How should I read these? : native women writers in Canada PDF
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HOW SHOULD I READ THESE? NATIVE WOMEN WRITERS IN CANADA One of the few books on contemporary Native writing in Canada, Helen Hoy's absorbing and provocative work raises and addresses questions around 'difference' and the locations of cultural insider and outsider in relation to texts by contemporary Native women prose writers in Canada. Drawing on postcolonial, feminist, poststructuralist, and First Nations theory, it explores the problems involved in reading and teaching a variety of works by Native women writers from the perspective of a cultural outsider. In each chapter, Hoy examines a particular author and text in order to address some of the basic theoreti- cal questions of reader location, cultural difference, and cultural appro- priation, finally concluding that these Native authors have refused to be confined by identity categories such as 'women' or 'Native' and have themselves provided a critical voice guiding how their texts might be read and taught. Hoy has written a thoughtful and original work, combining theoreti- cal and textual analysis with insightful and witty personal and peda- gogical narratives, as well as poetic and critical epigraphs - the latter of which function as counterpoint to the scholarly argument. The analysis is self-reflective, making issues of difference and power ongoing sub- jects of investigation that interact with the literary texts themselves and render the readings more clearly local, partial, and accountable. This highly imaginative volume will appeal to Canadianists, feminists, and the growing number of scholars in the field of Native studies. HELEN HOY is an associate professor at the School of Literatures and Performance Studies in English, University of Guelph. This page intentionally left blank How Should I Read These? Native Women Writers in Canada HELEN HOY UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London www.utppublishing.com University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2001 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-3519-1 (cloth) ISBN 0-8020-8401-X (paper) Printed on acid-free paper Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Hoy, Helen, 1949- How should I read these? : native women writers in Canada Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-3519-1 (bound) ISBN 0-8020-8401-X (pbk.) 1. Canadian prose literature (English) - Indian authors - History and criticism.* 2. Canadian Prose literature (English) - Women authors - History and criticism.* 3. Native peoples in literature.* 4. Canadian prose literature (English) - 20th century - History and criticism. I. Title. PS8089.5.I6H69 2001 C818'.54089'9287 COO-932880-7 PR9188.2.I5H69 2001 University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). For Thomas, Christian, Benjamin, and Elizabeth, essential parts of the story This page intentionally left blank Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix Introduction 3 1 'Reading from the Inside Out': Jeannette Armstrong's Slash 32 2 'When You Admit You're a Thief: Maria Campbell and Linda Griffiths's The Book of Jessica 48 3 'Listen to the Silence': Ruby Slipperjack's Honour the Sun 64 4 'Nothing but the Truth': Beatrice Culleton's In Search of April Raintree 81 5 'And Use the Words That Were Hers': Beverly Hungry Wolf's The Ways of My Grandmothers 105 6 'Because You Aren't Indian': Lee Maracle's Ravensong 127 7 'How Should I Eat These?' Eden Robinson's Traplines 153 In/conclusion 183 NOTES 203 WORKS CITED 231 INDEX 251 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments For support of this research, I would like to acknowledge the Univer- sity of Minnesota Faculty Summer Research Fellowship, the University of Minnesota Graduate School Grant-in-Aid, and the McKnight Sum- mer Fellowship; the American Association of Learned Societies Fellow- ship; the University of Guelph Research Grant; research assistants Barbara Hodne, Don Moore, Anna Booth, and Tim Pettipiece; Minne- apolis-St Paul writing group, Maria Damon, Pamela Fletcher, Valerie Miner, Martha Roth, and Susan Welch; Charlie Sugnet, Erik Peterson, Carol Miller, Greg Staats, Donna Palmateer Pennee, Dorothy Hadfield, Margaret Allen, Frances Mundy, Thomas King; and my graduate and undergraduate students with whom so much of this work occurred. Portions of this book have been previously published as follows: (with Barbara Hodne) World Literature Written in English 32.1 (Spring 1992); Canadian Literature 136 (Spring 1993); Ariel 25.1 (Jan. 1994); Essays on Canadian Writing 60 (Winter 1996); and Resources for Feminist Research 25.3/4 (Winter 1997). Excerpt from 'Distances' reprinted from The Business of Fancydancing © 1992 by Sherman Alexie, by permission of Hanging Loose Press. Excerpts from 'Because I Was in New York City Once and Have since Become an Expert,' 'Song/ 'On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City,' and 'All I Wanted to Do Was Dance' reprinted from First Indian on the Moon © 1993 by Sherman Alexie, by permission of Hanging Loose Press. Excerpts from 'How to Write the Great American Indian Novel' reprinted from The Summer of Black Widows © 1996 by Sherman Alexie, by permission of Hanging Loose Press. Excerpts from 'Red Blues' and 'Introduction to Native American Literature' reprinted from Old Shirts and New Skins © 1993 by Sherman Alexie, by permission of Sherman
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