RMST326

Francophone Indigenous Literatures in Dialogue

Photo credit: Glenna Matoush, Not An Act of God

This course takes a comparative approach to explore the work of Indigenous writers, filmmakers and artists in Quebec and BC who engage with the impact of resource extraction on their lands. We will examine how hydro development in particular, often perceived as a form of sustainable energy, is also an extractive industry that has participated in the process of separating Indigenous peoples from their lands. We will put the local case of hydro in BC in dialogue with hydro power in Quebec, a province where hydro development is connected to the Québécois national project and where water symbolizes the resource that led to the province’s economic emancipation. Through the study of life-writing, testimony, autofiction and dystopian fiction, we will explore the themes of relationship to land, culture and kin, and interrogate the dynamics that govern current extractivist and colonialist systems of exploitation and power. Students will engage with literary texts from a variety of genres (poetry, theatre, essay, autobiography), as well as cinema (documentary, short film, archival remix) and visual art (photography, sculpture, public art) to analyze the themes, arguments, rhetorical and visual devices put forward by creators. Through study of historical and contemporary texts, students will gain an understanding of a timely issue at work in BC and Quebec.

This course fulfills the “Place and Power” BA breadth requirement.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Isabella Huberman

Prerequisites: None