About the Book Beyond Resistance: Critical Essays on Canadian First Nations Writing contains perceptive essays from eminent scholars who have made significant contributions into the study and research on Canadian Literature in Canada and India. These articles are in depth analysis of issues and concerns of First Nations people as reflected in many texts belonging to different genres: orality, songs, tales, short stories, fiction, autobiography drama and theatre. Eminent contributions include internationally known canadianists like Janice Acoose, Coomie Vevaina, Jameela Begum, Om. P Juneja, K.Chellappan, Anjali Gera Roy, N. Ramachandran Nair, T. Nageswara Rao, C.P.Ravichandra and a host of bound talents who have proved their mettle in the field of First Nation Studies.
About the Author M. Dasan is currently Professor and Head of the Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Kannur University. His book Radical Consciousness in Black American Drama, (Creative Books, New Delhi, 2001) was the subject of his Doctroal Research. He has visited Canada as Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Faculty Enrichment Fellow and has presented papers in many International and National Seminars including the Biennial Symposium on Cultures and Literatures of Asia Pacific Countries at the University of Western Australia, Perth. He has also visited and lectured in various Universities in U.K., U.S.A Malaysia and Singapore. He has guided a number of M.Phil. and Ph.D Scholars and has published articles in prestigious Journals and Books on a wide range of topics like Post Colonial literatures, Aboriginal Tribal and Dalit Cultures, Land Rights, Environment, Ecofeminism and Comparative Literary Studies. One of the Emerging Indian Canadianists, he has contributed considerably to Canadian Studies and Research in India.
Preface Beyond Resistance: Critical Essays on Canadian First Nations Writing contains perceptive essays from eminent scholars who have made significant contributions into the study and research on Canadian Literature in Canada and India. These articles are in depth analysis of issues and concerns of First Nations people as reflected in many texts belonging to different genres; orality, songs, tales, short stories, fiction, autobiography, drama and theatre. Eminent contributors include internationally known Canadianists like Janice Acoose, Coomie. S Vevaina, Jameela Begum, Om. P. Juneja, K. Chellappan, Anjali Gera Roy, N. Ramachandran Nair, C.P. Ravichandra and a host of young talents who have proved their mettle in the field of First Nations Studies.
This collection of Essays, exclusively on First Nations Literature, will give the readers a comprehensive idea of the issues, concerns, themes and techniques specific to First Nations Literatures, texts and authors and will help them to think of cross cultural, comparative studies of issues and texts produced by indigenous peoples of other countries including India.
Introduction First Nations peoples of Canada like the indigenous peoples all over the world has had a rich tradition of orality which were repositories of indigenous systems of knowledge. These oral narratives-songs, tales, and myths-reflect their ways of life, world view, spirituality and attitude towards nature and everything on it. These people take nature and themselves as extensions of each other and believe that damage to one would damage the other as the land was theirs and they were the land. Native orality goes back to a time when poetry was not separate from story and story not free from song and when a unique harmony existed among words, melody and movement. The First Nations People believe in a dynamic universe in which all things are related, where each creature is part of a living whole. To them, Spirits or Wokonda, the friend of the soul of Man exists in everything, in the field they plant, the stone they grind with, and the bear they kill.
The oratures of these colonized peoples have been overtaken by the written word and their languages were replaced with English language. Colonial education saw to it that indigenous cultural practices were banned and native languages were prohibited in schools.
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