Lecture by Nelly Duvicq on the History of Nunavik Inuit Writings
The literary field is a structured, relatively autonomous space in which forces form a network. Written literature in Nunavik poses a challenge to literary studies for a number of reasons: first, because it was written in three languages (Inuktitut, English and French), and then because it developed on the margins of Canadian and Quebec literatures while being intimately linked to other Inuit literatures. Also, a large majority the texts are difficult to access, scattered in dozens of magazines or published in monographs, but out of print. In these conditions, to fulfill the purpose of a literary history, several questions of methodology arise. The first is who? Who writes Nunavik literature? The figure of the writer is at the center of this story, the questions what and how become subsidiary questions although significant. But when it comes to tell the history of this literature, the essential question is how to build the narration of the forces that support this cultural and literary field in an ethical and responsible way.
Lecture given by Nelly Duvicq from Ivujivik during the "Inuit Literatures" conference organized by Daniel Chartier and Keavy Martin at the Université du Québec à Montréal on October 4th, 2019.
In English.
International Laboratory for Research on Images of the North, Winter and the Arctic, 2019, 36 min 45 s.