Subverting the Villain Trope in Apocalypse Fiction: Survivance in Moon of the Crusted Snow (Poster 4)

• In Event: Teaching Villainification in Social Studies: Pedagogies to Deepen Understanding of Social Evils

Abstract

Addressing the legacies of colonization in social studies classrooms is important than ever before. In Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC, 2015) 94 Calls to Action implored the Canadian public to take seriously the intergenerational trauma experienced by Indigenous individuals and communities resulting from the assimilationist and genocidal practices of Indian Residential Schools. The TRC’s Calls to Action have contributed to changes in education policies with wide-reaching potential, including curriculum (e.g., teaching about the histories of Indian Residential Schools) and teacher professionalism and teaching quality standards (e.g., Government of Alberta, 2022). Yet, it remains a pedagogical challenge for teachers to have students grapple with the complicated ways in which the legacies of colonization remain systemic, continue to shape discourse, and uphold white supremacism in seemingly banal, yet harmful ways without flattening complex sets of relation. This presentation suggests that the use of fiction in social studies classrooms may present possibilities for students to engage with these complex topics and themes and trouble unhelpful binaries (e.g., self/other; helper/helpless; hero/villain). To demonstrate, we will examine the Indigenous apocalyptic fiction novel Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018) by Anishinaabe author Waubgeshig Rice through an anti-villainification lens. We aim to show that studying this genre of fiction through an anti-villainification framing opens generative possibilities for troubling settler colonial logics and creates space to centre stories of Indigenous survivance.

Author

• Kim Edmondson, University of Alberta