The function of storytelling in the novel 'Ceremony' by Leslie Marmon Silko

Abstract

The paper examines the function of storytelling in the novel Ceremony. Leslie Marmon Silko includes traditional stories about the Laguna Pueblo, retelling stories, which have been passed down through the generations throughout oral traditions, stories that explore the nature of magic, that go into the origin of evil, and which can also show the way to redemption. Silko uses stories in the form of poems, oral narration, intertextuality, she even writes without chapters. She did not give chapters to her novel because she did not want to adapt to the standard format of the novel, she tries to avoid Anglo centric conventions. As many postmodern texts, the novel Ceremony can be seen as a response to the horrors of World War II. But unlike other literary works of postmodernism, Silko argues that we must present this tragedy throughout oral narration in order to heal ourselves.

Keywords

• storytelling in indigenous culture
• ceremony
• concept of storytelling