Tradition versus modernity in Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues and The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian

This study aims to analyse and compare the American Indian traditional and modern vision of living culture, identity and space entities as shown in Sherman Alexie's novels. The study begins with a brief overview of the Native American history from the 15th century till the 20th century. In addition, this study aims to define the concepts of tradition and modernity and to analyse the impact of modern culture on the Native American tradition. To this end, the study gives a general account of Native American history from the 15th to the 20th century. Native Americans regard modernity as the outcome of changes in language, religion, customs, education, lifestyle as well as (cultural) identity. However, in some cases, modernity has not been accepted by many Indians, especially those who think that traditional culture is more valuable than modern culture. These changes signify a transitional period in the history of Native American culture. This study also introduces a prominent and outstanding contemporary Native American author, Sherman Alexie, as the voice of Native Americans. In his works, Alexie portrays the conditions of Indians inside and outside the reservation, together with their traditions. Moreover, the clash between tradition and modernity is highlighted and analysed in Alexie's novels Reservation Blues (1997) and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007). Overall, the main aim of this study is to reveal Sherman Alexie's viewpoint of the Native American community in the American mainstream society. Keywords: Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues, the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Tie Indian, Native Americans, Tradition, Modernity.