From the day when the first settlers landed on the American coast it had been reported back to their people in Europe what the Native population is like and how they create their cultural lives. Since that time, Native Americans have been externally conceptualized in various forms, as for example in form of the ‘noble savage’ or the ‘vicious savage’, and almost never as having a sense of humor (Gruber 142). Humor in connection with Native American characters has among other reasons been avoided by image makers for it would have allowed recipients to identify with such human characteristics (Gruber 7). This would have meant to invalidate a powerful colonial ‘casting mold’ for dehuminazing stereotypical images about Nativeness. This hegemonic tool proves to be the most enduring one of colonization by replacing guns and troops (Gruber 157) with occupied Non-Native minds. Filmic representation perpetuated these distorted ideas about Native Americans further by drawing on those widespread clichés and inventing new ones (Gruber 142; Mihelich 130), as for example the Native American ‘ecologist’ (Cornell 109) or the spiritual ‘shaman’ living in absolute piece with nature. Thus, till today Native Americans are confronted with the task of dealing with biased images of themselves which are externally imposed on them by the surrounding dominance of Non-Native societies and discourses.
In this paper I will discuss how Native filmmakers Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie effectively use just this powerful genre of popular culture to tackle habituated representations of Native Americans and offer Native versions of Nativeness. In Smoke Signals (1998) they rework and transform existing stereotypes by creating a meta level on which the powerful mechanism of image making is exposed. This meta level can be established through the use of humor (Gruber 35).
I will fill a desideratum in this context by breaking the concept of ‘humor’ down into its single aspects and then applying those to humorous material in Smoke Signals whereby distilling various strategies, not only the means for survival, which are used to pursue the subversive aim. In a structural approach I will have a closer look at which aspects of humor are actually used and what kinds of strategies originate from them considering a mixed audience consisting of Native as well as Non-Native viewers.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Concepts of Humor
2.1. Irony
2.2. Dramatic Irony
2.3. Parody
2.4. Burlesque
2.5. Intertextuality
3. Analysis of Humor and Pursued Strategies in Smoke Signals (1998)
3.1. Humor as a Spoon Full of Sugar
3.2. Humor as Liminal Space
3.3. Humor as Antiseptic Healer for Survival
3.4. Humor as Testing Device for and Promoter of Native Identity
4. Conclusion
Objectives and Research Focus
This paper investigates how Native filmmakers Chris Eyre and Sherman Alexie utilize humor in the film Smoke Signals (1998) to subvert Western stereotypes and construct authentic Native identities. By analyzing various forms of humor, the research aims to demonstrate how these strategies serve as both a survival mechanism for Native populations and a tool for cross-cultural communication.
- The subversion of habituated colonial stereotypes regarding Native Americans.
- The structural analysis of humor forms including irony, parody, and burlesque.
- Humor as an educative and mediational instrument for both Native and Non-Native audiences.
- The promotion of tribal coherence and the re-conceptualization of Native identity.
Excerpt from the Book
3.1. Humor as a Spoon Full of Sugar
Humor functioning as a spoon full of sugar uses irony or dramatic irony for mediational and educational purposes. Instead of simply telling the audience directly in a rather platitudinous and blunt, probably ineffective, way that Native Americans are sick and tired of being confronted over and over again with the same distorted images of and ideas about themselves, humor in this function is used to get a foot in the audience’s door and, as explained in 2.1., get “imaginative subversion” (Gruber 35) going. Laughter is closely linked to learning (Gruber 197), since the audience has to decode the irony by detecting and comprehending the surprisingly emerged incongruity. In this sense, humor is the spoon full of sugar which helps the educational and mediational medicine go down.
In the following dialog it becomes obvious that Thomas is teasing Victor about a supposedly spiritual nature which helped him to receive the news of Arnold Joseph’s death. However, he directly disproves this illusion by grinningly stating the trivial and totally human circumstance of having met Victor’s crying mother earlier.
[Thomas] Hey, Victor! I’m sorry about your dad.
[Victor] How’d you hear about it?
[Thomas] I heard it on the wind. I heard it from the birds, I felt it in the sunlight. And your mom was just in here cryin’ (grins).
(Smoke Signals 9:35)
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: This chapter outlines the history of stereotypical portrayals of Native Americans in Western media and introduces the research objective of examining how Smoke Signals uses humor to challenge these distorted representations.
2. Concepts of Humor: This section defines the theoretical framework of the paper, detailing the specific humor mechanisms of irony, dramatic irony, parody, burlesque, and intertextuality.
3. Analysis of Humor and Pursued Strategies in Smoke Signals (1998): The core analytical chapter investigates how the aforementioned humor strategies are applied within the film to demystify stereotypes, create liminal spaces for negotiation, and foster Native identity.
4. Conclusion: The concluding chapter synthesizes the findings, confirming that humor acts as a multifaceted tool that promotes both the survival of Native identity and cross-cultural reassessment.
Keywords
Smoke Signals, Native American identity, humor theory, irony, parody, stereotyping, colonial discourse, Sherman Alexie, Chris Eyre, cultural survival, film studies, subversion, intertextuality, representation, indigenous film.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research?
The research focuses on the use of humor as a subversive strategy in the 1998 film Smoke Signals to challenge and redefine stereotypical representations of Native Americans.
What are the central themes explored in the work?
The central themes include colonial discourse, the construction of identity, the deconstruction of stereotypes, and the function of humor as a social and survival tool.
What is the core research question?
The work explores how Native filmmakers use specific forms of humor to dismantle dominant Western media tropes and provide authentic, self-defined versions of Nativeness.
Which scientific methodology is applied?
The author employs a structural approach, breaking down the concept of humor into specific types and applying these to concrete scenes from the film to analyze their strategies and impacts.
What does the main body of the text cover?
The main body examines various forms of humor—irony, dramatic irony, parody, burlesque, and intertextuality—and evaluates their effectiveness in educating audiences and promoting Native identity.
Which keywords best describe this study?
Key terms include Native American identity, humor, subversion, film studies, stereotyping, and colonial discourse.
How does the film use the concept of a 'Spoon Full of Sugar'?
The author uses this metaphor to explain how humor makes difficult or challenging social commentary (the medicine) more palatable and accessible to a wider audience, thereby encouraging learning and reflection.
Why is irony described as a tool for survival in this context?
Irony allows characters and audiences to distance themselves from painful or suffocating realities, preserving dignity while creating a mental space that facilitates resistance against colonial narratives.
- Quote paper
- Annika Onken (Author), 2010, Humor and Its Pursued Strategies in "Smoke Signals" (1998), Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/187863
