HomeRebuilding a History: Indigenous books and print material in Québec

Rebuilding a History: Indigenous books and print material in Québec

Une histoire à reconstruire : livres et imprimés autochtones au Québec

Mémoires du livre/Studies in Book Culture, vol. 16-no. 1 / Spring 2025

Mémoires du livre/Studies in Book Culture, vol. 16-no. 1 / printemps 2025

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Published on Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Abstract

Français English

Shedding light on the stakes involved in Indigenous print material and books from the perspective of a history of the book captures the colonial dynamics at work in this literary milieu while highlighting the decolonization movements also taking place there. Despite significant increases in facilities and events dedicated to Indigenous books and print material, up until now few academic works have addressed the historic and contemporary dynamics around the field of Indigenous books in Québec. It is these dynamics that the present issue of Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture aims to address.  

 

Announcement

English Français

Argument

Since the start of the millennium, Indigenous literary studies in Québec have grown ever richer, and particularly so in the last decade. The definition of Indigenous literature is among the most frequently discussed questions in recent studies. A consensus seems to be emerging on the need, in order to better understand the history of Indigenous literature, to expand the definition of the literature beyond linguistic, geographic, generic, formal, and social boundaries associated with dominant conceptions of literature. This perspective, which to some degree could fall into the tradition of cultural history, also extends to media, to methods and sites of production, and to the distribution and reception of texts. In Québec, writing has been a part of the Indigenous experience for many centuries. Hence, shedding light on the stakes involved in Indigenous print material and books from the perspective of a history of the book captures the colonial dynamics at work in this literary milieu while highlighting the decolonization movements also taking place there.   

Despite significant increases in facilities and events dedicated to Indigenous books and print material, up until now few academic works have addressed the historic and contemporary dynamics around the field of Indigenous books in Québec. It is these dynamics that the present issue of Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture aims to address.  

Proposals for articles should focus on books and print material in Québec, whether they be in Indigenous languages, in French, or in English, and may take a historical or contemporary perspective. Articles may fall into, but are not limited to, one of the following areas:  

Production

  • Players in Indigenous publishing in Québec, including publishing houses, community organizations, associations, and assemblies 
  • Indigenous self-publishing 
  • Publishing discourse (paratexts, press releases, etc.) 
  • Issues in publishing relationships in a colonial context (literary direction, revisions)   
  • Linguistic, semiotic, and ethical issues around the translation of Indigenous literature   
  • Indigenous texts as digital media  

Distribution 

  • Journals (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) and the distribution of Indigenous literature   
  • Strategies and visibility sites: events, concerts, readings, book fairs, and promotion 
  • Issues around the online availability of Indigenous literature 
  • The circulation of literary works within Indigenous communities and beyond, apart from the borders of Québec and Canada, particularly through translation 
  • The placing (selection, organization, promotion) of Indigenous books in bookstores  

Reception

  • The place of Indigenous books in libraries and/or in education, in Indigenous and non-Indigenous milieux 
  • Diachronic, synchronic, or comparative analysis of the critical reception of Indigenous literary works and of their translations 
  • Literary prizes received by Indigenous authors 
  • The development of anthologies and of Indigenous literary “classics”   

Submission guidelines

Proposals for articles in French or in English, consisting of an abstract of approximately 250 words and a brief biography, should be sent to Marie-Pier Luneau (Marie-Pier.Luneau@USherbrooke.ca) between now and

April 30, 2024.

Articles will be evaluated by the editorial committee and a response will be given in May 2024.

The full text of accepted articles must be submitted by September 1, 2024.

They will then undergo a blind peer-review evaluation process. The issue will be published in Spring 2025.

Please address any questions you have to the issue editor.  

Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture is a free-access digital journal that does not charge submission fees. Authors retain intellectual rights to their articles under the CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Before submitting your article, please consult the journal’s editorial policy: https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/memoires/#journal-info-editorial_policy. 

Editors

  • Marie-Hélène Jeannotte (Université de Sherbrooke)
  • Marie-Pier Luneau (Université de Sherbrooke)
  • Louis-Karl Picard-Sioui (Université Laval)
  • Isabelle St-Amand (Queen’s University)

Places

  • Sherbrooke, Canada

Date(s)

  • Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Keywords

  • histoire du livre, bookculture, imprimés autochtones, livres autochtones, Québec, indigenous print, indigenous books

Contact(s)

  • Raphaelle Grenon
    courriel : mdl-sbc [at] usherbrooke [dot] ca

Information source

  • Raphaelle Grenon
    courriel : mdl-sbc [at] usherbrooke [dot] ca

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Rebuilding a History: Indigenous books and print material in Québec », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, April 10, 2024, https://doi.org/10.58079/w6we

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