Narrative Ethics and the Politics of Storytelling in Contemporary Indigenous Literature

Abstract

In present-day Indigenous literature, the process of storytelling is becoming more and more prominent as a technique of resistance, cultural reclamation, and ethical participation. This research is concerned with the overlap between narrative ethics and the politics of storytelling in this literary sector, which is a severe void in the knowledge of how Indigenous stories both form and challenge mainstream cultural and ethical systems. The problem of the research is the othering of Indigenous epistemologies and the necessity to re-evaluate ethical paradigms in respect to the Indigenous narrative forms. The main aim of the research is to examine how Indigenous writers use the storytelling not just as a literary tool but as an ethical and political gesture that decolonizes the discourse, reaffirms the cultural identity, and mediates the communal memory. The hypothesis of the study is that narrative forms in Indigenous literature can have two functions: the expression of ethical stances based on relational ontologies and the claim of political sovereignty based on the control of the narratives. Using a qualitative approach, which relies on literary analysis, the research focuses on a number of modern Indigenous works belonging to various cultural environments. It uses the concept of narrative theory, postcolonial criticism, and Indigenous methodology to unravel the role of storytelling in these works as an ethical and political tool. The results will probable show that Indigenous stories challenge the Eurocentric and linear principles of storytelling, placing ethical consideration in the middle of community history, lived trauma, and repairing justice. The use of storytelling has been presented not as representation but as an agent of ethical discourse and agent of sociopolitical change. The research arrives at the conclusion that the ideas of narrative ethics in Indigenous literature cannot be discussed outside the politics of voice, land, and memory. By forcing readers to rethink the matter of ethical responsibility in the light of Indigenous thinking, these stories make crucial interventions in literary theory, cultural studies and de-colonial practice.