Native American Representation in New Moon: History Repeating Itself
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2021-06-30
Language
en
Document type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Title
ISSN
Volume
Issue
Startpage
Endpage
DOI
Abstract
This thesis focusses on how Native Americans are represented in Stephenie Meyer’s novel New Moon. In the past, Native Americans were thought of as animal-like and portrayed as savages. Their “Indianness” was used as a branding device and reduced to stereotypes. Despite critique on these stereotypical portrayals, New Moon adheres to them to represent its Native characters, as can be seen when applying discourse analysis. The legends of an actual tribe are appropriated to put Native Americans back into the role of the savage and the symbolic “Other”. Theories of “Othering” practices by Homi K. Bhabha and Stuart Hall illustrate that the contrast created between the “Other” and the “Self” reflects the notion of the “savage” versus the “civilized”. New Moon draws on stereotypes from the colonial era to reinforce the idea of the Native American as the “Other”, which keeps the hegemonic power structures of knowledge production in place.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Letteren