Towards the poetics of ceremony: a study in contemporary native American literature

English resumé ! The basic question behind my thesis Towards the Poetics of Ceremony is: How shall one treat contemporary Indian literature in the context of European culture? In a broad sense I deal with the question of reading and interpreting exotic ethnic literature in general. What is specific about Indian literature is the fact that Czech and other central European readers have usually had the opportunity to come in touch (however indirectly) with the Indian subject since childhood, both in the form of adventurous stories from Karl May and their successful film adaptations. ! And that is the problem: our concepts are twisted and biased, they are cultural stereotypes. In the Foreword to my thesis I call the process "stereotyping practice". On of the aims of my thesis is to show that for a fruitful interpretation of a work like Ceremony written by L.M. Silko it is necessary to look away from the stereotypes and deep-rooted concepts, to understand Indian authors in the context of the whole American literature and not seek any special categories or methods which would reveal "the Indianess" of the text. The American-versus-Indian question is dealt with in the Introduction. ! The solution I gradually offer in my work is based on a simple idea: the more points of view, the lesser danger of stereotyping..