DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Paddling Her Own Canoe

The Times and Texts of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

Carole Gerson author Veronica Strong-Boag author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of Toronto Press

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Paddling Her Own Canoe cover

Frequently dismissed as a 'nature poet' and an 'Indian Princess' E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) was not only an accomplished thinker and writer but a contentious and passionate personality who 'talked back' to Euro-Canadian culture. Paddling Her Own Canoe is the only major scholarly study that examines Johnson's diverse roles as a First Nations champion, New Woman, serious writer and performer, and Canadian nationalist.

A Native advocate of part-Mohawk ancestry, Johnson was also an independent, self-supporting, unmarried woman during the period of first-wave feminism. Her versatile writings range from extraordinarily erotic poetry to polemical statements about the rights of First Nations. Based on thorough research into archival and published sources, this volume probes the meaning of Johnson's energetic career and addresses the complexities of her social, racial, and cultural position. While situating Johnson in the context of turn-of-the-century Canada, the authors also use current feminist and post-colonial perspectives to reframe her contribution. Included is the first full chronology ever compiled of Johnson's writing.

Pauline Johnson was an extraordinary woman who crossed the racial and gendered lines of her time, and thereby confounded Canadian society. This study reclaims both her writings and her larger significance.

"Well written and informative, this book is highly recommended for readers interested in the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century history of Native women, the history of Native women, the New Woman, writers, and performers. For scholars interested in the history of mixed-race women, this book is essential."

-- Melissa Otis, Independent Scholar * The Canadian Historical Review vol. 99 no. 3, 20

  • Winner of Raymond Klibansky Prize, Canadian Foundation for the Humanities & Social Sciences 2001 (Canada)

ISBN: 9780802080240

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 25mm

Weight: 480g

400 pages