Dynamics of space and self: a critical analysis of select works of Linda Hogan

Abstract

Knowing who we are and knowing where we are are closely connected. There is no limit to the possibility of the study of ‘who’ and ‘where’. Space defines one’s self. People experience a sense of space when they are away from that and there will be efforts to recreate the lost spaces. This is often done by the writers through their works. Narratives are important components in the construction of space. The focus of this work is such a recreation of space and place in the works of Linda Hogan, the contemporary Native American writer. She always had a longing for her native place Oklahoma and the Chickasaw tradition. The fulfilment of this longing is achieved through the fictional works created by her. The study is based on the hypothesis that the retrieval of lost space and self of indigenous people is made possible through the different methods of reterritorialization. Retelling and relocating history, myth and stories by the writer is a kind of postcolonial resistance. Applying spatial, ecocritical, eco-feminist and postcolonial theoretical notions, the study focuses on the concept of reterritorialization put forward by the postcolonial ecocritic Donelle Dreese. The thesis analyses how the retrieval of identity and space is made possible in Hogan's fictional works, through the different processes of reterritorialization. Hogan’s four novels are selected for the study. Mean Spirit (1990), Solar Storms (1995), Power (1998) and People of the Whale (2008). As a writer belonging to two different cultures, Hogan succeeded in making use of both Western epistemology and native knowledge to address both the native and non-native readers and making them aware of the need to protect and preserve the world of nature for future generations. She has created a ‘third space’ in her novels, a space for reimagining and recreating the human-nature relationship.