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THE SHIFTING SITES OF IDENTITY NEGOTIATION IN BOYDEN’S THREE DAY ROAD! —t1o> 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 ethnocultural 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. + 309 +
