Unsettled Narratives: Indigenous Absence and Vengeful Land in Martha Ostenso’s Wild Geese, Sinclair Ross’s As for Me and My House, and Sheila Watson’s The Double Hook
Date
2019-09-23
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-0122-4781
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Canada is a settler-colonial nation haunted by its long history of elimination and assimilation policies that cleared Indigenous peoples from the land for settlement. Martha Ostenso’s Wild Geese, Sinclair Ross’s As for Me and My House, and Sheila Watson’s The Double Hook reflect, and ultimately support, these policies through their depiction of marginalized Indigenous peoples who are dispossessed of their traditional territories. In each novel, the land metaphorically longs for its original inhabitants and the relationship it had with Indigenous groups; consequently, the land rejects the settlers who misuse it through the intrusive agricultural pursuits of farming and ranching. By applying foundational theories regarding settler colonialism as posited by Lorenzo Veracini and Patrick Wolfe, this study contends that the novels of Ostenso, Ross, and Watson participate in the removal of Indigenous peoples from the territory that is now Canada and legitimize the colonial project that allows settler communities to occupy these lands, in part by presenting Indigenous peoples as literal or metaphorical ghosts.
Description
Keywords
Canadian Literature, prairie realism, settler-colonialism
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
English
Program
English