Learn, Teach, Challenge: Approaching Indigenous Literatures

✍ Scribed by Deanna Reder (editor), Linda M. Morra (editor)

• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Year: 2016
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 561
• Series: Indigenous Studies
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a collection of classic and newly commissioned essays about the study of Indigenous literatures in North America. The contributing scholars include some of the most venerable Indigenous theorists, among them Gerald Vizenor (Anishinaabe), Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan), Craig Womack (Creek), Kimberley Blaeser (Anishinaabe), Emma LaRocque (Métis), Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee), Janice Acoose (Saulteaux), and Jo-Ann Episkenew (Métis). Also included are settler scholars foundational to the field, including Helen Hoy, Margery Fee, and Renate Eigenbrod. Among the newer voices are both settler and Indigenous theorists such as Sam McKegney, Keavy Martin, and Niigaanwewidam Sinclair.

The volume is organized into five subject areas: Position, the necessity of considering where you come from and who you are; Imagining Beyond Images and Myths, a history and critique of circulating images of Indigenousness; Debating Indigenous Literary Approaches; Contemporary Concerns, a consideration of relevant issues; and finally Classroom Considerations, pedagogical concerns particular to the field. Each section is introduced by an essay that orients the reader and provides ideological context. While anthologies of literary criticism have focused on specific issues related to this burgeoning field, this volume is the first to offer comprehensive perspectives on the subject.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I: POSITION
1 Introduction
2 Iskwewak Kah’ Ki Yaw Ni Wahkomakanak: Re-membering Being to Signifying Female Relations
3 “Introduction” from How Should I Read These? Native Women Writers in Canada
4 Teaching Aboriginal Literature: The Discourse of Margins and Mainstreams
5 “Preface” from Travelling Knowledges: Positioning the Im/Migrant Reader of Aboriginal Literatures in Canada
6 Strategies for Ethical Engagement: An Open Letter Concerning Non-Native Scholars of Native Literatures
7 A Response to Sam McKegney’s “Strategies for Ethical Engagement: An Open Letter Concerning Non-Native Scholars of Native Literatures”
8 Situating Self, Culture and Purpose in Indigenous Inquiry
9. Final Section Response: “The lake is the people and life that come to it”: Location as Critical Practice”
II: IMAGINING BEYOND
IMAGES AND MYTHS
10 Introduction
11. A Strong Race Opinion: On the Indian Girl in Modern Fiction
12 Indian Love Call
13 “Introduction” and “Marketing the Imaginary Indian” from The Imaginary Indian: The Image of the Indian in Canadian Culture
14 Postindian Warriors
15 Postcolonial Ghost Dancing: Diagnosing European Colonialism
16 The Trickster Moment, Cultural Appropriation, and the Liberal Imagination
17 Myth, Policy, and Health
18 Final Section Response: Imagining Beyond Images and Myths
III: DELIBERATING INDIGENOUS LITERARY APPROACHES
19 Introduction
20 “Editor’s Note” from Looking at the Words of Our People: First Nations Analysis of Literature
21 Native Literature: Seeking a Critical Centre”
22 Introduction. American Indian Literary Self-Determination
23 “Introduction” from Towards a Native American Critical Theory
24 Afterword: At the Gathering Place
25 Gdi-nweninaa: Our Sound, Our Voice
26 Responsible and Ethical Criticisms of Indigenous Literatures
27 Final Section Response: Many Communities and the Full Humanity of Indigenous People: A Dialogue
IV: CONTEMPORARY CONCERNS
28 Introduction
29 Appropriating Guilt: Reconciliation in an Indigenous Canadian Context
30 Moving Beyond ‘Stock Narratives’ of Murdered or Missing Indigenous Women: Reading the Poetry and Life Writing of Sarah de Vries
31 “Go Away Water!” Kinship Criticism and the Decolonization Imperative
32 Indigenous Storytelling, Truth-Telling, and Community Approaches to Reconciliation
33 Erotica, Indigenous Style
34 Doubleweaving Two-Spirit Critiques: Building Alliances between Native and Queer Studies
35 Finding your Voice: Cultural Resurgence and Power in Political Movement
36 Final Section Response: From haa-huu-pah to the Decolonization Imperative: Responding to Contemporary Issues through the TRC
V: CLASSROOM CONSIDERATIONS
37 Introduction
38 On the Hunting and Harvesting of Inuit Literature
39 “Ought We to Teach These?” Ethical, Responsible, and Aboriginal Cultural Protocols in the Classroom
40 Who Is the Text in This Class? Story, Archive, and Pedagogy in Indigenous Contexts
41 Teaching Literature as Testimony: Porcupines and China Dolls and the Testimonial Imaginary
42 “Betwixt and Between”: alternative genres, language, and indigeneity
43 A Landless Territory? Augmented Reality, Land, and Indigenous Storytelling in Cyberspace
44 Final Section Response: Positioning Knowledges, Building Relationships, Practising Self-Reflection, Collaborating Across Differences
Works Cited
About the Contributors