POSTCOLONIAL READINGS OF INDIGENOUS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL WRITING IN CANADA
Keywords:
postcolonial/poststructuralist strategies, Indigenous autobiography, Canada, identity politics, differenceAbstract
Postcolonial debates about difference, identity and agency are partly responsible for the popularity of Indigenous life stories in Canada. The other powerful thrust to Indigenous autobiographical writing comes from Native Indian writers whose textual reclamation of identity is an essential part of their larger struggle for political agency in the public sphere. The paper concerns itself with the theme of postcolonial politics and explores the relationship between cultural difference, identity and agency in three contemporary Indigenous life stories, Halfbreed by Maria Campbell, In Search of April Raintree by Beatrice Culleton and Ravensong by Lee Maracle. More specifically, it problematizes the postcolonial/poststructuralist imperative to dismantle the subject and affirm difference; these strategies often prove to be ethically problematic and politically disabling in the context of Indigenous life-writing.
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