Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
2006
Abstract
Canadian Aboriginal writing has blossomed in the past two decades and made a major contribution to the cultural life of both Aboriginal peoples and the general public. Given this wealth, it becomes necessary for the non-Aboriginal literary critic to develop sensitive models for approaching this creative and critical work, both in the classroom and in academic research. The question becomes: how can a non-Aboriginal critic use her "outsider" status in an enabling way when teaching and studying this culturally-specific material? In Travelling Knowledges: Positioning the 1m/Migrant Reader of Aboriginal Literatures in Canada, Renate Eigenbrod has attempted to use her position as an "im/migrant" German scholar of Canadian Aboriginal literatures as a tool to unpack the "boundary-crossing" aspects of these texts. Rather than mounting an apology for studying Canadian Aboriginal texts and cultures, Eigenbrod has produced an extraordinarily wide-ranging and energizing apologia for her critical practice. In the process, she offers astute commentary on Canadian Aboriginal texts that are overlooked or misapprehended by both Canadian and international scholars.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 26:4 (Fall 2006). Copyright © 2006 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.