Intercultural Experience as a Transformative Paradigm: Reimagining Cultural Boundaries in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Abstract

This research explores how Alexi views cross-cultural interactions as a means of progress in the contemporary world of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India. This qualitative study examines the benefits of acculturation by using the theoretical framework of post-colonialism.  By amalgamation of different aspect of civilization, Sherman Alexi contributes significantly to the exposition of meaning and create different opportunities for the community members. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India as a bicultural work provides a means for Native Americans to maintain their Indian identity while embracing the authoritative forms essential to their success in modern society. Alexi used this narrative to expose the Euro-American discourse through interdiscursivity, demonstrating how they initially exploited native cultures before attempting to preserve them. It is a response to Western fiction, and it serves as both a claim and a lesson for the capacity of Europeans to erase it and conceal it under practicality. All of Alexi's metaphors and words in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India are like bullets. Unlike other English writers, he does not glorify Western civilization. Even though Alexie acknowledge that the assimilationist policies shown in Momaday's or Dove's works are torturous, he still believed that Indians had to employ masters' tools to reverse the binary.  The protagonist in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time India, who suffers from hydrocephalus, does the same. Through hydrocephalus, Alexi challenges the stereotypical conduct of the Western community toward Natives and conveys the notion that native culture has very little chance of survival. The events in the novel are shown through drawings and tiny cartoons for the sake of life. Alexi use colonizer’s language creatively on their own terms to resist the disruptive forces of colonialism.  Alexi adopted and adapted writing as a discursive tool against colonialism and as a mimetic response to forced cultural assimilation. 

Key Terms: Post colonialism, Acculturation, Assimilation, and Tribalism.