Travelling Knowledges: Positioning the Im/Migrant Reader of Aboriginal Literatures in Canada

In the context of de/colonization, the boundary between an Aboriginal text and the analysis by a non-Aboriginal outsider poses particular challenges often constructed as unbridgeable. Eigenbrod argues that politically correct silence is not the answer but instead does a disservice to the literature that, like all literature, depends on being read, taught, and disseminated in various ways. In Travelling Knowledges, Eigenbrod suggests decolonizing strategies when approaching Aboriginal texts as an outsider and challenges conventional notions of expertise. She concludes that literatures of colonized peoples have to be read ethically, not only without colonial impositions of labels but also with the responsibility to read beyond the text or, in Lee Maracle's words, to become the architect of great social transformation. Features the works of: Jeannette Armstrong (Okanagan), Louise Halfe (Cree), Margo Kane (Saulteaux/Cree), Maurice Kenny (Mohawk), Thomas King (Cherokee, living in Canada), Emma LaRocque (Cree/Metis), Lee Maracle (Sto: lo/Metis), Ruby Slipperjack (Anishnaabe), Lorne Simon (Mi kmaq), Richard Wagamese (Anishnaabe), and Emma Lee Warrior (Peigan).

Author: Renate Eigenbrod
Publisher: University of Manitoba Press
Published: 05/25/2005
Pages: 274
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.73lbs
Size: 9.02h x 6.26w x 0.85d
ISBN: 9780887556814

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2006 pg. 308

About the Author
Eigenbrod, Renate: - Renate Eigenbrod teaches Aboriginal Literature in the Department of Native Studies at the University of Manitoba and is co-editor of Creating Community: A Roundtable on Canadian Aboriginal Literatures.