the line about praying while raping. The only mouse I can drop is that the pioneers who raped and pillaged the lands of the American Indians also established missionaries and used religion to "civilize" the natives. This could explain the praying during rape. I think the closing lines help to clarify the meaning of the poem. These lines tell the reader that the horses are abstractions. She has horses she hates and horses she loves, and these are the same horses. This tells the reader that each horse can have multiple meanings.