Native Writers and Canadian Writing
Published on 1. March 1991
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-7748-0370-0 (ISBN)
Description
Focusing on literature by and about Canada's native peoples, this book contains original articles and poems by both native and non-native writers. These not only reflect the growing prominence of contemporary native writing but also direct the reader to the traditional literature from which it springs and which has been largely misunderstood by the non-native community - myths, rituals and songs having been interpreted more often as artistic "curiosities" rather than the masterworks of a different culture. Essays examining the conventional portrayals of native people in literature touch on works which range from the 18th-century journals of explorer Alexander Mackenzie, to the novels of James Fenimore Cooper and to early writers in Canada such as historian-humorist Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Studies of native literature focus on the oral literary traditions of the Haida and Inuit and their transcribers, and on modern works by playwright Tomson Highway and authors Lee Maracle and Thomas King, among others.
These commentaries illuminate the way in which native writers view themselves and their disparate worlds, their gifts for pathos, humour and self-parody, and their search for their own voices and distinct forms of communication. Viewing Canada's native peoples in historical, anthropological and political contexts, the book exposes prejudices and misconceptions entrenched since colonial days regarding native societies and their moral, spiritual and political values - values embodied in their hereditary literature. Native visual art has flourished in recent years, and the book records the initiatives now being taken by native societies to preserve and promote their own cultural identity through the spoken and written word. These include control of their own education, creative writing programmes, projects to preserve still extant languages, folklore, songs and rituals, and the founding of native publishing houses. Not only are these endeavours valuable contributions to tribal cultures but they also contribute to the past and ongoing literary heritage.
These commentaries illuminate the way in which native writers view themselves and their disparate worlds, their gifts for pathos, humour and self-parody, and their search for their own voices and distinct forms of communication. Viewing Canada's native peoples in historical, anthropological and political contexts, the book exposes prejudices and misconceptions entrenched since colonial days regarding native societies and their moral, spiritual and political values - values embodied in their hereditary literature. Native visual art has flourished in recent years, and the book records the initiatives now being taken by native societies to preserve and promote their own cultural identity through the spoken and written word. These include control of their own education, creative writing programmes, projects to preserve still extant languages, folklore, songs and rituals, and the founding of native publishing houses. Not only are these endeavours valuable contributions to tribal cultures but they also contribute to the past and ongoing literary heritage.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Vancouver
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7748-0370-0 (9780774803700)
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Schweitzer Classification
Content
One generation to extinction, Basil H. Johnson; Reassessing traditional Inuit poetry, Robin McGrath; That also is you - some classics of Native Canadian literature, Robert Bringhurst; "A parcel of whelps" - Alexander Mackenzie among the Indians, Parker Duchemin; Savage, degenerate, and dispossessed - some sociological, anthropological and legal backgrounds to the depiction of Native peoples in early long poems on Canada, D.M.R. Bentley; Red and white men / black, white and grey hats - literary attitudes to the interaction between European and Native Canadians in the first half of the 19th century, Mary Lu Macdonald; Mourning Dove's Canadian recovery years 1917-19, Alanna Kathleen Brown; Contemporary Native women's voices in literature, Agnes Grant; Equality among women, Mingwn Mingwn (Shirley Bear); Jeannette Armstrong and the colonial legacy, Noel Elizabeth Currie; Yin Chin Lee Maracle; Upsetting fake ideas - Jeannette Armstrong's Slash and Beatrice Culletion's April, Raintre Margery Fee; The politics of representation - some Native Canadian women writers, Barbara Godard; Border work, Celia Haig-Brown; A double-bladed knife - subversive laughter in two stories by Thomas King, Margaret Attwood; Lines and circles - the Rez plays of Tomson Highway, Denis W. Johnston; The Baffin writers' project, Victoria Freeman; Cultures in conflict - the problem of discourse, Robin Ridington; The prophecy, Basil H. Johnson. Poems: Artifacts, Frank Conibear; Negative of You, Shawnandithit (Last of the Beothuks); The Blizzard Moans My Name, Joan Crate; A Prairie Museum, Belugas, Four Dancers, Jim Tallosi; Chewing the Pieces, David P. Reiter; Pakashgoogan, Denis Stokes; Shoreline, Old Lake Iroquois, M.T. Kelly; Nightmare Comfort, Ben Abel; Klu'skap-oo'kom, The Dream Was the Answer, Rita Joe; Nostalgia, The Red in Winter; "Progress", Emma Larocque; Earth Nites, I'm Not in Charge of This Ritual, Big Steve, Down on the Yucatan, Shaman and the Raven, Wayne Keon; Yin Chin Lee Maracle; The Wet, Working on Titles, Eagles Caught Salmon, Bruce Chester; Song on Starling Street, Breakdown Moon, Blue Moon, Inukshuk Daniel David Moses; Coyote Learns to Whistle, Coyote Sees the Prime Minister, Coyote Goes to Toronto, The City on the Hill, Thomas King; The Dancing Sun, The Water Moved an Instant, Alootook Ipellie; April 23, 1985 - Aboriginal Rights Conference, Mingwn Mingwn (Shirley Bear).