Research Catalog

Title

From the iron house : imprisonment in First Nations writing / Deena Rymhs.

Author

Rymhs, Deena, 1975-

Publication

Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, c2008.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

ix, 146 p.; 24 cm.

Summary

"In From the Iron House: Imprisonment in First Nations Writing, Deena Rymhs identifies continuities between the residential school and the prison, offering ways of reading "the carcereal"--That is, the different ways that incarceration is constituted and articulated in contemporary Aboriginal literature. Addressing writers such as Tomson Highway and Basil Johnston along with lesser known authors writing in prison serials and underground publications, this book emphasizes the literary and political strategies these authors use to resist the containment of their institutions." "The first part of the book addresses a diverse sample of writing from prison serials, prisoners' anthologies, and autobiographies to show how these works serve as second hearings for their authors - as an opportunity to respond to the law's authority over their personal and public identities while making a plea to a wider audience. The second part looks at residential school narratives and attends to how the authors construct identities for themselves in was that defy the institution's control. The interactions between these two bodies of writing invite recognition of the ways that guilt is colonially constructed and how these authors use their writing to distance themselves from that guilt." "Offering new ways of reading Native writing, From the Iron House is a pioneering study of prison literature in Canada and situates its readings within international criticism of prison writing. Contributing to genre studies and theoretical understandings of life writing, and covering a variety of social topics, this work will be relevant to readers interested in indigenous studies, Canadian cultural studies, postcolonial studies, auto/biography studies, law, and public policy."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Aboriginal studies series

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• Aboriginal studies series (Waterloo, Ont.)

Subject

• Prisoners' writings, Canadian (English) > History and criticism
• Canadian literature (English) > History and criticism
• Imprisonment in literature
• First Nations > Residential schools
• Indians in literature
• Canadian literature (English) > 20th century > History and criticism
• Écrits de prisonniers canadiens-anglais > Histoire et critique
• Littérature canadienne-anglaise > Histoire et critique
• Emprisonnement dans la littérature
• Internats pour Indiens d'Amérique > Canada
• Indiens d'Amérique dans la littérature
• Littérature canadienne-anglaise > 20e siècle > Histoire et critique
• Canadian literature > 20th century > History and criticism
• Canadian literature > History and criticism
• Indians of North America > Canada > Residential schools
• Prisoners' writings, Canadian > History and criticism

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 129-138) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Barred subject: Leonard Peltier's Prison Writings -- James Tyman's Inside out: An autobiography by a native Canadian -- Auto/biographical jurisdictions: collaboration, self-representation, and the law in Stolen life: The journey of a Cree woman -- Prison collections and periodicals -- A residential school memoir: Basil Johnston's Indian school days -- It is the law: Disturbing the authoritative word in Tomson Highway's Kiss of the fur queen -- Hated structures and lost talk: Making poetry bear the burden -- Autobiography as containment: Jane Willis's Geniesh: An Indian girlhood

ISBN

• 9781554580217
• 1554580218

OCLC

• 166372131
• SCSB-10715641

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library