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영어

The twisted ‘wiindigoo justice’ is a key thematic phrase in Louise Erdrich’s The Round House. The double narrative of this novel contests the wiindigoo justice that originally goes along with essential Indianness. Narrative ambiguity is strengthened by juxtaposing Linden who represents colonial power and Cappy who relentlessly destroys it, and positioning Bazil, Travis, Linda and Clemence in-between. And the narrative is more complicated as Joe, an unreliable narrator and protagonist turns out to be placed between Cappy and those go-between characters. The plot also twists wiindigoo justice. After Linden is shot and killed, Joe suffers from a psychopathic aftermath whereas Cappy does not show any psychological fear or instability, which differentiates their stances on the wiindigoo justice. The author downplays the wiindigoo justice once more by extrapolating the Akii story, an indigenous Ojibwe folklore. After all, Erdrich’s narrative ambivalence leads to a literary strategy that possibly facilitates the tribal ‘survivance.’ In terms of the controversial debate on authentic Indianness, which has been held by nationalist critics and cosmopolitans over the last two decades, the author, taking a middle ground, promotes decolonization and cultural transformation as well. In other words, Erdrich takes the native sovereignty seriously, while also allowing cultural expansion on the other when it comes to cultural discourse or literary criticism.