Brenna Duperron

English PhD (’23)

Brenna Duperron explores how Indigenous knowledge can be applied to non-Indigenous literature, giving more insight into works across time and geography.

“My work decolonizes our approach to medieval texts by reading them through Indigenous knowledge systems.”
@brenna_duperron

5
Mar

Reconciling Medieval Studies: A Showcase of Dr. Tarren Andrews, Sarah-Nelle Jackson, and Sarah LaVoy-Brunette

Medieval Studies has recently begun to grapple with its colonial past, re-thinking how it is taught and understood in settler-colonial nations, such as (so-called) Canada and the United States of America. One avenue for re-understanding and re-defining Medieval Studies is reconciliation with Indigenous Studies, by engaging in Indigenous-facing scholarship that understands the Medieval through Indigenous […]

3
Oct

“Such Lands Were Pre-Eminently Desirable:” Reading the Colonial Language of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “On Fairy-Stories”

Cherokee scholar Daniel Heath Justice argues, in his book Why Indigenous Literatures Matter, for an innate colonialism in the modern fantasy genre. A colonialism that scholars, like Justice, Helen Young, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas and Clare Bradford, suggest provides the foundations for the racial stereotypes and hierarchies embedded in much of modern fantasy literature. One of […]

5
Sep

Understanding ‘Red Reading’

When we analyse texts, we do so through a particular lens. We understand the text from a particular worldview or perspective. In English Literature, we call this “readings.” You can do a feminist reading where you focus on gender dynamics or a critical race reading where you understand how the text defines and constructs race […]

8
Aug

Sit Yourself Down: The Knower’s Chair in Later Medieval Literature

In My Conversations with Canadians (2017), Stōlo Elder Lee Maracle describes how Colonial white society assigned itself some crazy Knower’s Chair and handed white people the authority to sit in it. They alone get to teach from this chair and decide what is true knowledge, what is false, etc. The emphasis in Maracle is on […]

4
Jul

Off With His Head: Renewal of Community in “The Rolling Head” and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Part 5)

A quick recap of the series so far: In Part 1, I shared the stories of  The Rolling Head and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Sir Gawain). In Part 2, I discussed the interweaving of land, race, and Indigeneity. In Part 3, “The Rolling Head” stories remind us that the lines between monster and human are blurred, which […]

1
Jun

Off with His Head: Crime and Punishment in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Part 4)

In Part 1, I began with the stories of  The Rolling Head and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Sir Gawain). In  Part 2, I considered the colonial interweaving of land, race, and Indigeneity in both texts. In Part 3, the Rolling Head stories remind us that the lines between monster and human are blurred, which helps us […]

1
May

Off with His Head: The Headless Colonization of the Green Knight (Part 3)

In Part 1, I introduced the stories of The Rolling Head and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In Part 2, our series began its red reading (according to Jill Carter (Anishinaabe), red reading is the theoretical approach to literature wherein a canonical text is read through an Indigenous perspective) of Sir Gawain with a […]

3
Apr

Off With His Head: Colonizing the Landscape of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Part 2)

Let us continue the tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Green Knight offered Sir Gawain one year to arrange his affairs. At the end of the year, he is to voyage to the Green Knight’s home to receive his matching cut. The interlude from game to journey includes detailed descriptions of the […]

6
Mar

Off with His Head: Reading the Headless Colonization of the Green Knight (PART 1)

When King Arthur’s court was still young, an anonymous 14th century English poet tells us, they were visited by a fantastical man. A half-giant, enrobed entirely in green, interrupts Camelot’s New Year’s Feast to challenge the Knights of the Roundtable to a game. The rules are simple: each player will receive a matching cut from […]

OpenThink