(Secondary Source) Read Renate Eigenbrod’s article “‘For the child taken, for the parent left behind’:
Residential School Narratives as Acts of ‘Survivance,’” English Studies in Canada,
vol. 38, nos. 3-4, September-December 2012, pp. 277-297.
In her article, Eigenbrod acknowledges that “there are different ways of telling trauma …including silences and indirect forms of expression.” She argues that “literature about childhood in residential schools, seemingly about victimization, reclaims the power of the imagination in
order ‘to assert our presence in the face of erasure’ (Daniel Heath Justice, “Go Away Water!”
150), thus evoking survival, resistance, and continuance of cultures against colonial policies
aimed at the annihilation of Indigenous presence most aggressively in the residential schools”
(280). Making specific and sustained references to both Indian Horse and Eigenbrod’s article,
Write an essay on: How does recounting trauma allow Saul Indian Horse to reclaim the power of the
imagination in Indian Horse? Does Indian Horse suggest that the work of telling and
imagination in Indian Horse? Does Indian Horse suggest that the work of telling and
imagining can help heal such trauma?
(Primary source) Richard Wagemese Indian Horse A Novel
Do not simply summarize the
content of the secondary source; rather, integrate it into your own argument and establish your own position in relation to it.
Assignment Objectives
What you are aiming to accomplish here (and these points form the basis for the marking criteria) is:
* to answer your selected question by presenting a close, sustained, well-explained analysis of Indian Horse
* to support your argument with textual evidence by quoting keywords / phrases / passages from the novel and explaining how these examples support your argument
* to situate your argument in relation to the assigned critical secondary source
* to demonstrate a command of the scholarly practices of quotation and citation
* to present your ideas clearly, effectively, and with polish (e.g., attention to spelling, punctuation, formatting requirements)