Hayden King isn't happy with Joseph Boyden's new novel:
The Orenda is a comforting narrative for Canadians about the emergence of Canada: Indian savages, do-good Jesuits and the inevitability (even desirability) of colonization. The themes that push this narrative are a portrayal of Haudenosaunee peoples as antagonistic, the privileging of the Jesuit perspective, and a reinforcing of old story-telling tropes about Indigenous people. These themes work together to convey the message that the disappearance of the Huron and the loss of their orenda was destined [to] happen.
1 comment:
More ideological bluster posing as criticism -- why I don't bother reading CanLitCrit. What's it say about our culture if we can't even discuss books in public without descending to this level? If you can't talk about something as insignificant as literature then you probably can't talk about anything that's really important. All this tired 'colonization' stuff looks good in front of a bunch of guilty white people in a university and doesn't do anything for our families back on the reservation.
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