The Survivance in the Literature of the First Nations in Canada

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22364/BJELLC.09.2019.06

Keywords:

survivance, invisibility, Innu, poetic, First Nations

Abstract

The article examines the way the writers of the First Nations in Canada deal with the issue of survivance which implies a collective resilience. It is based upon a comparison between the first novel of Naomi Fontaine, Kuessipan (2011) and the poetry of Rita Mestokosho collected in How I see Life, Grandmother, Eshi Uapataman Nukum, Comment je perçois la vie, grand-mère (2011). Both writers belong to a tradition of littérature autochtone in Québec that has become more and more visible since the 1980s. If both writers share the paradigm of decoloniality, their aesthetics remains classical with the use of a minimalist style to express the beauty of the Innu way of life.

Author Biography

Christophe Premat, Stockholm University

Christophe Premat (Dr. pol. sc., Assoc. prof. in Cultural Studies in French) is currently working at Stockholm University. He is the head of the Center for Canadian Studies at Stockholm University and his research interests include discourse analysis, Francophone literature and memory studies. Email: christophe.premat@su.se

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INTERVIEWS

Mestokosho, R. (2009) Interview recorded with Christophe Premat and Françoise Sule (10 October) and translated into English by C. Premat. The interview was originally published on the website http://www.franskaspraket.eu which ceased to exist in 2015.

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Published

2019-06-19

How to Cite

Premat, C. (2019). The Survivance in the Literature of the First Nations in Canada. Baltic Journal of English Language, Literature and Culture, 9, 72–92. https://doi.org/10.22364/BJELLC.09.2019.06