Through Rise and Rupture

The first comprehensive literary history of the Red River Métis, this book traces over 200 years of literary production in English and French, and theorizes the emergence of Métis poetics. In Through Rise and Rupture, Matthew Tétreault tells the story of Métis writing by drawing attention to historical writing alongside that of contemporary writers, outlining the investments and trajectories of Métis literature, historicizing its struggles and challenges, and celebrating its triumphs. Tétreault examines the songs of Pierre Falcon and the writing career of Louis Riel, alongside texts by writers like Alexandre de Laronde, Manie Tobie, Maria Campbell, Gregory Scofield, Marilyn Dumont, and katherena vermette, among others. By placing writers and texts across languages in conversation, the book critically draws francophone Métis writing into closer relationship with anglophone Métis Studies. In centering Métis scholarship and the methodologies of Indigenous literary nationalism, this study offers a critical glimpse into how Métis writers have varyingly imagined, constructed, and articulated their identities, communities, and nation.