Kissing Fabulose Queens: The Fabulous Realism of Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen

Abstract

This paper analyzes the role of Highway's fabulous pan-tribal trickster figure, the Fur Queen, and that character's relationship to one of the protagonists, Gabriel Okimasis. Due to the intimate relationship between the two characters, Gabriel is able to transform and draw pleasure from the abuse he suffered as a child. This, thereby, allows him to decolonize his subjectivity and defeat the cannibalistic Weetigo at the novel's end. Moreover, the melding of affective transformation, queerness and magical realism allows this novel to exist in the realm of what I term "Fabulous realism".