Chasseur au harpon (original) (raw)

The Inuktitut text of this groundbreaking novel and its first direct translation into English and French, presented with a rich analysis and detailed contextualization.

Fifty years ago, Markoosie Patsauq, then a bush pilot in his late twenties living in the tiny, isolated High Arctic community of Resolute, spent his spare time quietly writing a story that effectively emerged as the first Indigenous novel released in Canada. Published in English under the title Harpoon of the Hunter in 1970 by McGill-Queen's University Press, that version of the story was Patsauq's own adaptation. In the years that followed the widely acclaimed English edition was translated into many different languages, but what has remained obscured until the present day is the Inuktitut text originally produced by the author.

In collaboration with Patsauq, Valerie Henitiuk and Marc-Antoine Mahieu have foregrounded the original Inuktitut text to inform their translations into both English and French. This critical edition, complete with the story in both Inuktitut syllabics and Latin script, utilizes the author's handwritten manuscript as well as interviews with Patsauq to produce a new, rigorous examination of this literary and cultural milestone. This work also includes the first comprehensive account of the critical response to his writing while underscoring the way the much-altered English adaptation from 1970 shaped that response.

A momentous achievement that situates a new classic in the twenty-first century, Hunter with Harpoon brings readers back to the roots of Markoosie Patsauq's Inuit story to experience it as it was originally written.

Details

"Both a pivotal work of Indigenous fiction and an effort to acknowledge and correct injustices, Hunter with Harpoon is a testament to the resilience of the Inuit people." Foreword Reviews

“The book may indeed be considered one of the most complete and far-reaching critical editions of a text directly uttered-even if in writing-in any North American Native language. The work can thus be useful to many people: students of Inuktitut; linguists interested in understanding and analyzing the text by referring to two rigorous translations; and specialists in translation studies - especially those concerned about less-spoken languages-who will find here a meticulous and encompassing analysis of the translation/adaptation vicissitudes of an Indigenous story.” The International Journal of American Linguistics

“The value of Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut / Hunter with Harpoon / Chasseur au harpon as a rich primary source for further research, new translations, and indeed activism cannot be overstated. Meanwhile, the book as a whole is a powerful illustration of the epistemological capacity of contemporary Translation Studies. Through their personal and scholarly ambition, eloquence, and integrity, Henitiuk, Mahieu, and Markoosie remind us here that translation is always the story at the heart of storytelling.” Traduction, terminologie, rédaction

«Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut priorise l’écrit en inuktitut pour sa valeur en soi et dans ses propres termes. Enfin, la collaboration entre Henitiuk, Mahieu et Patsauq contribue à donner une visibilité à un auteur à la langue riche et vivante et à une culture littéraire proprement inuit.» Anthropologie et Sociétés

“This remarkable scholarly edition, … is renamed as Hunter with Harpoon, and reinstates the Inuktitut version by drawing heavily on the original handwritten story. The editors were also able to work in consultation with the elderly author, allowing them to discuss the production of this book in the context of his long career.” The Northern Review

Markoosie Patsauq (1941-2020) was a writer, retired pilot, and community leader. He lived in Inukjuak, Nunavik.

Valerie Henitiuk, translation studies specialist, is provost at Concordia University of Edmonton.

Marc-Antoine Mahieu is professor of Inuktitut at INALCO, Sorbonne Paris Cité, and consultant for the Kativik school board in Nunavik.

Preface xiii
Markoosie Patsauq

[Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut in Inuktitut syllabics] 3
Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut, Maakusiup unikkaatuangit 49
Hunter with Harpoon: A Long Story by Markoosie 87
Chasseur au harpon, un long récit de Markoosie 123

1 Untangling the Lines: A Critical Framing 161
2 Inuit Orature and Literature 172
3 Reception of the 1970 English Adaptation, Titled Harpoon of the Hunter 179
4 Markoosie’s Life and Its Intersections with the Broader Inuit Experience 184
5 Inuit qaujimajatuqangit 205
6 Markoosie as Author 209
7 Translation from Inuktitut 220
8 Translation Journey of Markoosie’s Text 224
9 A Renewed Relationship to Translation from the Inuktitut 256
Editors’ Acknowledgments 261

APPENDICES
A Transcription of Passages Originally in Inuktitut, from Preface 265
B Genealogical Chart 274
C Timeline 276
D Works by and about Markoosie Patsauq, His Life and Writing 279
E Establishing the Inuktitut Text of Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut 297

References 313
Index 32