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Subjugation of Indigenous Land: The Geographical Depletion of Place Depicted in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit

Received: 20 January 2024     Accepted: 31 January 2024     Published: 21 February 2024
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Abstract

Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw writer who has been always concerned about the issue of place in her literary works since place is taken as a witness, participant and even sufferer of the Native American people’s colonial history. Meanwhile, the native belief regarding human relationships to land and place in cosmological and ecological aspects can also well illustrate her initial concern of place. This paper is to situate the analysis of place within the context of postcolonial and ecological avenues, exploring the geographical depletion of the local place, and further reproducing the colonized and displaced situation of indigenous land. Through the representation of land loss history represented in her first novel Mean Spirit, this study is intended to draw upon the concerning social elements resulting in the native people’s land cession experience from two aspects, colonial conquest and capital expansion, thus generalizing Hogan’s attitude toward land as a component of the local place and conceptualizing her land ethic stereotype. In a nutshell, the land-language concept revealed in Hogan’s literary work encompasses the idea of caring for and listening to the place and ultimately demonstrates her land ethic doctrine that can be comprehended as her place-oriented proposition and a new strategy of resistance against the colonial and ecological crisis.

Published in English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 9, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14
Page(s) 29-35
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Linda Hogan, Place, Subjugation of Indigenous Land, Mean Spirit, Land Ethics

References
[1] Hogan, Linda. Mean Spirit [M]. New York: Ivy Books, 1990.
[2] Blair, Elizabeth. “The Politics of Place in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit” [J]. Studies in American Indian Literatures 6.3 (Fall 1994): 15-21, p. 20.
[3] Castor, Laura Virginia. “Claiming Place in Wor(l)ds: Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms” [J]. MELUS, 31.2(2006): 157-180, p. 175. https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/31.2.157
[4] Fang, Hong. “Emplacement, Multilocality and Reinhabitation: A Study of Hogan’s People of the Whale” [J]. Journal of Shanghai Normal University, 2016(5): 91-96, p. 96.
[5] Dreese, Donelle N.. Ecocriticism: Creating Self and Place in Environmental and American Indian Literature [M]. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2002, p. 112.
[6] Johnson, Troy. “American Indians, Manifest Destiny, and Indian Activism: A Cosmology of Sense of Place” [M]. Place and Native American Indian History and Culture, Ed. Joy Porter. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2007: 71-92, p. 72.
[7] Ortiz, Simon J.. Men on the Moon: Collected Short Stories [M]. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999, p. xiii.
[8] Owens, Louis. Other Destinies: Understanding the American Indian Novel [M]. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992, p. 29.
[9] Schweninger, Lee. Listening to the Land: Native American Literary Responses to the Landscape [M]. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2008, p. 2.
[10] Hogan, Linda. Dwellings: A Spiritual History of the Living World [M]. New York: Touchstone, 1995, p. 11.
[11] Fanon, Franz. The Wretched of the Earth [M]. Trans Richard Philcox. New York: Grove Press, 2004, p. 9.
[12] DeLoughrey, Elizabeth and George B. Handley. Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment [M]. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 3.
[13] Harris Wilson. The Whole Armour [M]. London: Faber, 1962, p. 5.
[14] Majeed, Munazza, Uzma Imtiaz & Akifa Imtiaz. “Reterritorialization in A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid: A Postcolonial Eco-Critical Study” [J]. Sage Open, 11.1 (2021): 1-8, p.7. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244021997419
[15] Huggan, Graham and Helen Tiffin. Postcolonial Ecocriticism: Literature, Animals, Environment [M]. London: Rutledge, 2010, p. 3.
[16] Leopold, Aldo. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There [M]. New York: Oxford University Press, 1949, p. 173, 174.
[17] Casteel, Alix. “Dark Wealth in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit” [J]. Studies in American Indian Literatures, 6.3(1994): 49-68, p. 50.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Xiaofang, S. (2024). Subjugation of Indigenous Land: The Geographical Depletion of Place Depicted in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit. English Language, Literature & Culture, 9(1), 29-35. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14

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    ACS Style

    Xiaofang, S. Subjugation of Indigenous Land: The Geographical Depletion of Place Depicted in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2024, 9(1), 29-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14

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    AMA Style

    Xiaofang S. Subjugation of Indigenous Land: The Geographical Depletion of Place Depicted in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2024;9(1):29-35. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14,
      author = {Sun Xiaofang},
      title = {Subjugation of Indigenous Land: The Geographical Depletion of Place Depicted in Linda Hogan’s Mean Spirit},
      journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
      volume = {9},
      number = {1},
      pages = {29-35},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20240901.14},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20240901.14},
      abstract = {Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw writer who has been always concerned about the issue of place in her literary works since place is taken as a witness, participant and even sufferer of the Native American people’s colonial history. Meanwhile, the native belief regarding human relationships to land and place in cosmological and ecological aspects can also well illustrate her initial concern of place. This paper is to situate the analysis of place within the context of postcolonial and ecological avenues, exploring the geographical depletion of the local place, and further reproducing the colonized and displaced situation of indigenous land. Through the representation of land loss history represented in her first novel Mean Spirit, this study is intended to draw upon the concerning social elements resulting in the native people’s land cession experience from two aspects, colonial conquest and capital expansion, thus generalizing Hogan’s attitude toward land as a component of the local place and conceptualizing her land ethic stereotype. In a nutshell, the land-language concept revealed in Hogan’s literary work encompasses the idea of caring for and listening to the place and ultimately demonstrates her land ethic doctrine that can be comprehended as her place-oriented proposition and a new strategy of resistance against the colonial and ecological crisis.
    },
     year = {2024}
    }
    

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    AB  - Linda Hogan is a Chickasaw writer who has been always concerned about the issue of place in her literary works since place is taken as a witness, participant and even sufferer of the Native American people’s colonial history. Meanwhile, the native belief regarding human relationships to land and place in cosmological and ecological aspects can also well illustrate her initial concern of place. This paper is to situate the analysis of place within the context of postcolonial and ecological avenues, exploring the geographical depletion of the local place, and further reproducing the colonized and displaced situation of indigenous land. Through the representation of land loss history represented in her first novel Mean Spirit, this study is intended to draw upon the concerning social elements resulting in the native people’s land cession experience from two aspects, colonial conquest and capital expansion, thus generalizing Hogan’s attitude toward land as a component of the local place and conceptualizing her land ethic stereotype. In a nutshell, the land-language concept revealed in Hogan’s literary work encompasses the idea of caring for and listening to the place and ultimately demonstrates her land ethic doctrine that can be comprehended as her place-oriented proposition and a new strategy of resistance against the colonial and ecological crisis.
    
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Author Information
  • School of Foreign Languages and Business, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen, China

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