Writing relations : Lee Maracle and a model of responsibility
Date
1995
Authors
Solie, Karen
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Abstract
This thesis discusses how Lee Maracle's writing enacts a critique of the cultural biases that linger within mainstream feminist discourses. It argues that Maracle's texts offer an alternatives model of responsible relational positioning necessary for the formation of a solidarity of differences, a space of inclusion theorized by François Lionnet as one of metissage.
The introduction questions the relevance of contemporary feminist theories to Native women's writing, and ask whether these theories privilege traditional scholarly approaches. The first chapter explores the climate of debated surrounding the essentialism and appropriation of Native women's writing, and introduces concepts of relational positioning and responsibility integral to Maracle's interruption of hegemonic systems of representation. Chapter two looks at I Am Woman as a text that identifies how historical, cultural and political contexts inform one's subject position. This chapter begins a discussion of how Maracle's autobiographical writing subverts traditional autobiographical tenets of unified identity, truth, and expereicne. Chapter three interprets the stories of Sojourner's Truth and Other Stories as articulating the various relations, or communities, that inform Maracle's subject positions and discusses the agency achieved through negotiations of communitarian responsibilities. The fourth chapter considers how Ravensong draws together ideas of relational positioning, responsibility, agency, and solidarity explored in Maracle's previous texts. The conclusion offers a brief summary, as well as some thoughts on my own position within this study of Maracle's work.