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Articles

Volume 38, Number 1 (2013)

“Magic Moments”: Temporal Modelling and the Call for Responsibility in Lee Maracle’s Daughters are Forever

Submitted
February 28, 2014
Published
2013-01-01

Abstract

Beliefs about time and history substantially influence cultural politics. Attending to non-European temporal and historical models offers the possibility that readers will rethink their relationships with, and responsibilities toward, events, situations, and people beyond the scope of their own experiences. Lee Maracle’s Daughters are Forever is direct and self-conscious about conceptualizing time and history according to Indigenous beliefs. In the world of this novel, the past is an active figure in the present as its protagonist, Marilyn, finds a path to personal healing and maturity. Critical works by Daniel Coleman, Vine Deloria, Jr., and Lee Maracle herself help us see how Daughters are Forever challenges its audience to become what Kim Anderson calls “response-able readers” -- that is, people who read from a posture of humility, openness, and deliberate empathy in order to enable change-making in the present.