Definitions
“A Canadian is someone forced to choose between being an American and being an Indian.”
- Dave Godfrey
- What do these terms mean?
- Indian
- Childhood, innocence, nature
- Romantically indigenous
- Grey Owl
- Culture is pure, true, static
- Frozen in time
- American
- Power, civilized order
- How do we define this literature?
- “Native literature is literature written by Native people.”
- European’s view:
- “They’re all the same.”
- Failure to recognise
- Distinctive cultures
- But - is there a PAN native voice?
- No, each bond is different
- Tribes separated by
- Language
- Geography
- Customs
- No Canadian literature truly representative without
- (old) tendency to look to white writers is disappearing
- Poets: E. J. Pratt
- William Kinsella
- Fence post in time, inappropriate voice because he was white
- Now can look directly for native writers
- Major burst of creativity in Canada
- Began in 1980s
- Behind the states, which began in 1970s
- Margaret Atwood in Survival (1972)
- Looked at how non native writers used native motifs
- Little native writings
- But
- Folk tale translations
- European cultural arrogance
- British
- French
- Spanish
- Appropriation
- Cultural imperialism & paternalism
- Much of our history written from viewpoint of conquering Europeans
- Suppressed traditional literature, songs, dances and other rituals
- Should anybody be able to tell anyone’s story?
- Writing in the voice of a person that you’re not, e.g. a male writer writing in a woman’s voice
- One view:
- Co-option of voice
- Keep it marginalized
- Response: “native censorship”
- Another view:
- Stop and listen
- Ask permission
- Otherwise you are stealing
- Acknowledge source
- Basil Johnston
- “doomed race” theory
- Disappear, die out or be assimilated
- National policy
- Not effective
- Political will for change?
- Translation
- Problem:
- Impose your own culture, values and literary structures
- Solution:
- Learn the language
- How do you include...?
- All the nuances?
- All the shadings?
- Stereotyping
- Literary stereotypes
- Men: as savages
- Drunk
- Barbarous
- Courageous brave
- Speaking ability
- Stoic and mute
- “many moons” phenomena – Victorian minister spoken words
- Women: two roles
- Princess
- Squaw
- Some historical depictions would qualify as hate literature today
- Oral culture
- European antipathy towards oral cultures
- Writing preferred by mainstream
- Can be quoted
- Individual, signed
- Linear
- Infinitely repeatable
- Under control of the past
- Does not conform to traditional (European) literary criteria or values
- Collective experience
- Auditory
- Oriented towards the present
- Might be told differently next time
- Oral is fluid
- May change with every telling
- Some adjectives
- Primitive, pagan, curious, quaint, collectible
- Once viewed as not intrinsically artistic
- Not real or sacred
- Requires a change in perspective
- Most people aren’t sensitive listeners
- Hinders ability to tell stories
- Must be aware of values carried in story
- Often perceive only what relates to our own culture
- Affects retelling
“Don’t tell our stories, change them, pretend they are what we’re about, because they’re not.”
David Daniel Moses
Oral literature
- Some criteria
- An event, performance
- Meaning resides in the context
- Interaction between storyteller and audience
- Absence of European style and form
- Does this mean that oral literature is inferior?
- Not static
- Some stories may be over 1,000 years old
- If they are told properly
- Don’t have to explain meaning after
- Traditional literary analysis doesn’t work
- Offers an alternate way of telling stories
- Need to see beyond our history and the stereotypes
- Many native writers feel a double burden
- The need to “educate” audiences first
- Before they can write or speak
- We must all deal with prejudices and politics
- Acknowledge the pain and guilt
- Incorporate/validate native literature
- On its own terms
- And move on...
- Development of a native literary culture
- Many writers ... more on the horizon
- Literature being taught in schools
- Publishing houses
- Criticism
- Anthologies
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