ABSTRACT One of the many ironies about the Métis political leader, poet, and mystic Louis Riel (1844–1885) is that the most influential book written about him is not by a Canadian, much less a Métis, but by an American. The popularity among Canadian writers and visual artists of Joseph Kinsey Howard’s Strange Empire: A Narrative of the Northwest (1952) is puzzling, since Howard makes little effort to camouflage his support of US expansion into North America’s northern plains and north. Equally curious, by the end of his book, Howard disowns Riel and embraces his Saskatchewan commander Gabriel Dumont as the real “prince of the prairies.” The most plausible explanation for the appeal of Strange Empire to Canadians is that, by focusing on the Canada-US dimension of the Riel conflicts, even an unapologetic US continentalist like Howard concedes that Canada somehow emerged victorious over its powerful neighbor.

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大陆主义经典：约瑟夫·金赛·霍华德的奇异帝国、路易斯·瑞尔和加拿大

摘要 关于梅蒂斯的政治领袖、诗人和神秘主义者路易斯·瑞尔 (Louis Riel，1844-1885 年) 的众多讽刺之一是，关于他的最有影响力的书不是加拿大人写的，更不用说梅蒂人了，而是美国人。约瑟夫金赛霍华德的奇异帝国：西北叙事（1952）在加拿大作家和视觉艺术家中的受欢迎程度令人费解，因为霍华德几乎没有努力掩饰他对美国向北美北部平原和北部扩张的支持。同样好奇的是，霍华德在他的书的结尾处否认了瑞尔，并拥抱他的萨斯喀彻温省指挥官加布里埃尔杜蒙作为真正的“草原王子”。对于奇异帝国对加拿大人的吸引力，最合理的解释是，通过关注瑞尔冲突的加美层面，