Stereotypical and Revised Images of the Native Americans

Western/Colonial Representations of the Native American:

The western definition of the native American: The term "Indian" as a western mistake and a western definition… a western misconception.

The stereotypical image of Native American: 

The Ecological Native American: In this 1971 commercial, the image of the "indian" is exploited for entertainment. It is a studied and an artificial image. A fake indian with a fake tear and a fake costume. this image is manipulating and misleading the minds as far as Indian identity is concerned. By that, it is exterminating the real Indian in the public imagination since in reality there are no such Indians as the one in this commercial. By creating such an imaginative and non-existent image about the Indians, they provide the evidence of their non-existence and by that negating the existence of real Native Americans and stripping them of their identity.  

For more analysis of this commercial read the following article: The Crying Indian  

The Indian Princess: It is an oxymoron. The word princess suggests aristocracy. However, Native American Culture is based on egalitarianism. It is another studied and artificial image also used for a purpose: aristocracy is something America lacks. The indian princess gives them more sense of belonging (they descend from an Indian princess grandmother and not an Indian warrior grandfather). Walt Disney's Pocahontas is a recycling of Naomi Campbell. The song shows how Pocahontas teaches captain John Smith to see "spirit" where he sees "profit". It is a sort of "an adoption ritual". Westerners need this kind of adoption to be legitimate in the land.

The Indian Warrior (the bad Indian): mainly as depicted in western movies.

The Wise Indian / the brave Indian (the good Indian): As a matter of instance, James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. A novel romanticizing America and romanticizing the West (place of fulfillment of the American Dream)

Avatar (the movie) as a colonial narrative: 

Consider the elements of othering and stereotyping in Avatar.

Deconstructing and Revising western images of the native American: 

What is a Native American?

Healing Processes / Reconstructing Identity:

"The seeds remembered the land they came from."
Corn is more than food. It is history. It is spirit.

re-appropriating identity

Introduction to Native American Literature:

Consider the following article by Silvia Martinez Falquina: From the Monologic Eye to Healing Polyphonies: Dialogic Re/vision in Native American Narratives.

Imagology

It is the comparative study of literary works as far as images are concerned. 

Imagology is not to be confused with imagery.

Imagery is a literary device that converts the reading experience into a sensory experience. 

Imagology is something different in that it deals with the image as a cultural, social, and political construct.

The image has a very strong impact. It is a device that operates at the level of the unconscious. The images which are constructed and emitted are received without us knowing by the unconscious, without the mediation of our knowing minds. For such reasons, the image is a powerful tool. The field of advertisement makes use of it to efficiently meet marketing purposes.

Constructed images are ethnocentric and their contraction is intertwined with a process of Othering. Images are constructed for the purpose of defining the unknown Other. What is unknown is dangerous. To define it is to have control over it and to dominate it. The image is an efficient way to dominate the unknown Other because once built and established images stick and could not be easily removed. Literature and art are means of constructing images. An example is the image that orientalist artists and writers built about the Orient. They wanted to define the unknown Orient to have control over it. They built a faulty stereotypical image (the exotic, the erotic, the barbaric) which later have come to be accepted and interiorized by the Orient and turned into its reality. What used to be an image in the mind of the West about the East became the reality of that East. 

Eugene Delacroix's The Death of Sardanapalus 1827 is a perfect example of that orientalist image.

  

To revise that image, the East should employ the same strategy and adhere to the philosophy of "define yourself or you are defined". It is through literature and art that this image has been constructed and it is through literature and art that it should be revised.

Terminology:    

Stereotype: a stereotype is a received idea which is not necessarily true that we take from society without questioning it. Stereotypes always necessitate a boundary (of gender, racial, geographical, ethnic, national…). They also submit to the law of binarism which stipulates that one side of the boundary has superiority over the other side. 

For instance, one could find gender stereotypes in fairy tales or in primary school books that feminism tries to revise.    

Cliché: it is a phrase that is overused that it loses its evocative power and becomes devoid of its meaning. e.g.: Love is blind. 

Caricature: it is a representation of something or someone where certain aspects are over-exaggerated while other are over-simplified for the purpose of constructing a specific image about that something or someone. Not only a cartoon, caricature could also be a literary device. 

Notice how the following colonial caricatures by Salomon Assus built a certain image about Algerians (referred to and defined as "indigènes" by the colonizer). They are mostly represented as stupid, dump and backward people and the merchants facial expressions implies they are greedy tricksters or cheaters. Somehow it tells a lot about the origins of negative self-image algerians have of themselves. These images were interiorized by the colonized. Inferiority is interiorized. Unless Algerians redefine themselves by revising those images, the images will stay forever as well as the devastation they cause.

  

Thematology

It is the contrastive study of themes in different literary texts. As a subfield in comparative literature according to the French school, thematology is a comparative study of literary works as they relate to other literary works beyond their national borders as far as the themes are concerned. It is a more specific and limited investigation in the field of comparatism.

A literary text has two main components i.e. form and content.
The form is about the language and the structure. It is how the content is presented. A specific form may help putting a specific content into value. For instance, Alice Walker's The Color purple is a novel about an oppressed and silenced girl. Walker used the epistolary form (letter novel). Celie addresses letters to God. It is more likely for a silenced girl to write letters for their private and discrete nature instead of being a traditional narrator protagonist in a novel. Also because Celie is almost illiterate, her letters are written in the dialect of blacks in the south instead of standard English and the epistolary form    meets the purpose of that informal situation.

The content is what the literary text is about.
The content is either derived from reality. The text may be drawn or inspired from a given reality. It may reflect the reality of a specific time and a specific place as it may reflect a more universal reality that is related to human nature and existence. Also, it may be concrete in that it reflects concrete situations of human condition as it may be abstract in the form of philosophical reflections, meditations and commentaries about a specific or a universal reality.

Or it may be derived from the folklore, the oral tradition and the collective imagination of a specific group. Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad bear a content that is largely inspired and drawn from Greek mythology.

Terminology: 

Theme vs Subject matter: The subject matter is larger and wider in scope in comparison to the theme. The theme is more specific. For instance, "love" is the subject matter in Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. The theme is more precise. It is love in the age of materialism.  

Motif vs Theme: The theme is the central idea or message where as the motif constitutes the unit from which the theme is built. The motif could be an image, a sound, an action, an object, a character, a literary device, a word, a phrase… with a symbolic significance that helps constructing and consolidating the central idea or the theme. It contributes towards the development of the theme. A motif is a recurrent idea or symbol or image that develops and explains the theme.
The theme of "the corruption of the American dream" in The Great Gatsby is built up and consolidated by the succession of certain motifs like the green light at the end of Daisy's Dock. Green the color of the American shores as first perceived by the Dutch sailors who came to America to fulfill their dreams is also the color of dollars (materialism). Another motif is the movement east instead of west. Most characters moved east to fulfill their dreams as young people. It is the opposite direction of the American dream. This explains why the narrator Nick Caraway decided to return to the midwest at the end of the novel. the dichotomy east/west is a recurrent motif in the novel that serves the purpose of consolidating the theme of "the corruption of the American dream"

Symbol vs Motif: There is a difference between a symbol and a motif in that the symbol is an image, idea, sound, or words that represent something else and help understanding a given idea or a thing where as a motif is an image, idea, sound, or word that help understand the central idea in the literary work. Another difference is that the motif is recurrent where as the symbol may appear once or twice in a literary work.

Leitmotif vs Motif: the literal translation of leitmotif (a german word) is leading or guiding motif. However the real meaning of the concept is different. A leitmotif is more easily noticeable in opera and cinema where a specific melody is associated to character or a given situation or a given setting. Examples from literature: In Shakespeare's Macbeth, thunder and lightning are associated with the supernatural world of the witches. In Ngugi's A Grain of Wheat, water imagery is always associated with Mugo. In The Great Gatsby, white is always associated with Daisy or again the word "voice".

History of Ideas

It refers to one of the orientations of comparative literature as having first been implemented by Paul Van Tighem since 1931. This field of study gained ground and recognition through the creation of a Journal of the History of Ideas.

This field is at the crossroads of philosophy and history. It is interested in "ideas" in the broadest and the more general sense of the term rather than in its doctrinal sense. Idea designates knowledge, abstract reflexion or intellectual representation. History of ideas thus studies the evolution of human thinking or human mentality through time and space. Humans during Antiquity had a different mindset than humans during the Middle Ages or humans during the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, or the Modernist era. As a matter of instance, behind every change in the history of Europe, there is a current of thought. Intellectual currents represent the motor of society. 

What makes a given society move ahead and head for a specific change is always a specific current of thought. For example, Church indoctrination during the middle ages has been replaced by Humanism during the Renaissance. Humanism as a current of thought favors human thinking over established doctrines and it has lead the way for the era of flourishing and revival that the Renaissance is. 

Often times, this change occurring in society is lead by avant-gardist intellectuals and thinkers. Martin Luther in Germany and John Calvin in Switzerland are perfect examples. Through their intellectual efforts they changed and reformed the map of europe by reforming and liberating the minds from the thoughts dictated by the catholic church (the Vatican as an authority). 

Also, the changes happening in Europe and America during the 18th century owe it all to Enlightenment thinkers. In France, they were called "les philosophes": Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu among others. Their intellectual force influenced intellectuals outside France. As is the case in USA mainly Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The American revolution, the American Declaration of independence and the Bill of Rights are products of the enlightenment as a current of thought that advocates reason, logic, and scientific thinking instead of tradition. 

History of ideas studies the circulation of thoughts and ideas through time and space. Comparative Literature is interested in that field of study mainly because those intellectual currents are carried by literature and arts. Literature and arts constitute a sort of arteries through which ideas circulate to influence and make changes in societies. Literature and Art also reflect the mentality and the mindset of humans in the time and place where it is produced. During the Age of enlightenment, realism was the literary and artistic tendency. Realism as a literary current helped spreading reason as a mode of thought and by that enabled that current of thought to be transmitted from the minority intellectual elite (avant-guard) and influence the majority (common people). 

Categories of ideas: Ideas can be categorized mainly as follows:

Philosophical Ideas: like Existentialism, Absurdism...

Moral or Ethical Ideas: Moral values... 

Religious or Theological Ideas: Religious values... 

Scientific Ideas: like Freudianism, Darwinism...

Political Ideas: like Capitalism, Communism, Socialism...

Study case:

When we observe the era in which we live, which is characterized by technological and scientific advancement, it is clear that the avant-gardist aspirations in all the fields mostly all head toward a reconciliation with the environment. Economy aspires for sustainable development. Tourism aspires for  green tourism or what is called ecotourism. Car industry aspires for environment friendly cars using green energies. Agricultural production advocates the label "BIO" or "Organic". The same with clothing industry and fashion, there is a coming back to natural raw materials.

If the avant-guard favors ecology it is due to the drastic consequences of massive industry on the environment. The flagrant threat on the environment (and by extension on humans' survival) by industry has led to the elite's concern about ecology.

Literature as a vessel that carries avant-guardist ideas contributes in spreading the ecological concern. Many literary texts and artistic works has dealt with the environment long before current concern about the environment. 

Examples:

• Algerian Chaabi Music mirrors the Algerian culture's interest in and respect for birds. Probably because Algerians' longing for freedom during colonial times made birds stand as a revered symbol for freedom.

• Many post-colonial texts depict the coming of the colonizer by imposing his ways and order as a disturbance to the harmony that the colonized has with his natural environment. Colonialism causes disorder and chaos by affecting the environment. This change in the relationship with the environment affects the colonized cultural ways. 

• The extinction of certain living organisms also lead to the extinction of culture. Certain animals or plants carry a cultural value and their disappearance cause the death of culture. In the same way, change in the environment (geography or climate) alter and distort culture.

Ecocritism:

According to Jelica Tošić in her article Ecocriticism - Interdisciplinary Study of Literature and Environment:
The word ecocriticism is a semineologism.2 Eco is short of ecology, which is con- cerned with the relationships between living organisms in their natural environment as well as their relationships with that environment. By analogy, ecocriticism is concerned with the relationships between literature and environment or how man's relationships with his physical environment are reflected in literature. These are obviously interdisciplinary studies, unusual as a combination of a natural science and a humanistic discipline. The domain of ecocriticism is very broad because it is not limited to any literary genre. […] It is appropriate here to stress that it was only in the 1990s that ecocriticism emerged as a separate discipline although it is a fact that the relationship between man and his physical environment had always been interesting to literary critics.3 This interest, both at the basic scientific level and in the metaphorical form in literature, can be explained in two ways: 1. man always exists within some natural environment or, according to Buell, there cannot be is without where,4 and 2. the last decade of the twentieth century was the time when it became obvious that the greatest problem of the twenty-first century would be the survival of the Earth. The first explanation is concerned with man's essential quest for personal identity or with his need and failure to find his roots. That is the reason why he is a life-long wanderer, on the one hand, and why he is always identified with the fa- miliar physical and cultural environment, on the other.5 The latter explanation results from the fact that man feels vitally threatened in the ecologically degraded world. Over- exploitation of natural resources and man's disregard of the air, water and soil that sustain him have given rise to the question of the survival of both man and the planet (Earth). The end of the twentieth century showed clearly that everyone had to do something to help the Earth survive. Ecocriticism is one of the ways in which humanists fight for the world in which they live. The reflection of that difficult struggle in the area of culture and spirit speaks for the urgency of action or the urgent need to do something in this respect. P44

Ecology is the science that studies the relationships between living organisms (biotic component) and their physical environment (abiotic component). In other words, ecology is concerned with the living organisms in their natural environment. Although it is not explicitly stated here, ecology is anthropocentric whereas deep ecology originating from the endeavor to promote life as such is biocentric and stresses the fact that man is only one part in a huge and complex life net in nature in which everything has a certain value. That is why man has to realize that he is not allowed and entitled to reduce the richness and variety of the living world except for the satisfaction of his basic needs. P45

Table 1. Ecological Terms as a Source of Ecocriticism and Language Study

Ecology	Ecocriticism and language study
ecology	deep ecology
physical environment	environmental imagination reimagination
biodiversity	global environmental culture environmental unconscious
endangered species	ecocultural habitat
pollution	toxic discourse literary hazards language pollution

For further understanding of these concepts concepts check the article:

ECOCRITICISM – INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY OF LITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENT by Jelica Tošić