CORRENDO DE VOLTA PARA CASA: A BUSCA PELA IDENTIDADE AUTÓCTONE EM HOUSE MADE OF DAWN, DE N. SCOTT MOMADAY

Abstract

This senior paper, entitled: “Running back home: the search for native identity in N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn” addresses the protagonist Abel’s journey during a period of dissociation of his Native American identity. Focusing, initially, on the political changes during the colonial period and after the American Revolution, we aimed to highlight the ongoing colonial domination of natives in that context. Discussions on Native American literatures, from the oral literatures to the emergence of fiction, help to comprehend the role of Native American literatures as a means of resistance for native authors, and how Scott Momaday has become a voice for those writers. To support the literary analysis, this research resorted on academics and scholars of postcolonial studies such as Edward Said, Homi Bhabha and Stuart Hall. Furthermore, the theoretical framework explored decolonial thinking, supported by Ramón Grosfoguel, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Walter Mignolo and Catherine Walsh. We also approached the concept of survivance, developed by Gerald Vizenor. In the analysis, we investigated the processes faced by the protagonist of the novel and how he found inner strength to free himself of hegemonic dominations and embrace his cultural identity.