TY - GEN A1 - Deng, Shuangshuang T1 - On Louise Erdrich’s Humanistic Religious Outlook – Priestly Images in Her Novels, Master thesis, World Literature, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China 2022 [application of Fromm's theories to art] N2 - All of Louise Erdrich’s novels involve elements of religion, and almost every character, more or less, has something to do with religion. A multitude of impressive images of priests figure prominently in all her novels, among which >The Plague of Doves< (2008), >The Round House< (2012), >The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse< (2001) stand out. In each of these novels, pseudo-Father Cassidy, quasi-Father Travis, syncretic Father Damien constitute three typical images of priests. These characters not only reflect collision and fusion between Catholicism and Ojibwe spirituality to a certain extent, but also embody Louise Erdrich’s complex emotional attitude and humanistic religious view. In The Plague of Doves, Erdrich portrays a false Catholic priest Cassidy, characterized by alcoholism, rapacity, self-importance, impudence, inhumanity and absurdity. The appearance of Cassidy’s image is a sharp spear thrown by Erdrich at the Catholic church that imprisons and destroys human nature, and is also the reflection of her humanitarianism and stance against the church’s notion of sin. In >The Round House<, a marine-turned-Catholic priest Father Travis is no more than a spokesman of Catholicism and white interest groups. Under the guise of Catholicism, he has been eradicating American Indian culture, assimilating indigenous people, paralyzing their consciousness and plundering their resources. >The Round House< reveals the alienation and unease of the Ojibwe in the face of Father Travis’ religious colonization. However, in >The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse<, the author recounts Father Damien’s 87 years of missionary experience on the Little No Horse reservation. In the process of spreading Catholicism to the Ojibwe, Father Damien, disguised as a man by the farmer’s widow Agnes De Witt (formerly Sister Cecilia), is influenced by Ojibwe Shamanism and, as a result, merges it with Catholicism. This fusion realizes the equal negotiation between the >superior< Catholicism and >inferior< Shamanism, and also reflects the ability of the endangered Ojibwe spirituality to hijack Catholicism from within. In the process, Father Damian is changed from a cultural conqueror to a recipient and advocate of the inferior Ojibwe civilization, becoming its loyal friend. The two religious civilizations that have been in conflict and struggle are balanced within Father Damien’s perspective. Here, the author does not advocate an either-or religious posture, but the coexistence of the two religions to jointly construct the religious identity and psychology of the natives. This thesis, based on Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach’s >religion of love< and Erich Fromm’s humanistic religious thought, as well as post-colonial theory, expounds on the author’s humanitarian religious view from the perspective of the above-mentioned three priests. Comparing and contrasting these three typical priest images together, the thesis attempts to reach the conclusion that neither pseudo-Father Cassidy, with his subversion of classic priest images, nor quasi-Father Travis, who represents Erdrich’s negation of these orthodox images, is Louise Erdrich’s idealized priest image but rather the syncretic Father Damien instead, regardless of her female identity, hybridized religions and secularity, whose humanitarian trait brings forth a feeling of well-being in the Ojibwe people. [www.cnki.net, 1/2023] Y1 - 2022 ER -