Academic literary canons should expand to include more Indigenous literature.
Queen’s English Literature program offers many different courses focusing on various novels and writing styles from Romanticism, zombie literature, and more, but there could be more efforts put into restructuring curricula and literary canons to include more Indigenous literature.
With National Truth and Reconciliation Day around the corner, scholars and students are thinking critically about their role in reconciliation and for avid readers and English majors, decolonization applies to the to-be-read list. It’s time for Queen’s literature pedagogy to reflect the post-colonial society around them by taking proper steps towards the inclusive representation of Indigenous stories.
For Marshall Hill, a professor who teaches Indigenous poetry, integrating more Indigenous literature into classrooms requires practical steps such as more funding and training.
“We need better funding, and more faculty to be able to have multiple people teaching Indigenous literary courses each year, and the ability to have people have these kinds of discussions that will build the tools that allow us to say ‘Okay, instead of one inherently central canon, let’s discuss all these different literary traditions,’” Hill said in an interview with The Journal.
To fully restructure Queen’s literature program to include more Indigenous narratives would mean that more professors would have to be certified to teach and lead discussions surrounding Indigenous culture and studies. Unfortunately, Queen’s arts programs are facing faculty shortages and budget cuts, making this a difficult reality.
“Having enough faculty teaching Indigenous literature is very important to give students a full picture of Indigenous literature,” Hill said.
One issue that might be impacting the universalization of Indigenous literature in an English undergrad degree from a pedagogical lens is that the literary canon is a slippery idea that isn’t easy to define and almost nobody agrees on. What books should be included for which literary era has always been highly contested for scholars. Hill argues that to include Indigenous literature wouldn’t require shifting around the literary canon completely, but rather, adding more Indigenous influence into pre-existing literary niches.
“I think [adding more Indigenous literature to classrooms] would be a matter of integrating Indigenous content to core courses where applicable. An English Renaissance course, you probably can’t do that, but for example, having Indigenous poetry in modern poetry classes,” Hill said.
In terms of Indigenous poetry, Hill highly recommends From Sand Creek by Simon Ortiz and other Indigenous poets such as Joy Harjo, Marilyn Dumont, and former Queen’s professors Armand Garnet Ruffo. Highlighting these poets demonstrates the importance of guiding students towards works that might otherwise be overlooked in mainstream literary studies. Studying a diverse range of stories instead of one specific pre-established canon helps to introduce students and readers to narratives they may not have been aware of.
Most English majors are aware of the traditional names associated with English literature like Shakespeare, William Blake, John Milton, Jane Austen, and Virginia Woolf, but so many other rich authors deserve to be studied as well. Hill suggests potentially making an Indigenous literature seminar mandatory to ensure that students are introduced to more material to figure out what they like. “In your upper years of English, you have certain mandatory courses like medieval English, Renaissance, and I think having an Indigenous and Black literature course be included in that list would be a good move,” Hill said.
It wasn’t until I, as an English major, took an upper-year seminar ENGL 466: Diaspora Writing in Toronto, that I was introduced to all the rich literature and stories that Canadian authors have brought into the written word that I wasn’t aware of before the course. By introducing students to as much varied literature and stories as possible ensures that their interests are sculpted and cultivated properly.
By bringing more Indigenous writers into the classroom, we make space for stories that have too often been silenced, ensuring that readers are engaging with a more honest and full literary landscape.
Tags
Culture, Decolonization, Indigenous, literary canon, Literature
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