Books – Literary Criticism

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  Place and Replace

  Essays on Western Canada

  Adele Perry (Editor), Esyllt W. Jones (Editor), Leah Morton (Editor)

  A multidisciplinary analysis of the Canadian West.

  Published February 2013 | History, Literary Criticism

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  Stories in a New Skin

  Approaches to Inuit Literature

  Keavy Martin (Author)

  A groundbreaking introduction to Inuit literary criticism.

  Published November 2012 | Contemporary Studies on the North, Indigenous Studies, Inuit Studies, Literary Criticism, Oral History & Storytelling, Performing Arts

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  When the Other Is Me

  Native Resistance Discourse, 1850 - 1990

  Emma LaRocque (Author)

  In this long-awaited book from one of the most recognized and respected scholars in Native Studies today, Emma LaRocque presents a powerful interdisciplinary study of the Native literary response to racist writing in the Canadian historical and literary record from 1850 to 1990.

  Published March 2010 | Decolonization, Indigenous Studies, Literary Criticism

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  Taking Back Our Spirits

  Indigenous Literature, Public Policy, and Healing

  Jo-Ann Episkenew (Author)

  From the earliest settler policies to deal with the “Indian problem,” to contemporary government-run programs ostensibly designed to help Indigenous people, public policy has played a major role in creating the historical trauma that so greatly impacts the lives of Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. Taking Back Our Spirits traces the link between Canadian public policies, the injuries they have inflicted on Indigenous people, and Indigenous literature’s ability to heal individuals and communities.

  Published May 2009 | Art & Architecture, Decolonization, Indigenous Studies, Literary Criticism, Public Policy

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  Magic Weapons

  Aboriginal Writers Remaking Community after Residential School

  Sam McKegney (Author)

  Magic Weapons is the first major survey of Indigenous writings on the residential school system, and provides groundbreaking readings of life writings by Rita Joe (Mi’kmaq) and Anthony Apakark Thrasher (Inuit) as well as in-depth critical studies of better known life writings by Basil Johnston (Ojibway) and Tomson Highway (Cree).

  Published November 2007 | Decolonization, Indigenous Studies, Literary Criticism

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  The Force of Vocation

  The Literary Career of Adele Wiseman

  Ruth Panofsky (Author)

  Adele Wiseman was a seminal figure in Canadian letters. Always independent and wilful, she charted her own literary career, based on her unfailing belief in her artistic vision. In The Force of Vocation, the first book on Wisemanís writing life, Ruth Panofsky presents Wiseman as a writer who doggedly and ambitiously perfected her craft, sought a wide audience for her work, and refused to compromise her work for marketability.

  Published April 2006 | Biography, Literary Criticism

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  Alien Heart

  The Life and Work of Margaret Laurence

  Lyall Powers (Author)

  Margaret Laurence remains one of Canada’s best-known and most beloved writers. Twice winner of the Governor General’s Award for fiction, she was, as the late William French wrote, “more profoundly admired than any other Canadian novelist of her generation.” Alien Heart is the first full-length biography of Margaret Laurence that combines personal knowledge and insights of the woman with a study of her work, which often paralleled the events and concerns in her own life.

  Published August 2005 | Biography, Letters & Correspondence, Literary Criticism

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  History, Literature and the Writing of the Canadian Prairies

  Alison Calder (Editor), Robert Wardhaugh (Editor)

  The Canadian Prairie has long been represented as a timeless and unchanging location, defined by settlement and landscape. Now, a new generation of writers and historians challenge that perception and argue, instead, that it is a region with an evolving culture and history. This collection of ten essays explores a more contemporary prairie identity, and reconfigures “the prairie” as a construct that is non-linear and diverse, responding to the impact of geographical, historical, and political currents.

  Published May 2005 | History, Literary Criticism

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  Travelling Knowledges

  Positioning the Im/Migrant Reader of Aboriginal Literatures in Canada

  Renate Eigenbrod (Author)

  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.

  Published May 2005 | Indigenous Studies, Literary Criticism

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  Intimate Strangers

  The Letters of Margaret Laurence and Gabrielle Roy

  Margaret Laurence (Author), Gabrielle Roy (Author), Paul G. Socken (Editor)

  In 1976 Margaret Laurence and Gabrielle Roy began a seven-year correspondence in English, when both were at the height of their powers as writers. In these lovely and intimate letters, two great Canadian writers discuss everything from their common prairie backgrounds to current politics and censorship.

  Published December 2004 | Letters & Correspondence, Literary Criticism