Proceedings of the 6th World Conference on Social Sciences Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
[PDF]
Healing the Wounds of Trauma of Ethnocide in the Poetry of Louise Erdrich and Esther Belin
Assist. Prof. Dr. Nabeel Mohammed Ali Al-Gburi
ABSTRACT:
The colonization of North America in the late sixteenth-century has resulted in catastrophic effects on Native American cultures. The term “Ethnocide” (cultural genocide) can be used to describe the colonial attempts adopted by the dominant Euro-American culture to annihilate Native American languages, rituals, cultures, ceremonies, heritage, and traditions. The colonial attempts included forced education of native children, processes of assimilation, Christianization and Westernization of the Native Americans. The purpose of this paper is to examine the means adopted by two Native American poets, Louise Erdrich and Esther Belin, in order reveal the disastrous and overwhelming impact of trauma resulting from attempts of ethnocide practiced against Native Americans and at the same time to offer means of healing and coping with the traumatic scars and wounds of ethnocide inherited from the colonial past.
keywords: Ethnocide, Trauma, Healing, Louise Erdrich, Esther Belin