Evaluating the Intertwining of First Native Culture and Indigenous Literature: Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse
In English literature a formalist movement in the mid 20th century that emphasized the relationship between a text’s idea and its form - known as New Criticism - continues to strongly influence modern academic writing. New Criticism specifies that the object of study ought to be the text itself, not the response or the motivation of its author or readers. Rarely do New Criticism texts have direct and concrete consequences. However, Indigenous writer, Richard Wagamese, author of “Indian Horse”, reels further from New Criticism and closer towards a writing style grounded upon Indigenous peoples aspect of a culture that revolves around …show more content…
Critics often argue that the simplicity of Indigenous literature, known as “discursive transparency”, does not allow the story to symbolize any further meaning, but Indian Horse enables the reader to find an aesthetic complexity underpinning the simplicity of its narrative. Wagamese himself points out how Indian Horse is, “written very simply, directly, and concisely” (Wagamese, UBC Speech). Through using a lyricism and creditable structure that can only be found in oral Indigenous stories, Wagamese does not impose an “established critical language”, but rather overlaps the form and content of his writing. He applies this method to subtly express the themes of the book through repetitive patterns and details of images, symbols, and phrases, throughout the story, as well as to transfer the narrative, likewise to the transforming effects of a ritual. In addition, when Saul is first placed in St. Jerome’s, Wagamese contrasts between dark and light images as a way to mark Saul’s residential school experience: “I read once that there were holes in the universe that swallow all light, all bodies. St. Jerome’s took all that light from my world” (43). In the speech Wagamese presented at the University of British Columbia, he quoted how in his book, “there was two elements, the darkness...and the joy that comes when we learn how to be survivors.” In addition, …show more content…
In the first few chapters of Saul’s life, he touches upon the Anishinaubae Creation story, a representation of the task of self-creation each member of the Fish Clan must undertake in their lives. Wagamese used the narrative regarding the Anishinaubae tale as a symbol of Saul’s own journey of personal and cultural reconstruction: “the only thing I had known for certain was that I had to backtrack, to revisit vital places from my early life, if I was ever going to understand how to live in the present”. Richard Wagamese clarifies in his speech that Indian Horse was not an easy book to write, but it was written because it, “is about redemption, it is about reconciliation, and it is about healing”. He points out how the children went through such a sense of isolation and lostness, and that, “they lost that spiritual, physical, and mental contact with who they were created to be”. Although this act of reconciliation was not initially correlated to Indigenous culture, through the white mans, - "the Zhaunagush’s” - act of colonialism, it has been intertwined and mixed to some degrees into the cultural healing of First Native’s
In English literature a formalist movement in the mid 20th century that emphasized the relationship between a text’s idea and its form - known as New Criticism - continues to strongly influence modern academic writing. New Criticism specifies that the object of study ought to be the text itself, not the response or the motivation of its author or readers. Rarely do New Criticism texts have direct and concrete consequences. However, Indigenous writer, Richard Wagamese, author of “Indian Horse”, reels further from New Criticism and closer towards a writing style grounded upon Indigenous peoples aspect of a culture that revolves around …show more content…
Critics often argue that the simplicity of Indigenous literature, known as “discursive transparency”, does not allow the story to symbolize any further meaning, but Indian Horse enables the reader to find an aesthetic complexity underpinning the simplicity of its narrative. Wagamese himself points out how Indian Horse is, “written very simply, directly, and concisely” (Wagamese, UBC Speech). Through using a lyricism and creditable structure that can only be found in oral Indigenous stories, Wagamese does not impose an “established critical language”, but rather overlaps the form and content of his writing. He applies this method to subtly express the themes of the book through repetitive patterns and details of images, symbols, and phrases, throughout the story, as well as to transfer the narrative, likewise to the transforming effects of a ritual. In addition, when Saul is first placed in St. Jerome’s, Wagamese contrasts between dark and light images as a way to mark Saul’s residential school experience: “I read once that there were holes in the universe that swallow all light, all bodies. St. Jerome’s took all that light from my world” (43). In the speech Wagamese presented at the University of British Columbia, he quoted how in his book, “there was two elements, the darkness...and the joy that comes when we learn how to be survivors.” In addition, …show more content…
In the first few chapters of Saul’s life, he touches upon the Anishinaubae Creation story, a representation of the task of self-creation each member of the Fish Clan must undertake in their lives. Wagamese used the narrative regarding the Anishinaubae tale as a symbol of Saul’s own journey of personal and cultural reconstruction: “the only thing I had known for certain was that I had to backtrack, to revisit vital places from my early life, if I was ever going to understand how to live in the present”. Richard Wagamese clarifies in his speech that Indian Horse was not an easy book to write, but it was written because it, “is about redemption, it is about reconciliation, and it is about healing”. He points out how the children went through such a sense of isolation and lostness, and that, “they lost that spiritual, physical, and mental contact with who they were created to be”. Although this act of reconciliation was not initially correlated to Indigenous culture, through the white mans, - "the Zhaunagush’s” - act of colonialism, it has been intertwined and mixed to some degrees into the cultural healing of First Native’s