PO Box 440140 Aurora CO 80014-0140
Title: Religion, Writing, and Colonial Resistance: Mathias Carvalho’s Louis Riel
Author: Jennifer Reid
Series: Contexts and Consequences
Imprint: The Davies Group, Publishers
soft cover
120 pp.
USD 16.00
ISBN 978-1934542231
February 2011
Mathias Carvalho’s Louis Riel is a three-part monograph revolving around a poem about the Canadian Métis leader, Louis Riel. The poem was written by an obscure Brazilian poet just
months after Riel’s conviction and execution for treason in 1885. How Carvalho was able to learn of Riel’s activities and demise at the hands of the Canadian Government is an
enigma, and in the initial segment of this monograph the author explores possible answers to the question of sources. The first English translation of the poem comprises the
middle segment; and it is followed by an extended essay in which Carvalho’s poem is explored in relation to the writings of not only Riel, but of the Cuban revolutionary, José Martí.
Reid argues that all three writers were articulating a pan-hemispheric response to nineteenth century colonialism and imperialism that was not only political, social, and economic,
but also fundamentally religious.
Contents
Foreword
One
Mathias Carvalho and Louis Riel
Two
Poemas Americanos I: Riel
Three On the Wings of Prayer: Riel, Carvalho, and José Martí
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Reviews
“Jennifer Reid’s brilliant study of Mathias Carvalho’s understanding and reception of Louis Riel’s life and work reveals an alternate hemispheric vision of the New World. Her
study stands in the tradition of Jose Marti, C.L.R. James, and Eduardo Galeano and adds a new dimension to the discourses regarding globalization, cosmopolitanism and post-
colonialism.”
—Charles H. Long
“In finding broad linguistic and thematic similarities in the work of Mathias Carvalho, José Marti and Louis Riel, Jennifer Reid leads us to see the life and struggles of Riel in a
startling new light…Reid’s book about Carvalho’s Riel poem combines the mystery of the origin of a text with an exploration of the religious and political thought that
colonialism fostered in the poets of the resisting indigenous peoples. It is compelling reading both for Riel scholars and those with broader interests in the religious and
political history of the Americas.”
—Hans V. Hansen , Director
Centre for Research in Reasoning, Argumentation and Rhetoric
University of Windsor
“Jennifer
Reid
uses
the
poem
eulogizing
the
life
and
religious
visions
of
the
Canadian
Riel,
written
by
the
Brazilian
revolutionary
Carvalho,
to
present
an
excitingly
expansive
case
for
the
profound
influence
that
Louis
Riel’s
life
had
in
liberation
movements
throughout
the
Americas
and
demonstrate
the
significance
of
Indigenous
revitalizations
across linguistic, cultural, and nationalistic lines in the nineteenth century.”
—Philip Arnold, Syracuse University
Author
Jennifer Reid is a professor of religion at University of Maine Farmington. She is author of Louis Riel and the Creation of Modern Canada: Mythic Discourse and the Postcolonial
State; ‘Worse Than Beasts’: An Anatomy of Melancholy and the Literature of Travel in 17th and 18th Century England; and Myth, Symbol, and Colonial Encounter: British and Mi’kmaq in
Acadia, 1700-1867.