Native Literature in Canada: From the Oral Tradition to the Present

This is the first critical study of the literature of Canada's native peoples, which at long last is commanding the attention it deserves. Focusing on the work of Indians and Métis, and beginning with an examination of the oral tradition from which their literature grew, and that continues today, it discusses both works generically classified as literature, and forms such as speeches that are significant for their eloquent expression of protest and alienation. Indeed, it is impossible to describe and quote from much of this material without conveying more than three centuries of political and social dissatisfaction.

Ranging from the seventeenth century to the recent publications of Maria Campbell, Beatrice Culleton, Ruby Slipperjack, Basil H. Johnston, Daniel David Moses, Tomson Highway, and Thomas King, among many others, this is an illuminating and timely survey that will greatly interest, and inform, natives and non-natives alike.