Overview

This study portrays how Louise Erdrich's writing extends Bakhtin's concepts of dialogism and the novel through an investigation of a selection of her works, as well as her practices of writing, co-writing, re-writing, and reading novels. Erdrich's hallmark dialogic literary style and practice encompasses writing a series of books; re-cycling protagonists, narrators, events, themes and settings; re-writing previously published novels; employing heteroglossia and polyglossia; co-authoring texts, blogging about books; translating different epistemologies for different audiences; and spotlighting families as the main thematic concern in dialogue with her own parenting experiences as depicted in her memoirs. She writes a growing series of novels, compost pile-like, capitalizing on former novels, as well as adding new elements and new stories in the process. Thus, a dialogic intra-textual microcosm emerges. Erdrich suffuses her writing with an incessant quality of changing and becoming. Her novels resist closure, while protagonists return and demand attention, and the author answers dialogically by penning new tales. Erdrich's writing can be accessed because it concerns shared human experiences and relationships, both their ambivalence and their beauty. Erdrich includes instead of alienating, sympathizes instead of judging, which makes her an internationally acclaimed author, with her work crossing topographies, epistemologies, and identities.

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9781443886079

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'Polish critic and scholar Marta Lysik has written an extremely perceptive and useful analysis of Louise Erdrich's novels. Applying the concepts of Mikhail Bakhtin—heteroglossia, polyglossia, dialogism—to Erdrich's Little No Horse books, Lysik brilliantly explains how and why Erdrich recycles narrators, protagonists, events, themes, and settings.'Alan R. VelieDavid Ross Boyd Professor of English, University of Oklahoma'With academic rigour and creative flair, Marta Lysik examines the dialogic principle at the heart of Louise Erdrich's work(s), thus offering an exceptionally revelatory perspective on the esteemed Native American author. The book emerges as an exemplary European view on contemporary (multi-ethnic) American literature, essential to the scholarly transatlantic exchanges of today.'Ludmila MartanovschiAssociate Professor, Ovidius University; Secretary of MESEA (Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas)

Polish critic and scholar Marta Lysik has written an extremely perceptive and useful analysis of Louise Erdrich's novels. Applying the concepts of Mikhail Bakhtin-heteroglossia, polyglossia, dialogism-to Erdrich's Little No Horse books, Lysik brilliantly explains how and why Erdrich recycles narrators, protagonists, events, themes, and settings. Alan R. Velie David Ross Boyd Professor of English, University of Oklahoma With academic rigour and creative flair, Marta Lysik examines the dialogic principle at the heart of Louise Erdrich's work(s), thus offering an exceptionally revelatory perspective on the esteemed Native American author. The book emerges as an exemplary European view on contemporary (multi-ethnic) American literature, essential to the scholarly transatlantic exchanges of today. Ludmila Martanovschi Associate Professor, Ovidius University; Secretary of MESEA (Society for Multi-Ethnic Studies: Europe and the Americas)

Author Information

Marta Lysik holds degrees in English, American Studies, and Journalism. At present, she has a full-time position in the Department of Journalism and Social Communication at the University of Wroclaw, Poland. Her major field of research is American literature in general, and the contemporary American novel in particular.

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