Abstract: In light of the approach of New Historicism, this essay examines the strategy of counter-narrative and its functions of historical reference and of deconstructive textuality in Four Souls by Louise Erdrich. Through analyzing the core narrator of trickster, the essay argues that the trickster not only serves as a character in the novel, but also participates in the narrative to reconstruct history and furthermore, helps build up a trickster narrative of native tribalism. The trickster narrative is featured with the strong interests of New Historicism. The multi-perceptivity within the narrative structure, on the one hand, resists the essentialism of the narrative dominated by the white. On the other hand, it reveals the inner mechanism of the language and its function in constructing history. Louise Erdrich, like the trickster, in the spirit of deconstruction, redefines the connection between text and history in Native American tradition.

Key words: Four Souls, Louise Erdrich, New Historicism, trickster narrative