Kiss of the Fur Queen, the first novel by Tomson Highway,Canadas best

Question

Kiss of the Fur Queen , the first novel by Tomson Highway, Canada’s best-known native playwright, is set in the contemporary period between 1950 and the late 1980s, though, like  Le Bras Coupe , it, too, is obsessed with history and the native legacy of European colonization. Highway’s story about present-day native identities is suffused with his distinctively native sense of interconnectedness between the present and the past, the living and the dead, as he stated in an interview at the time of the novel’s publication:

“We acknowledge that the spirits of our ancestors are still with us, that they still walk this land, and are a very active part of our lives and our imaginations. We still have that while mainstream culture doesn’t. It’s lost that faith, that magic, that wonder. So I think they kind of envy us.”

Yet, despite Highway’s positive emphasis, this is a story where survival is balanced, if not actually dominated, by damage and loss, as the novel weaves together personal memory and the collective social history of aboriginal people since the coming of the Europeans. Like Assiniwi’s storytelling, Highway’s is rooted in strong family connection, for Kiss of the Fur Queen is a semi autobiographical novel about the lives and careers of two brothers belonging to a native Canadian community, one a pianist who later becomes a playwright, the other a ballet dancer. These two characters bear a striking resemblance to Tomson and his younger brother Rene, who died in the late 1980s and to whom the novel is dedicated. However, unlike  Assiniwi  in his historical novel, Highway adopts a European narrative genre, that of the Kunstlerroman, to tell his story of these aboriginal artists, reconstructing the inevitably hybridized identities of contemporary First Nations people. This is a novel which, like its protagonists, faces both ways, combining white and native traditions, for overarching the human-centered artist-narrative is the wider dimension of native mythology, which offers an alternative form of historical thinking preserved through oral storytelling and aboriginal legends. It is with the manifestations and effects of such double vision, where different cultural systems of representation are held together in tension, that a detailed analysis of Highway’s novel will be useful.

Source: Where are the Voices Coming From? : Canadian Culture and the Legacies of History – Coral Ann Howells    1  
 1. The author’s reference to Assiniwi (refer the highlighted text) serves primarily to

A. highlight a shortcoming in Highway’s writing style
B. highlight the uniqueness of Assiniwi’s writing style
C. emphasize on the European narrative in Highway’s work 
D. introduce the Kunstlerroman genre
E. highlight an alternative form of historical thinking in Highway’s work

2  
 2. It can be inferred from the passage that

A. Assiniwi is the author of Le Bras Coupe
B. Assiniwi, like Highway, is a native playwright
C. Kunstlerroman is a genre dealing with aboriginal artists 
D. Canada’s social history has had heavy influence of Europeans
E. Native Canadian mythology depicts strong family connections

3  
 3. Which of the following aspects of Kiss of the Fur Queen find a mention in the passage?

I. It is based on family connections.
II. It combines white and native traditions.
III. It represents social history of aboriginal Canadian people.
IV. It was written between 1950 and the late 1980s.
V. Its narrative genre is the same as that of Assiniwi’s historical novel.

A. I and II only
B. I, II, and III only
C. II and III only
D. All except II
E. All

unraveled · Answer

I attempted the passage under test conditions. The bad part is i took way too much of time to solve it. Good part(not happy though) is that i got two correct.

I could not come up with a reasonable understanding as far as 2nd question is concerned.
So, anyone with better understanding of passage please post your solution.

PoojanB · Answer

Hi,will try to explain as per my understanding

Q2. It can be inferred from the passage that

A. Assiniwi is the author of Le Bras Coupe-  No,tomson is 
B. Assiniwi, like Highway, is a native playwright not clearly mentioned in para. 
C. Kunstlerroman is a genre dealing with aboriginal artists as per para it is a kind of european narrative genre. 
D. Canada’s social history has had heavy influence of Europeans mentioned in the first para. 'like Le Bras Coupe, it, too, is obsessed with history and the native legacy of European colonization'..hence the answer choice 
E. Native Canadian mythology depicts strong family connections no connection is mentioned in para between canadian mythology and strong family connections.

hope this helps.

unraveled · Answer

Well, one point of view can be that  'Kiss of the Queen' was obsessed with history and the native legacy of European colonization  which doesn't prove that Canada's social history was heavily influenced by Europeans, may be Canada's literary history is influenced.
Also, when passage mentions that it is  semi -autobiographical creating doubt if Canada's social history is heavily influenced, choosing D doesn't make sense.

Hence for above reasons i eliminated D.

Helen123 · Answer

I took 10 minutes but got all the questions right. Answers are highlighted in bold.

Q1. The author’s reference to Assiniwi (refer the highlighted text) serves primarily to

A. highlight a shortcoming in Highway’s writing style -- the idea was not to mention shortcomings
B. highlight the uniqueness of Assiniwi’s writing style -- No, the focus was on Highway's writing style
 C. emphasize on the European narrative in Highway’s work  --  However, unlike Assiniwi in his historical novel, Highway adopts a European narrative genre, that of the Kunstlerroman,   From this sentence in the passage one can understand that the idea was to highlight European Narrative Genre
D. introduce the Kunstlerroman genre -- No, the idea was not to introduce Kunstlerroman genre but to highlight European Narrative genre and then just mention the name of the genre - Kunstlerroman
E. highlight an alternative form of historical thinking in Highway’s work -- No

Q2. It can be inferred from the passage that

A. Assiniwi is the author of Le Bras Coupe - Cannot be inferred 
B. Assiniwi, like Highway, is a native playwright - Not mention in the passage
C. Kunstlerroman is a genre dealing with aboriginal artists - Not mentioned
 D. Canada’s social history has had heavy influence of Europeans  -  Kiss of the Fur Queen, the first novel by Tomson Highway, Canada’s best-known native playwright, is set in the contemporary period between 1950 and the late 1980s, though, like Le Bras Coupe, it, too, is obsessed with history and the  native legacy of European colonization   We can infer from this sentence that Canada's social history had an influence of Europeans
E. Native Canadian mythology depicts strong family connections - Cannot be inferred

Q3. Which of the following aspects of Kiss of the Fur Queen find a mention in the passage?

I. It is based on family connections.  -  Like Assiniwi’s storytelling, Highway’s is rooted in strong family connection, for Kiss of the Fur Queen is a semi autobiographical novel about the lives and careers of two brothers belonging to a native Canadian community 
 II. It combines white and native traditions.  -  This is a novel which, like its protagonists, faces both ways, combining white and native traditions ,
 III. It represents social history of aboriginal Canadian people.  -  However, unlike Assiniwi in his historical novel, Highway adopts a European narrative genre, that of the Kunstlerroman, to tell his story of these aboriginal artists, 
IV. It was written between 1950 and the late 1980s. - Highway wrote the novel post the death of his brother Rene in the late 1980's. So we cannot confirm that the Novel is written btw 1950 and late 1980's
V. Its narrative genre is the same as that of Assiniwi’s historical novel. - No, the genre is different as we have uderstood in Q1. Highway used the European narrative genre- Kunstlerroman

A. I and II only
 B. I, II, and III only 
C. II and III only
D. All except II
E. All

LimeFlake · Answer

hello , same problem i am facing now , i took me almost more than 30mins to understand the passage and later ,when it time to solve the options ,i really get stuck ,can you tell that you have improved , if yes then tell me how? 
please i am waiting for you message....

if other reading this , is there any solution to this?

BhardwajS · Answer

LimeFlake   Taking  30   minutes just to read the passage  shows that you are over analyzing the passage and tried to understand each and every word in the passage. 
 You're spending too much time on reading alone, leaving insufficient time for questions. The goal is to complete  passage + questions in 7-8 mins total , so You need to bring  reading time down to about 3–3.5 mins  
  Step 1- Quick Overview of passage -  
 
  Carefully understand the beginning(Will be the Main Idea of the passage)  
  Last sentence of the passage (often contains the conclusion)  
  Contrasting words (words like  however ,  but )  
  Understand the conclusion of each paragraph what is the reason for writing each paragraph connect with what you have read before.
   
 What you can read quickly- 
 
  Example, technical details and long list-  Bcz you can always go back to the passage for this    
 
 You can make notes as well but keep it simple -For the this passage, your notes might look like: 
 P1- Intro of book P2-Talks about brothers P3- explains the "double vision" of both cultures. 
 and after reading the passage always ask yourself-What is the Main point of the passage ,Why author has written this passage

Step 2-Read the question and pre think before reading the answer choice-  
 Now you know exactly form which section question is raised . Go back to the passage and read  only  the sections that give you answers.

Step 3-Use process of elimination- Reject each wrong answer choice on solid ground.  Finish each question in 1-1.5 mins 
 and one more point -if you don't know the meaning of any big word-just try to get the rough idea and keep moving. 
 Hope this helps you!:)

LimeFlake · Answer

BhardwajS brother, i will keep this in mind ,  Thank you  for correcting me and giving me the correct approach ; )

Kiss of the Fur Queen, the first novel by Tomson Highway,Canadas best

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