Many important developments have followed from the distinction being made between post-colonial and settler-colonial situations. This distinction has had implications that reach across disciplines, but have especially impacted the immerging field of Indigenous studies in Canada, which had previously been drawing, and to a certain extent continue to draw, on theories from post-colonial studies. I write this at the intersection of Indigenous studies and English literature building on the theories of decolonization in settler-colonial situations. I show that English poetry written by people in the Indigenous prairie context is one particularly active site of decolonization, in the sense that scholars such as Linda Tuhiwai Smith explain. Through the poetry of Louise Halfe, Duncan Mercredi, Gregory Scofield, Marie Annharte (Née Baker) I show how important elements of Indigenous culture are being translated into printed poetry. Furthermore, these poets are Indigenizing aspects of settler-colonial culture. I use Halfe’s poetry, especially her collection Bear Bones & Feathers, to show the ways in which Indigenous concepts of medicine can be translated into printed poetic form and bring healing for the injuries inflicted by colonialism. Scholars Jo-Ann Episkenew and Sam McKegney provide other examples of this practice and the theoretical underpinnings for literature operating as medicine. Mercredi’s poetry reveals that some of the oral character of Indigenous stories can be translated into poetry. Indigenous scholars such as Neal McLeod argue that Indigenous cultures have long engaged in the use of wit and metaphor that is so prolific in poetry. Scofield translates ceremony into poetry. Drawing in part on J.L. Austin’s notion of performativity, I show that Indigenous poetry is an active force within communities. I read Annharte’s poetry as an example of Indigenization and activism in which she destabilizes the authority of the English language. Francis challenges artistic genres to assert his own Indigenous perspective in much the same way many Indigenous people are choosing not to seek the recognition of the neo-liberal state in what Glenn Coulthard calls “the politics of recognition.” I explore the significant potential for decolonization in this writing by authors writing from Indigenous perspectives. / October 2016

Richard Ford’s Canada, published in 2012, seems to have evaded literary studies. This essay—which is an early contribution to the undoubtedly growing range of studies on Canada that will be published in the future—is concerned with how alienation is constructed in the novel. I refer to alienation as a sense of being out of place and becoming estranged, both to others as well as to one's self. The essay focuses mainly but not exclusively on the point of view of the fifteen-year-old protagonist Dell, who is thrown out into a world that has ceased to be adapted to his needs and which seems to threaten his very existence. To speak with Lukács, the protagonist steps out from an unproblematic world into a problematic one and is divided in the process as his ideas are no longer attainable. But this very process of division or alienation also creates room for agency, in the sense of independent action or the will to act independently. In Canada—particularly in the second part of the novel—alienation is constructed in the meetings between Dell and fragmented and morose characters. Dell is required to adapt to these people and the circumstances in which they meet, but in those same processes of adaptation he manages to find small ways out. This makes it possible for Dell to keep himself whole despite his deteriorating circumstances. Equally important for how alienation is constructed in the novel is the meeting between Dell and the landscape of the prairie. While the landscape at first seems to be a source of further alienation, it ultimately proves to be the only place where Dell experience communion.