The Myth of the American Adam Under Threat: the Revitalized Myth of the American Indian in Sherman Alexie s Captivity

Abstract

Contemporary American Literature-commonly referred to as postmodern literature since the 1960s-is an outcome of the multicultural nature of the American society. It gives long-ignored groups such as women, African Americans and American Indians the opportunity to reflect the sense of chaos they have been experiencing due to their identity problem. This article analyzes a short story titled Captivity by an American Indian, Sherman Alexie, and by presenting how the writer makes use of postmodern strategies in his fiction, it demonstrates that the more the self of the writer is in chaos the more experimental fiction becomes.