Research Catalog

Title

Literary land claims : the "Indian land question" from Pontiac's war to Attawapiskat / Margery Fee.

Author

Fee, Margery, 1948-

Publication

• Waterloo, Ontario : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, [2015]
• ©2015

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 316 pages : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

Literature not only represents Canada as "our home and native land" but has been used as evidence of the civilization needed to claim and rule that land. Indigenous people have long been represented as roaming "savages" without land title and without literature. Literary Land Claims: From Pontiacs War to Attawapiskat analyzes works produced between 1832 and the late 1970s by writers who resisted these dominant notions. Margery Fee examines John Richardsons novels about Pontiacs War and the War of 1812 that document the breaking of British promises to Indigenous nations. She provides a close reading of Louis Riels addresses to the court at the end of his trial in 1885, showing that his vision for sharing the land derives from the Indigenous value of respect. Fee argues that both Grey Owl and E. Pauline Johnsons visions are obscured by challenges to their authenticity. Finally, she shows how storyteller Harry Robinson uses a contemporary Okanagan framework to explain how white refusal to share the land meant that Coyote himself had to make a deal with the King of England. Fee concludes that despite support in social media for Theresa Spences hunger strike, Idle No More, and the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the story about "savage Indians" and "civilized Canadians" and the latter groups superior claim to "develop" the lands and resources of Canada still circulates widely. If the land is to be respected and shared as it should be, literary studies needs a new critical narrative, one that engages with the ideas of Indigenous writers and intellectuals. -- Amazon.com.

Series Statement

Indigenous studies series

Uniform Title

• Project Muse UPCC books
• Indigenous studies series

Subject

• Canadian literature (English) > History and criticism
• Indians in literature
• Colonization in literature
• Indians of North America > Canada > Claims
• Canadian literature > History and criticism
• Indians of North America
• Canada

Genre/Form

• Claims
• Claims.
• Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Additional Formats (note)

• Issued also in electronic format.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

"How can they give it when it is our own?": Imagining the Indian land question from here -- "Why did they take our hunting grounds?": John Richardson (1796-1852) laments for the nation -- "That 'ere Ingian's one of us?": Richardson rewrites the Burkean savage -- "We have to walk on the ground": constitutive rhetoric in the courtroom addresses of Louis Riel (1844-1885) -- "We Indians own these lands": performance, authenticity, disidentification, and E. Pauline Johnson / Tekahionwake (1861-1913) -- "They taught me much": imposture, animism, ecosystem, and Archibald Belaney / Grey Owl (1888-1938) -- "They never even sent us a letter": Harry Robinson (1900-1990) on literacy and land -- (In)conclusion, or Attawapiskat v. #Ottawapiskat.

ISBN

• 9781771121194 (paperback)
• 177112119X (paperback)
• 9781771121002 (canceled/invalid)
• 1771121009 (canceled/invalid)
• 9781771120999 (canceled/invalid)
• 1771120991 (canceled/invalid)

OCLC

• 882190588
• SCSB-12813754

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library