Linguaculture (Dec 2022)
Intercultural Communication in the Work of Leslie Marmon Silko
Abstract
The paper discusses Leslie Marmon Silko’s contribution as a writer born and bred in the Four-Corner Area of the United States (where the states of Utah, Colorado, Texas and New Mexico come together), a contact zone characterized by the meeting of three cultures: Pueblo, Chicano and Anglo-American. A mixed-race woman, Silko was perhaps the most suitable person, because of her family heritage and her life at the limits of the Laguna Pueblo, to explore multiculturalism from both a Native and a Euro-American perspective. She has become a bridge between cultures, writing for a Native American and a planet-wide audience. We explore Silko’s best-known work, the novel Ceremony and the short story Yellow Woman, focusing on the new literary devices and philosophical perspectives that open up through intercultural mediation.
