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      • HARVEST
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      A Process of Thought and Being: Aboriginal Realism and Cultural Healing in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road and Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen

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      ILES-THESIS.pdf (345.8Kb)
      Date
      2012-01-13
      Author
      Iles, Caitlin
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      In this thesis I examine the relationship between the healing of cultural trauma and connections to Aboriginal communities in Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road and Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen. These novels are both concerned with the development of Aboriginal identities within a postcolonial world and depict this world from a specifically Cree perspective. As such, I situate these novels contextually and theoretically, with references to the specific Cree mythologies and narratives that inform the novels as based upon the theory of Indigenous Literary Nationalism. I argue that their inclusion of specific Cree perspectives within a realistically rendered colonial world creates a new form of literary realism called Aboriginal realism which presents readers with a different way of interpreting reality. Their concern with addressing traumas inflicted on Aboriginal communities by colonial institutions, specifically residential schools, and demonstrating possible methods of individual and cultural rejuvenation situates these works as politicized objects with real-world applications. I argue that through the creation of their characters, both novels posit that a connection to Aboriginal communities and culture is necessary to heal from past traumas and for the creation of a healthy, evolving, and sustainable Aboriginal identity. As such, these novels provide their readers with examples of how they too may overcome the traumas of their pasts, while pointing out ongoing problems within Aboriginal communities, such as adherence to Western-imposed ideological systems, which preclude complete cultural regeneration.
      Degree
      Master of Arts (M.A.)
      Department
      English
      Program
      English
      Supervisor
      Fagan, Kristina
      Committee
      Van Styvendale, Nancy; Bartley, William; Tait, Caroline; Hynes, Peter
      Copyright Date
      September 2011
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/ETD-2011-09-184
      Subject
      Aboriginal Literature, Canadian Literature, Identity, Community
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      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
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