Historical Detours to American Citizenship: Rejection of Tribalism and Celebration of American Individualism in Sherman Alexie’s Flight

초록

Sherman Alexie's 2007 novel, Flight, illustrates the damage of collective historical trauma, mediatized drama, and inherited family trauma, and warns against the endgame of tribalism, signified by the 9.11 terrorist attacks and represented by various acts of domestic terrorism and aggression. Utilizing Louis Althusser's conceptualization of interpellation and Kwame Antony Appiah's notion of identification, this paper argues that Alexie presents affirmation of American individualism as the way to overcome the discriminatory and exclusionary limitations of tribalism. Further, this paper argues that Flight presents American citizenship as a goal to be achieved through individual choice and action, but suggests that such individual agency can only be exercised upon the foundation of historical understanding of the relationship between personal narratives and the collective narrative of the nation-state. Finally, this paper also examines the relationship between participation in the commercial and visually-oriented culture of contemporary America and exercise of citizenship on the grounds of reinforcement of individuality.

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