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Framed: Native American representations in contemporary visual mediums

Marta Carlson, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

For centuries, American media has consistently romanticized the image of the Native American Indian. This persistence in producing these romanticized stereotypical and therefore negative images of "Indians" in American popular culture through comic books, graphic novels, computer video games and tattoo imagery is a static narrative that relegates "Indians" to America's past. Consequently, these negative images which have been circulated, reproduced and received for generations, are now deeply – some may even argue inextricably-imbedded in the American national and global meta-narrative. As a result, Native American's protestations regarding their misrepresentation have been repeatedly rendered moot due to the non-native's belief of possessing an already and always knowing of Native American Indian culture. American media and the dominant culture which allows and perpetuates the continued production of stereotypical images deployed through rhetorical and contextual acts, is a blatant reflection of the Euro American consciousness, or lack there of, regarding "Indians".

Subject Area

American studies|Social research|Mass communications|Native American studies

Recommended Citation

Carlson, Marta, "Framed: Native American representations in contemporary visual mediums" (2013). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI3556235.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3556235

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