Journal of Culture-Communication Studies

Journal of Culture-Communication Studies

Cultural Resistance: With Special References to Selected Native American Novels

Document Type : Research Paper

Author
Assistant Professor, English Literature Department, Payame Noor University, Ilam, Iran. sajjadgheytasi2@pnu.ac.ir
Abstract
In the present article, cultural resistance signifies strategies that communities or individuals make in order to preserve and strengthen their culture in the face of hegemonic culture. In this regard, specific novels–Almanac of the Dead, The Round House, Ceremony, and Tracks–from Native American authors are selected and analyzed. The characters of these novels resist the dominant culture, using counter-discourses to dismantle the hegemonic discourse. Instead of simply accepting the dominant discourse, the inferior culture tries to articulate new meanings and stabilize them around the nodal point of their culture. The characters, analyzed in this study, remember the residual elements that question and negate the dominant discourse and use them to create faultlines that ultimately deconstruct the nodal points of the hegemonic discourse. Accordingly, the current research aims to develop and apply a specific strategy for resistance, using analytical-descriptive method and discourse construction theory. Moreover, the findings of the research indicate that the studied novels follow a specific pattern for resistance that can be used by other cultures under the pressure of the hegemonic discourse.
Keywords

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