Writing in My Voice: Four Modalities of Myth-Writing in Taiwanese Indigenous Sinophone Literature

Writing in My Voice: Four Modalities of Myth-Writing in Taiwanese Indigenous Sinophone Literature

This article treats the creative process of indigenous authors of Taiwan adapting various myths of their peoples in their Sinophone literary writings. Analyzing selected fictional works by Syaman Rapongan, Husluman Vava, Neqou Soqluman, and Badai, as well as a poem by Salizan Takisvilainan, I will discuss the authors' motivation for tapping into the mythology of their people in the quest for their individual authorial voice. A guiding question of this article is to what extent this recourse to traditional materials corresponds with a trend among indigenous Taiwanese authors of writing in their own voice, as Paelabang Danapan (Sun Tachuan) has proposed. I will discuss these adaptations of myths in light of a fourmodality framework of myth-writing: myth as heritage, myth as lived tradition, myth as expression of human experience, and myth as source of inspiration.