![]() In Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, Daniel Justice, a writer and scholar from the Cherokee Nation, points out the all-too-common disparity between the stories Indigenous writers tell about ourselves, and the stories others have told about us. For one thing, the settler literary preoccupation with land as either a mighty adversary or a seductive mystery suggests a desire for domination that is not reflected in our works, except maybe in parody. It’s simply not adequate to measure our writing-inspired and informed by lived experiences-by Northrop Frye’s tidy summaries of the “Canadian” aesthetic. ![]() ![]() Critics who don’t engage with cultural context may do more harm than good when reviewing outside of their wheelhouse. Indigenous literatures continue to claim space in this territory, but the realm of critics and tastemakers remains predominantly white. The bulk of this writing has traditionally centred around literature that the dominant culture considers valuable, interpreted by voices deemed worthy of the task. Canadian literary criticism is made up of stories we tell ourselves about the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. ![]()
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