THE SEARCH OF OWN IDENTITY AS A POSTMODERN GAME IN THE TEXTS BY SHERMAN ALEXIE
Authors:   National Aviation University, Shostak Oksana G. 
Published: December 2022

The article is devoted to the analysis of the texts by Sherman Alexie, a writer of indigenous origin, who is known as an author who seeks to rewrite the history of the American continent with the help of irony. The purpose of the article is to determine the peculiarities of the interpretation of Native American humour since this phenomenon has played an important role in the survival of the Indigenous nations of North America. The task of the research is to find out the basis of ironic humour in the collections “The Toughest Indian in the World”, “The Lone Ranger”, and “Tonto Fistfighting in Heaven.” The research was conducted using historical-cultural, receptive-interpretive and structural methodological approaches. Humour and irony are presented even in the most tragic stories of Sherman Alexie. Thus he was destroying the stereotype of a red-skinned person with an impenetrable face. The writer repeatedly ridiculed various features of white culture. He seeks to seduce the reader with a historical game to get him/her confused in the labyrinth of historical events. Explaining the time chosen to describe the events, Sherman Alexie resorts to playing with many significant events of the 20th century. Although, they are only an allusion to the events of the Indigenous history of the creation of Indian reservation times. The dilemma faced by Alexie’s reader is an attempt to understand what exactly the author is trying to convey to him. Alexie is prone to self-reflection, so he is well aware of the reader’s problems in distinguishing between facts and fiction in his works. The writer densely decorates the texts with various allusions, which are difficult to recognize at first times. The most shocking is his attempt to argue his ideas, which are provocative and frank. He frequently uses semantic speculations around the idea of “Indianness” in the modern world. With his works, the writer challenges the restrictions imposed by the Western paradigm on representatives of indigenous peoples through specific methodologies inherent in the Western European worldview, which is actively imposed by the value system of mainstream society. Conclusion. The system of imposed rules in Alexie’s texts creates a specific game space, and models reality, supplementing it with tense emotional components. In the process of the postmodern game, a “different view” emerges, which deprives the aura of sacredness in the customary ideology for the mainstream consciousness, paradoxically reproducing cultural stereotypes with their “game” reinterpretation. His play is a sphere of emotional communication between the writer and readers. Thanks to emotional symbols that refer to the historical realities of the past and partly to the presence of Native Americans the author conveys the feeling of humiliation and restlessness. Thereby striving to free the consciousness of the average American from the stereotypes of oppression in understanding Indigenous history and culture. Alexie’s pastiche is devoid of positive content and aims to re-read the history of the United States as an unpredictable narrative, which explains the writer’s desire to reinterpret the events of the 20th century as an image of late capitalism. The postcolonial discourse of Sherman Alexie’s works stimulates a wave of resistance among indigenous readers not so much because of a new attempt to create a literary image of a culture that was once part of their colonial periphery. The writer’s protests attempt to introduce the idea that colonialism is over.