Appropriation redux: Re-reading George Ryga through Jeannette Armstrong

This article considers ways in which solidarity across social locations might play a role in fostering resistance to vulnerability. My case study consists of the interplay between writer George Ryga’s 1967 play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, and Okanagan Syilx writer and scholar Jeannette Armstrong’s 1985 novel Slash. While these important and compelling texts have received considerable critical attention, the relationship between them is less known. I am interested in the ways in which these works both hail and offer critique to one another. In the contemporary moment, in which questions of appropriation of voice have gained renewed urgency within Indigenous literary circles in Canada and beyond, the relationship between these texts speaks to a historical instance of appropriation, but also of complicated processes of alliance-building. These texts demonstrate how agency resides across multiple locations. I read Ryga’s Ecstasy in the context of Jeannette Armstrong’s engagement with the play within her novel Slash in order to witness the ways in which Ryga’s text, in the first instance, appropriates Indigenous voices into an anti-capitalist critique. In the second instance, I read these works in order to witness how they might simultaneously provide a compelling analysis of the vulnerability of the people who are the subject of both works. I compare the interplay between Armstrong and Ryga’s texts to contemporary debates around appropriation in order to argue for the historical and ongoing importance of these two works as precursors to the crucial interventions made by contemporary Indigenous critics and writers.

Thematic Implications in the Stage Directions of George Ryga’s Play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how George Ryga in his play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1976), tries to make use of stage directions to enhance the themes expressed in the text. Thus,  he  uses stage directions extensively in order to express, illustrate and present his themes. Like Bernard Shaw who distrusts the readers apprehension to grasp his ideas and motifs, we see that Ryga, to a great extent he presents us a play which the stage directions run parallel to his intended themes and thus enforcing his purpose, not only for the readers only, but also for the actors and directors of his play.Â