Wolf Who Ate Her Heart: The Canine-Woman Alliance in the Fiction of Louise Erdrich

Abstract

The fiction of Louise Erdrich contains a notable alliance between canines and female characters. It is an alliance that helps the women maintain a sense of matrilineal power as they resist colonial patriarchy. The canine alliance with the Ojibwe has its roots in oral tradition. In the fiction of Louise Erdrich, this alliance forms what Ojibwe scholar Gerald Vizenor calls "survivance" because it rejects victimhood, fights cultural genocide, and allows for the continuance of the Ojibwe story. This connection between women and dogs has hitherto received little critical scholarship. The thesis includes an examination of the role of the canine in Ojibwe oral tradition, a review of scholarship concerning animals in the work of Louise Erdrich, and a new Indigenous Feminists reading of women, wolves, and dogs in Erdrich's fiction.