맥밀란의 『캐나다의 신기한 이야기들』에 나타나는 서구와 인디언 문화 사이의 대화

Canadian Wonder Tales: The Lingering Whisper of North American Indians in Western Canada

This study explores the interlaced narrative structure between North American Indian myths and Western folktales from Canadian context in Cyrus MacMillan’s Canadian Wonder Tales. The narrative pattern of the anthology sheds an interesting light on the way how native Canadian culture interacts with Westernized Canadian culture. Typically, the protagonists of Indian mythology are anti-heroic. They achieve their goals through magic rather than brute power or bravery. What is important here is not the heroism of the protagonists, but the harmony and festivals of the Indian community. The main characters of the North American Indian myths exist in an open space where the land, heaven, and spirits interact with one another. Humans maintain a close relationship with Mother Nature in the form of rituals or taboos, transmitted from generation to generation. The existence of tricksters in native Canadian myths, too, reveals the inseparable bond among all living and non-living entities. Finally, native Canadian myths seem to be illogical by Western perspectives, but they are still widely read to this day in the form of children’s literature in Canada.