ADescriptiveAccountof StereotypingtheSelfandtheOtherin N.ScottMomaday’sNovelHouseMadeofDawn (1968)

Abstract

The stereotypical representation of Native Americans in Euro-American literature has always appeared along with the polished image of the whites which match imperialist ideological intentions. While the white supremacy ideology justifies the whites’ right to control the aboriginal inhabitants of North America and seize their lands, the oppressive stereotypical ideology tends to explain either or both their extermination and amalgamation, and to extend the control of land into colonizing the Natives’ consciousness. Based on the Marxist literary theory, which highlights the role of the dominant’s oppressive ideologies in hypnotizing the subjugated, this dissertation commits to study the standpoint of the dean of the Native American writers, N.Scott Momaday, towards the stereotypical representation of Native Americans and Whites in Euro-American literature through his first novel House Made of Dawn in order to explore the weight of the previously identified ideologies on the Native mind. The descriptive and analytical study of the novel has shown the author’s awareness of the work of these ideologies, which is manifested in the portrayal of his Indian and white characters.