Fleur Pillager: Storytellers and Stories Told

Abstract

Contemporary Ojibwe author Louise Erdrich uses storytelling within her Love Medicine series in order to weave countless intricacies throughout her narrative pertaining to the several generations that reside in her fictional North Dakota reservation named Little No Horse. Analysis of Erdrich’s storytelling methods illuminates her ability to draw inspiration from and honor traditional Ojibwe oral storytelling through the story and character of Fleur Pillager. Several similarities between traditional Ojibwe storytelling and Erdrich’s narrative can be found within her storytelling methods surrounding the character of Fleur Pillager, most notably being the interconnected nature of these narratives and how they relate to the traditional Ojibwe symbol of the circle. Erdrich’s integration of the oral storytelling tradition is highlighted by analysis of each individual Love Medicine novel, therefore providing a new lens with which to understand Erdrich’s Ojibwe influences and narrative techniques and how they are used to create and define the character of Fleur Pillager.