Tracing Louis Riel’s metamorphosis from traitor to hero, Braz argues that, through his writing, Riel resists his portrayal as both a Canadian patriot and a pan-Indigenous leader. After being hanged for high treason in 1885, the Métis politician, poet, and mystic has emerged as a quintessential Canadian champion. The Riel Problem maps this representational shift by examining a series of cultural and scholarly commemorations of Riel since 1967, from a large-scale opera about his life, through the publication of his extant writings, to statues erected in his honour. Braz also probes how aspects of Riel’s life and writing can be problematic for many contemporary Métis artists, scholars, and civic leaders. Analyzing representations of Riel in light of his own writings, the author exposes both the constructedness of the Canadian nation-state and the magnitude of the current historical revisionism when dealing with Riel.
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- Pages
- 336
- Published in
- Edmonton, CA
Table of Contents
- Front cover 1
- Title page 4
- Copyright page 1
- Dedication 6
- Epigraph 8
- Contents 10
- Preface 12
- Map 16
- Introduction 18
- 1 I, the Prophet 34
- 2 The Precursors 72
- 3 Singing Louis Riel 106
- 4 The Bard’s Apocryphal Song 132
- 5 Consecrating Canada’s Icon 160
- 6 The Naked Martyr 188
- 7 The Problematic Patriot 214
- 8 Confronting the Hero 234
- Conclusion 274
- Appendix 288
- Works Cited 290
- Index 324
- About the Author 344
