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Culture Survivance and Religion Healing: On Ojibwe Spirituality in Healing Trauma in LaRose
WAN Mei
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2018.08.005
College of Foreign Languages, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 211106, Jiangsu, China
As of French, German and Ojibwe mixed-blood origin, Louise Erdrich, a well-known and prolific American writer, has always been dealing with the theme of the relationship between Catholicism and Ojibwe spirituality in her fictional world. Her attitude towards Catholicism and Ojibwe spirituality has sparked a heated discussion among scholars and researchers in recent years. Under such academic atmosphere, therefore, LaRose is discussed in this paper. It is shown in LaRose that when white and tribal history come together, where Catholic and traditional spirit worlds intersect, and when Western legal justice cannot solve an ethical problem, Ojibwe spirituality can be used for healing trauma, which is represented through the tradition of adoption as a spiritual reparation, the acquisition of power through naming and biological inheritance and the practice of rituals and ceremonies, from all of which the healing power is derived. Rather than being a syncretism with Catholic, Ojibwe spirituality should preserve its own traditions and cultures to survive generational as well as individual trauma and maintain a culture survivance.
LaRose, culture survivance, religion healing, Catholicism, Ojibwe spirituality
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