Original scientific paper
A Border Rider: Inuit Women in French Canadian Literature
Eva Voldřichová Beránková
; Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Abstract
From Markoosie Patsauq's novel Harpoon of the Hunter (1969), unexpected values of equality between the two sexes are promoted thanks to numerous images of the Inuit woman, strong, courageous and not hesitating to impose her point of view. Sanaaq (1983) by Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk develops this representation and allows the anthropologist Bernard Saladin d'Anglure to formulate his concept of the „third sex“: traditional Inuit communities practised many types of cross-dressing of children to correct demographic, economic or psychological imbalances. Girls educated as boys often became „creatures of the in-between“, mediators not only between men and women, but also between men and gods, since symbolic disguise represented one of the most indispensable components of Inuit shamanism. This article examines the relationship between this traditional Aboriginal „institution“ and images of Inuit women in several novels of French Canadian literature: Agaguk (1958) and Tayaout, Son of Agaguk (1969) by Yves Thériault, Windflower (1970) by Gabrielle Roy and The Song of Innu Land (2015) by Jean Bédard.
Keywords
French Canadian literature; the Inuit; third sex; anthropology; the contemporary novel
Hrčak ID:
228955
URI
Publication date:
26.11.2019.
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