(Re)location of Home in Louise Erdrich’s The Game of Silence

Abstract

Louise Erdrich is one of the most influential writers of the Native American Renaissance. Her contributions to the representation of Native American history have been great, and her masterpieces of children's literature have won her a prominent reputation. This article explores the (re)location of the concept of home in Erdrich's The Game of Silence and analyzes the novel's historical context with reference to various discourses on space/place, including those by Native Americans. Erdrich's narration reconstructs a space for Native American culture, religion and tradition, and for the continued survival of Native American people. She represents the silent history of her ancestors' displacement to the West, as white settlers encroached upon their beloved homeland. As Erdrich's work so poignantly illustrates, for Native American people, home is nowhere and anywhere.

Space and Place and the “American” Legacy: Female Protagonists and the Discovery of Self in Two Novels for Young Adults

“…2 The equal and naïve conflation of Emily's experience and that of the Apsáalooke people (she is invited to participate in this celebration as one of their own but holds none of the historical and cultural knowledge necessary to understand fully her role) suggests an over-simplicity on behalf of the author that ignores the complexities of identity. As Chang (2011) argues, "Space can be reconstructed by means of memory, history, culture, or imagination; in other words, home can be reconstructed. Furthermore, home is closely related to identity, which can therefore be reconstructed, too" (p. 144-145).…”