GUILLAUME Ayala

Book narrative structure and technique The book recounts John Franklin’s first expedition to the North who is traveling with his British officers and Canadian voyageurs. The land they are about to discover is inhabited by the Native Indians. Throughout the thirteen chapters, the reader can see the way both culture perceive each other given by the two different narrative techniques.The first technique consists in using authentic historical sources such as excerpts from journals of Franklin, midshipmen Robert Hood, George Back and doctor John Richardson. Robert Hood and John Richardson journals excerpts are written in italics and enclosed at the end of each chapter. Wiebe also have recourse to Bellot’s Memoirs to recreate John Hepburn’s account of the events in the fifth chapter. The second technique is the invention of an external narrator focusing on the Yellowknifes Indians’ point of view. Moreover, men and women voices of the Indians are heard through characters such as Keskarrah, Broadface, Bigfoot, Birdseye, Greenstockings, Greywind and general women “protest”(p.297). Therefore, Wiebe’s narrative construction puts forward the intercultural dimension of the encounter between the Tetsot’ine and the British. The plurality of voices offers a more global vision of the encounter and the way it is felt by both sides. In this sense, Wiebe’s piece of work stands out since he gives voice to a people whose oral tradition do not enable direct testimonies of their living.

English use Wiebe has chosen to use english language to give life to Indians’ voice which makes the reading easier. Most of the scenes when British and Yellowknifes have to interact, the use of translators and the incomprehension which cannot be avoided by translation process reminds the reader of the language barrier between the two culture. The Indian characters’ names are all in English except for Keskarrah. The explanation could be that the British renamed them just as they did