NAME OF THE STUDENT: SANOGO Pedjogana Mamadou

SUBJECT: CHECKING THE METHODOLOGY

TEACHER: Professor COULIBALY
LEVEL: Master 1

1-Fill out this chart:

DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH THESIS

TOPIC THE PLAN OF THE THESIS
CORPUS QUESTION STATEMENT
Alienation Published for the first time in How is the Show that the
of the 1977, this novel sheds a light on issue of depiction of INTRODUCTION
Native the dilemmas, hardships and alienation alienated
Americans sufferings which constitute the depicted in pueblo1 Chapter1: The Types of
in Leslie life of the native Americans in ceremony? characters in alienation known by the natives.
Marmon the United States. From the
And what Ceremony
Silko’s viewpoint of the narrator, the
Ceremony native Americans also called does it imply suggests a 1-Political alienation
Indian Americans are a about the life necessity to 2-Psychological alienation
completely alienated people. of the native restore the 3-Moral alienation
Their existence and ways of Americans dying native-
living are evolving to the rhythm and their American Chapter2: The Manifestation of
of the white society; their ethnic culture? culture and these types of Alienation in the
identity is slightly disappearing ethnic Lives of some characters in
to the detriment of the general identity. Ceremony.
American society. 1-Tayo
2-Rocky
3-Josiah

CChapter3: Countering
Aalienation through Literature and
T traditional Practices.

1- Ethnic and unconventional

writing of Leslie M. Silko

2- The Pueblo mythology and

the recreation of the universe

3-The role of traditional

ceremonies

CONCLUSION

1
This term refers to the tribe of the author. Most of her characters are depicted as coming from this tribe.
2-Analyze and connect your thesis statement and theoretical approach
Being mainly concerned with the way the depiction of alienated pueblo characters by Silko implies
the necessity to restore the whole native identity, this thesis will be conducted by taking into
account two theoretical approaches: the postcolonial approach and the narratological approach. As
far as the postcolonial theory is concerned, it will help me show that the issue of alienation of the
native people constitutes not only an offence against the sovereignty and dignity of the native tribes,
but also it tarnishes the image of the pretended great American nation. As for the narratological
theory, its relevance is justified through the unconventional writing styles adopted by Silko in her
novel. Said another way, the theory of narratology matches with my research in as much as its main
objective which is the study of the narrative and its structures, will help me show how the author’s
countering of the conventional literary features is for her a means to heal her people from alienation.

3-Develop your central issue in connection with a position developed by some relevant
specialists in your field.
Many critics specialized in the native studies have developed a special interest in the issue of
alienation. In an article entitled Leslie Silko’s Ceremony: Rhetorics of ethical reading and
composition, Claudia Eppert believes that the depiction of alienated native characters implies that
the whole Indian American community is confronted to what he calls a “communal and collective
trauma” (2004, p.727). This communal and collective trauma originates from an initial European
mistake which according to Louis Owens placed the Indus River in the fifteenth century among the
undiscovered lands2. Moreover, as explained by Lorelei Cederstrom in Myth and Ceremony in
Contemporary North American Native Fiction, many native writers find the “antidote” through the
incorporation of “sacred materials from traditional native cultures into their works”3
Undoubtedly, the position developed by the above-mentioned scholars about the conditions of
native Americans justifies once more that literature in general and particularly native American
literature must be an effective means of claim of liberty, sovereignty and dignity, a position that is
in straight concordance with the visions of Leslie M. Silko.

2
Quoted in ARKAN NASER HUSSAIN, The Cultural Crisis of Mixedblood Figures in Indian-American Fiction: A
Study of Selected Novels by Leslie Marmon Silko, N. Scott Momaday, And Louise Erdrich, University of Al-Qadisiya,
2016, p.1
3
Lorelei Cederstrom, “Myth and Ceremony in Contemporary North American Native Fiction”, THE CANADIAN
JOURNAL OF NATIVE STUDIES II, 2 (1982): 285-301, page 285