John Richardson's Wacousta

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John Richardson's Wacousta

Wacousta is interesting, not because it is a "great" novel, but because it was the first novel written by a native-born Canadian, and because the interaction of the worlds of the Indian and the European in the novel is so complete; this is not a simplistic narrative of inherent Western superiority, although it does have a certain manner of privileging the West. There may be a few reasons for this. Richardson almost certainly had Native ancestry, and he knew a great deal about the local tribes, having a large amount of sympathy with their difficulties and aspirations. Nonetheless, this is primarily a novel about Europeans and European culture, where the Indians and their country represent what that culture suppresses in human nature.

The text abounds in opposites and parallels, the two most important of these being the locations of the fort Detroit and the forest. The fort is not a typical human community. It is there to serve a particular purpose, to maintain control over the surrounding territory and hence to ensure the security of the lucrative fur ...

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