Northern Voices: Inuit Writings in English

By Penny Petrone

Inuit of northern Canada have a rich oral tradition in their ancient languages and a more recent tradition of written English. Penny Petrone traces the two paths that link the cultural past of arctic peoples with its expression in the present day.

The book's first section includes traditional legends, myths, folk history told by native story-tellers, and poetry sung by Inuit composers. The second presents statements and observations by some of the first Inuit to come into contact with European newcomers, including official reports, interviews, letters, and diaries. Next are early poetry and prose in translation, much of it autobiographical. The final section includes contemporary Inuit writing, from essays and speeches to fiction, poetry, and other genres of imaginative literature. The editor has provided an introduction for each item and arranged the material chronologically to give historical perspective and continuity to the whole.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080207717X
• ISBN13: 9780802077172
• Release Date: May 1992
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 314 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.1" x 9.1"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

From Oral to Press

Northern Voices, now in paperback, offers an multi-dimensional perspective of Inuit culture. The literature comes from various places in the Canadian Arctic and from different times, before contact to the present. The genres are as diverse as the historical representation. There are selections of stories that have been passed on for generations in the oral tradition. Other selections are of poetry, diary entries, short narratives and excerpts from longer works. Taken as an entirety, however, the work can be studied from colonial and post-colonial, gender, and ethnographic perspectives. Essential reading for Canadian and Northern Studies as well as Canadian Literature.