The Significance of the Trope of the Belly in Silko’s Ceremony

Abstract

Abstract-Leslie Marmon Silko has distinguished herself among storytellers who communicate and celebrate many Native American traditions with readers across the globe. Silko has been and continues to be fascinated by the ideas and legends of Native American culture. In her best novel to date, Ceremony, she follows Tayo, a troubled man, mixed raced halfwhite, half-Laguna, as he struggles to cope with post-traumatic stress syndrome of World War II. Silko uses wordplay and expressions to achieve and develop a unity of themes as well as complex emotions. Our research topic proposes to interrogate further Silko"s both fascinating and important use of the word "belly" as trope in different parts in her novel and its different connotations within context, those different parts becoming increasingly connected creating more specific literary cohesion. Silko also discusses the role of the body as a corporeal theme in the practices of opposition, resistance and cultural creativity (cf. the works of Jean and John Comaroff and Michel de Certeau). "Leslie Silko"s style, her powerful word choices and her strong cultural and ideological stances position her among the greatest writers of our time.Index Terms-Belly, ceremony, conceptualization, Silko. I. INTRODUCTIONAs one of several important writers who have written about Native American experiences, culture and history, Leslie Marmon Silko mixes her style with the modern realities of the current society. She uses a number of myths and allegories from Native American traditions and connects them to the lives of people in the present. In her novel Ceremony, she specifically explores the lives and histories of Native American culture and society; she also explores intercultural relationships between Native Americans and other American ethnicities. In writing Ceremony, Silko proposes that the only solution for current problems in modern life is that people should go back to their origins and refine their relationships with nature. This is the only way to keep Native Americans connected with their humanity and to achieve harmony with others.Silko is fascinated with Native American traditions of storytelling, so much so that she narrated Ceremony in the form of stories to teach people what is important in this life and to enrich these stories with morals and values. Her book is notable for the repetition of certain symbolic words that gives her stories a wide range of interpretations and makes readers wonder if they have more meaning than the obvious. In this paper, I examine the symbolism of the term -belly‖ Manuscript received September 23, 2015; revised December 13, 2015. The authors are with the National University of Malaysia UKM, Malaysia (e-mail: Shadabukier@tahoo.com).in Silko's Ceremony and explore the possible meanings this word has according to Silko's language and Native American traditions. This study will be done through the lenses of conceptualization metaphors through culture and language.Sharifian defines conceptual metaphors as, -cognitive structures that allow us t...