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THE SHIFTING SITES OF IDENTITY NEGOTIATION IN
BOYDEN’S THREE DAY ROAD!
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JUDIT ÁGNES KÁDÁR?
ABSTRACT
This paper addresses the “broken taboos and uncomfortable truths” of mixed
blood identity in Contemporary Métis writing, through the example of Joseph
Boyden’s Three Day Road (2005). In my extended research I explore identity
negotiation and the radical textual undoing of ethnic identity concepts
(including stereotypes) reflected in Métis Canadian and US Southwestern
writing and visual arts. Here I present how our understanding of interracial
identity is challenged by mixed heritage authors and how their protagonists’
negotiate this in the shifting sites (“journey”) of identity formulation. I study
the fluctuation between more social identities, ethnic choice and specifically
the possibilities for escaping prescribed identity formulations and reconnecting
with tribal heritage that manifests the clashing of Western and idigenous
cosmologies and tackles the problems of ethnic pride, shame and stigma.
This paper addresses the problem of mixed ethno-cultural identity presented
in the prose writings of a novelist of Anishinaabe and Irish origins, Joseph
Boyden (1966-), whose self-identification and indigenous ties have been
questioned recently. Here my focus is the text and the mixed heritage
protagonist, and not necessarily the writer’s ethnicity, which only matters
insofar as his sensibilities, cultural background and experiences influence the
story and the writing process. I believe that being born into a mixed ethno¬
cultural heritage that incorporates the traits of both the former colonizer
and colonized peoples, i.e. those of Euro-Canadian and indigenous cultures,
generates special sensibilities in a writer. Even if the primary subject matter
or protagonist is not of mixed-blood, the literary text depicts the problems
1 Anessay of similar focus has been published in: Multicultural Identity Negotiation in Recent
Canadian Mixed-Blood Narratives: Boyden’s Three Day Road. Central European Journal
of Canadian Studies, Vol. 12-13 (2018), 133-144, https://digilib.phil.muni.cz/bitstream/
handle/11222.digilib/138499/2_CentralEuropeanJournalCanadian_12-2018-1_12.
pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 9 December 2020)
? University of Physical Education.
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