journal article
Open Access
Jan 01, 2025
“Something-fuckingelse”: Incorporated and Relational Alterities in Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence (2021)
Abstract
In this article, I argue that Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence (2021) is informed by Métis and Indigenous relationality. Since mixedness does not fully allow readers to understand the complex relations at work in the novel, I suggest reading it in relation with Métis literature and Métisness. As the Métis have suffered from erasure and racialization, the narrator’s confrontation with the Rougarou – or what she calls “something fuckingelse” – helps her to reclaim a Métis legacy that is yet to be recognized by the United States. With references to European cautionary tales and Indigenous trickster stories, the narrator leads readers to (re)consider Métisness.
Topics
No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →
References
60
[1]
AJIC. 1999. Report of the Aboriginal Justice Inquiry of Manitoba. Winnipeg: Government of Manitoba. http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/chapter2.html
[3]
ADESE, Jennifer, LEROUX, Darryl & O'TOOLE Darren. 2020. Historic Métis Communities of Ontario: An Evaluation of Evidence, Winnipeg: Manitoba Métis Federation.
[4]
ANDERSEN Chris and ADESE Jennifer. 2021. “Introduction.” In A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies, edited by J. Adese and C. Andersen, 3-17. Vancouver: UBC Press.
10.59962/9780774865081-002
[6]
BAKHTINE, Mikhaïl. 1981 The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Translated by Caryl . Emerson and Michael Holquist. 1998. Austin: Texas University Press.
[7]
BARKWELL, Lawrence. 2012. Métis Mythology and Folklore: Mythological Figures. Winnipeg: Louis Riel Institute.
[8]
[9]
CAMPBELL, Maria. 1995. Stories of the Road Allowance People: The Revised Edition. 2010. Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute.
[10]
CARIOU, Warren. 2010. “Dances With Rigoureau.” In Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations, edited by Deanna Reder and Lina M. Morra, 157-67. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
10.51644/9781554582051-011
[11]
[12]
COHEN, Jeffrey Jerome. 1996. “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)”. In Monster Theory: Reading Culture, edited by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, 3-25. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
10.5749/j.ctttsq4d.4
[13]
COULTHARD, Glen Sean. 2014. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
10.5749/minnesota/9780816679645.001.0001
[16]
DICKASON, Olive Patricia. 1985. “From ‘One Nation' in the Northeast to ‘New Nation' in the Northwest: A Look at the Emergence of the Métis.” In The New People: Being and Becoming Métis in North America, edited by Jacqueline Peterson and Jennifer S. H. Brown, 19-36. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.
10.1515/9780887553783-005
[18]
DIMALINE, Cherie. 2019. Empire of Wild. New York: HaperCollins.
[19]
ERDRICH, Louise. 2003. Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country. Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society.
[20]
ERDRICH, Louise. 1984. Jacklight. New York: Henry Holt.
[21]
ERDRICH, Louise. 2012. The Round House. New York: HaperCollins.
[22]
ERDRICH, Louise. 2021. The Sentence. New York: Harper.
[23]
FAGAN, Kristina. 2010. “What's the Trouble with the Trickster? An Introduction.” In Troubling Tricksters: Revisioning Critical Conversations, edited by Deanna Reder and , Lina M. Morra, 3-20. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
10.51644/9781554582051-003
[24]
HANCOCK, Robert L. A. 2021. “The Power of Peoplehood: Reimagining Metis Relationships, Research and Responsibilities.” In A People and a Nation: New Directions in Contemporary Métis Studies, edited by Jennifer Adese and Chris Andersen, 40-66. Vancouver: UBC Press.
10.59962/9780774865081-004
[26]
[27]
HYLAND-RUSSELL, Tara. 2017. “Indigenous Novels in Canada.” In The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 12: The Novel in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the South Pacific Since 1950, edited by Coral Ann Howells, Paul Sharrad and Gerry Turcotte, 360-374. Oxford: OUP.
[28]
JACOBS, Connie A. 2001. The Novels of Louise Erdrich: Stories of Her People. New York: Peter Lang.
[29]
KING, Thomas. 1990 “Godzilla vs. Post-Colonial.” 1997. In New Contexts of Canadian Criticism, edited by Ajay Heble, Donna Palmateer Pennee, and J.R. (Tim) Struthers, 241-248. Peterborough: Broadview.
[30]
KRELL, Jonathan. 2020. “Monster and Victim: Melusine from the Fourteenth Century to the Age of Homo Detritus”. In The Metaphor of the Monster: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understanding the Monstrous Other in Literature, edited by Keith Mozer and Karina Zelaya, 49-62. New York: Bloomsbury.
10.5040/9781501364365.0009
[31]
[32]
LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude. 1958. Anthropologie structurale, Paris: Plon.
[33]
LISCHKE, Ute. 2007. “Reflections on Métis connections in the life and writings of Louise Erdrich.” In The Long Journey of a Forgotten People: Métis Identities and Family Histories, edited by David T. McNab, 39-53. Waterloo: Wilfrid University Press.
[34]
MACDOUGALL, Brenda. 2012. “The Myth of Metis Cultural Ambivalence.” In Contours of a People: Metis Family, Mobility, and History, edited by Nicole St- Onge, Carolyn Podruchny, and Brenda Macdougall, 422-464. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
[36]
MCDOUGALL, Robert L. 2008. “Duncan Campbell Scott.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, August 11. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/duncan-campbell-scott
[38]
MARACLE, Lee. 2007. “Oratory on Oratory.” In Trans. Can. Lit.: Re-Situating the Study of Canadian Literature, edited by S. Kamboureli and R. Miki, 55-70. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
10.51644/9781554581030-007
[39]
MILLER, James Rodger. 1989. Skycrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada (Rivised Edition). 1991. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[40]
MÉTIS NATION OF ONTARIO. 2023. Métis Self-Government Recognition and Implementation Agreement. Access: https://www.metisnation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/MNO-MGRSA-2.0-Feb-23-2023.pdf
[41]
MOZER, Keith. 2020. “Introduction.” In The Metaphor of the Monster: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Understanding the Monstrous Other in Literature, edited by Keith Mozer , and Karina Zelaya, 3-13. New York: Bloomsbury.
[44]
PARIS, Paulin. 1861. Le Roman de Renart. Paris: Techener.
[46]
PODRUCHNY, Carolyn. 2004. “Werewolves and Windigos: Narratives of Cannibal Monsters in French Canadian Voyageur Oral Tradition.” Ethnohistory (51 (4): 677-700.
10.1215/00141801-51-4-677
[49]
REDER, Deanna. 2007. “Âcimisowin as Theoretical Practice: Autobiography as Indigenous Intellectual Tradition in Canada”. PhD Dissertation, Graduate Studies, University of British Columbia.
[50]
RUOFF, A LaVonne Brown. 2012. “Biography of Louise Erdrich.” In Critical Insights: Louise Erdrich, edited by P. Jane Hafen, 18-26. Amenia: Salem Press.
Showing 50 of 60 references
Metrics
1
Citations
60
References
Details
- Published
- Jan 01, 2025
- Vol/Issue
- 99
- Pages
- 123-144
- License
- View
Authors
Cite This Article
Benjamin David (2025). “Something-fuckingelse”: Incorporated and Relational Alterities in Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence (2021). Études canadiennes / Canadian Studies, 99, 123-144. https://doi.org/10.4000/15g1t
Related
You May Also Like
La frontière Canada États-Unis depuis le 11 septembre 2001
Pierre-Alexandre Beylier · 2014
1 citations
The Aporetic Condition in Canadian Public Policy: Cultural Resurgence and Ecological Transition
John Bessai · 2025
Imaginer une résilience écoféministe boréale, lecture croisée des romans d’Audrée Wilhelmy, de Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba et de Virginie DeChamplain
Juliette Planche · 2025
Avant-propos
Laurence Cros, Laurence Delpérié · 2025