1。2 Literature review

With the poetic languages, the vivid description of the American Indians’ daily life and the unique way of story-telling。 Love Medicine has captivated many readers including critics and scholars both at home and abroad。 Since the publication of Love Medicine, many studies and monographs which are concerned with the novel have been published。 I will introduce them mainly from several parts: the feminism study, the ecologism study, the narratology study, the psychological study and the post-colonial study。

1。2。1 Researches of Love Medicine abroad

The studies abroad about Love Medicine started early and have become more and more systematic and profound。 Since it was published in 1984, the critics abroad have done a lot of research from the perspectives of feminism, narratology and American Indian culture。 文献综述

There are a lot of female characters in Love Medicine, and they are not the least important characters in the novel。 Or we can say that these females are crucial to the understanding of the whole novel。 A large number of scholars have done researches on the female characters in Erdrich’s novel, like Jennifer Shaddock, Paula Gunn Allen, Alnite James, Robert Silberman and so on。 But there are two different points of view。 Some researchers analyze the female character from white feminist perspective。 For example, Robert Silberman (1989) in her “Opening the Text: Love Medicine and the Return of Native American Woman” dwelt on the feminism and explore the females and family。 While Native American women writer Paula Gunn Allan apparently disagreed with this idea。 In her book The sacred hoop: Recovering the Feminine in Native American Traditions, Paula (1986) showed her different viewpoints。 With the further research, more and more scholars and researchers tend to support the second point of view。 She thought that the feminism came from native sources。 This is to say, more and more critics and scholars recognize the importance of analyzing female characters within the background of Native culture。 Gradually with the prosperity of American Indian literature, the role of native females is recognized。

Symbolism is another perspective for decoding this text。 Nichole E。 Moreau (Nichole E。 Moreau, 2002) lays emphasis on the foods in several chapters。 Another scholar Jeanne Marie Zeck (JM Zeck, 1995) claims that in chapter “The Beads”, Eli and Marie have non-physical adultery, for the cigarette in Eli hand and beads in Marie’s symbolize the genital organs: masculine phallus and feminine clitoris。 Meanwhile the reader-response theory is also applied to analyze the theme and symbolism in this article (JM Zeck, 1995)。 When Gordie Kashpaw, for example, fears that June has returned in the form of a deer, non-Native readers are likely to conclude that Gordie is suffering from alcohol-induced delirium and feelings of guilt。 Similarly, Henry Larmartine Junior jumps into the river brings different interpretations, for non-Natives, it is because of the post-traumatic syndrome, while for Natives, they might well be regarded as a "his action is out of harmony with nature"(Catherine Rainwater, 1990)。