Ponencia 'The Sin Eaters by Sherman Alexie: A Dystopic Island in a Mostly Optimistic Archipelago', ofrecida en el II Congreso Interdisciplinar sobre Literatura e Imagen 'Revisiting Dystopia in Literature and the Visual Arts' (UCAM, Murcia, 24-25 de septiembre de 2020)
Biographical Note / Reseña biográfica:
Aitor Ibarrola-Armendariz teaches courses in ethnic relations, diversity management, academic writing and film adaptation in the Modern Languages and Basque Studies Department of the University of Deusto, Bilbao. He has published articles [in Atlantis, IJES, Miscelánea, Revista Chilena de Literatura, etc.] and edited volumes [Fiction and Ethnicity (1995), Entre dos mundos (2004), Migrations in a Global Context (2007), On the Move: Glancing Backwards to Build a Future in English Studies (2016] on minority and immigrant narratives and processes of cultural hybridisation. He has been the Director of the Erasmus Mundus MA Programme in Migrations and Social Cohesion (2010-14) and Head of the Modern Languages and Basque Studies Dept. (2012-15) in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Deusto. Currently, he is preparing a book on trauma and ethnicity, and also involved on a project on diasporic identities.
Abstract / Resumen:
Placed at the very heart of Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories The Toughest Indian in the World (2000), “The Sin Eaters” is a dark, apocalyptic parable that may seem like an anomaly in the book. While most stories in the collection deal with the difficult, but generally successful, transitions of Native Americans into the mainstream society, “The Sin Eaters” presents an utterly dystopian vision of the country in which American Indians are being kidnapped and turned into “blood slaves” by the U.S. Government. Not only that but anybody with a minimal proportion of Indian blood is transported to some sinister military facilities in the desert where they are subjected to medical experimentation and forced to breed with one another as if they were cattle. The story is told from the point of view of Jonah Lot, a twelve-year-old Spokane/Coeur d’Alene boy, who is most of the time befuddled by the ominous proceedings to which he and his fellow coethnics are being put. Severed from his parents early in the narrative, Jonah undergoes a nightmarish journey that makes him a witness of the most degrading and cruel misdeeds human beings can perform on others of their kind. Like most parables and allegories, “The Sin Eaters” could be interpreted in various ways, depending on which aspects of the story readers focus their attention on. For example, there is much imagery in this otherworldly tale that resonates with echoes of the holocaust and slave trade and that, therefore, connects it directly to other genocides experienced by other racial groups. There are also, however, other references—such as the sin-eating ritual of the title—that are more specifically related to the particular history of Native American peoples in the United States. Set approximately in the period when the U.S. Government had activated the Relocation and Termination programs regarding Indian tribes, there are all kinds of interesting connections to be made between the apocalyptic tone of the story and the uncertain future awaiting Native Americans at that time. Although most reviewers considered “The Sin Eaters” a much less subtle and effective narrative—in comparison with the more realistic and sarcastic stories of contemporary Indians—it is, as the author himself declared in an interview, an intriguing counterweight to the brighter and more optimistic aspects of Native American life at the turn of the millennium.
