Humboldt-Universitt

zu Berlin Philosophische Fakultt II Institut fr Anglistik / Amerikanistik SE American Literary History II SS 2011 Dozentin: Dr. Ulbrich Referent: Martin Buchner

Louise Erdrich: Fleur Language & Style name of title character: Fleur (= flower -> attractive, good-looking, female) + Pillager (to pillage = to rob of goods by force, plunder) => contradictive character; Fleur does not seem to fit in any world not in the world of the Natives, nor in the White conservative one in Argus very direct style, hardly metaphors or other images almost plain talk employed but: very exact and detailed descriptions (esp. sensations), e.g. The cards sweat, limp in their fingers, the table was slick with grease, and even the walls were warm to the touch. The air was motionless. (p. 28361) paratactic style transitional sentences at the end of important paragraphs (function as a kind of break, evoking tense and indicating that the situation will rise to a climax), e.g. It was how she played cards. (p. 2834), [...] too consistent for luck (p. 2835) influence of Native Oral Tradition (rhymes used, mythology created: Fleur survived the two-times near death by drowning -> the reader never really knows who she is; all stories about Fleur are possible; even at the end of the story its a big mystery: Some say shes married to the waterman, Misshepeshu, or that shes living in shame with white men or windigos, or that shes killed them all. [...] It comes up different every time and has no ending, no beginning. They get the middle wrong too. They only know they dont know anything.2 (p. 2840) -> ambiguity

1 Reference: Baym, Nina, ed. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter Seventh Edition. New

York. W.W. Norton & Company, 2008. Print.

2 Highlighting, M.B.