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Chapter II Identity Crisis Caused by the Loss ofCultural Memory

2.1 Representations of Cultural Cultural Identity Crisis

The first scholar to promote the theory of“cultural identity”to China should be TaoDongfeng.His 1998 book,Globalization,Cultural Identity,and Postcolonial Criticism,addresses the question of national identity and national identity(50-53).But the article doesnot provide a clear definition of identity.Then,many scholars equated cultural identity withidentity.It wasn’t until 2004 that Tao Jiajun pointed out in his article that“identity is animportant concept in cultural studies,and it will be especially favored by the New Left,feminism,and postcolonialism.Its basic meaning refers to an individual’s identification witha particular social culture.It’s a word that always asks:Who am I,where did I come from,where am I going?”(37).

Tao Jiajun believes that“the root of the identity crisis lies in the contradictions ofWestern modernity”(38).Capitalism changed the entire structure of Western society from thetop down,putting American Indians on the fast track to modernity.Indians,accustomed totribal social life,are unable to adapt quickly to such a sudden social change and willinevitably develop a variety of social and psychological problems.Identity crisis is one ofthem.As an insightful writer,Erdrich discovered these special emotions of the Indians in thisparticular context.Therefore,this part mainly concerns with the three characters’representations of identity crises.

2.2 Reasons for Identity Crisis

Individual identity,is the process by which“the power manipulation of culturalinstitutions prompts individuals to actively or passively participate in cultural practices toachieve their own identity”(Tao 37).From this,power plays an important role in the processof constraining individual identity.This process,in turn,arises in the course of capitalistmodernity.Capitalist modernity has changed the structure of Western society from top tobottom,forcing large numbers of alienated people into the fast lane of modernity.Meanwhile,the invasion of strong culture forces cultural subjects to choose between strong culture andweak culture,causing a strong ideological impact and huge spiritual tribulation.It is alsooften referred to as an identity crisis.Jan Assmann believes that the crisis of individual or collective identity comes from the breakage of the“connective structure”of cultural memory(6).“This structure can not only provides cultural continuity and normative generationmechanism for the generation of cultural identity,but also serve as the organic soil for it.Once the continuity of cultural memory is disrupted or missing,the identity of the subject isbroken,resulting in an identity crisis”(6).Thus,in Jan Assmann’s view,the identity crisis isessentially a crisis of cultural memory.Louise Erdrich’s The Round House not onlyintersperses the historical narrative of the persecution of the Indians by the whites,but alsopresents the identity dilemma of the protagonist under the dual cultural conflict.The identitydilemma of the protagonist in the novel stems from the influence of the power operation ofmainstream cultural institutions on Indian cultural memory,and is closely 本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。