Communications

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

In the June 2002 issue of the AHR [/journals/ahr/107.3/br_137.html], Padraic Kenney erroneously calls Jan Boski a theologian. In fact, Boski is a professor of Polish philology and literature at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

Piotr S. Wandycz

Yale University

Padraic Kenney replies:

I am grateful to Piotr Wandycz for correcting my mistake.

Padraic Kenney

University of Colorado

To the Editor:

Jacqui Sadashige's review of Atanarjuat the Fast Runner [AHR 107 (June 2002): 1019–20] displays unfamiliarity with the geographical area and cultural traditions that are subjects of the film. Igloolik and Nunavut are not "two native communities"; Igloolik is a hamlet within gigantic Nunavut, the new Canadian territory created in 1999 from the old Northwest Territories. Nunavut encompasses nearly 1.2 million square miles (twenty-five times the size of the reviewer's Pennsylvania) and about one-fifth of all Canada, including most of the Arctic islands and the geographical center of the country. Even though the total population is less than 30,000 (85 percent Inuit), Nunavut is far more than a "community" to the Inuit, who have finally gained a substantial degree of self-government within their own huge Canadian territory. An example of unfamiliarity with the culture depicted in the film is the reviewer's implication that, in portraying traditions that have sustained the world's most hardy people for centuries, director Zacharias Kunuk did not yield to the Qallunaaq urge to impose current gender views upon his simple but profoundly successful effort to portray history as it was, rather than as the reviewer wishes it had been. If the director had wanted to color his story with his personal political views, he could have noted in the film the fact that in 1999 the citizens of Nunavut came within a few votes of establishing the first government in the world requiring one male and one female delegate from each of its legislative districts. Instead, by letting the past speak for itself, Kunuk, an Inuk born in an aboriginal camp and self-educated without exposure to the doctrine of political correctness, emerges as the true historian.

H. G. Jones

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

To the Editor:

In his letter regarding my review of Atanarjuat, H. G. Jones voices two particular objections. In the first, he takes issue with my reference to Igloolik and Nunavat as "two native communities." Jones's objection surely stems, in part, from the vagueness of the term "community," which comprises a broad range of meaning. Nonetheless, Igloolik Isuma Productions, Inc. repeatedly refer to Igloolik as a "community" throughout their web pages and press releases. Furthermore, not only does the Government of Nunavut invoke the term "community" in reference to the territory, but, in the passage that I quote from the Isuma web site, Igloolik and Nunavat are grouped in a grammatical construction ("Igloolik and Nunavut") that suggests an equivalence of sense. Thus my qualification of "Igloolik and Nunavat" arises from my attempt to attend to the language and the self-representation of the production company.

     Regarding the second objection to my review: Jones suggests that I would prefer it had director Zacharias Kunuk manipulated traditional gender relations to reflect current sensibilities. Such an opinion is nowhere evident in my review. At no point do I deny the fact that gender and its articulation are culturally and historically contingent, nor do I advocate a "politically correct" revision of the past. I do, however, note that the obvious lack of a documentarian's gaze or voice in Atanarjuat creates a point of view that is only seemingly detached and objective.

     What my discussion of gender does address, then, is the film's complicity with what it represents. It is one thing to reconstruct a narrative in which male characters sexualize and objectify a female character; it is quite another matter when the camera's gaze invites the audience to participate in that process. Thus I raised concerns about the film's use of nudity with respect to its male and female actors. Scholars working in the areas of travel writing and photography and documentary filmmaking have posed similar questions about perspective and representation, and thus my concerns are in no way unprecedented nor voiced in the interest of pursuing a personal agenda.

Jacqui Sadashige

University of Pennsylvania

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