Works by George Ryga:

Hoffman, James., ed. The Prairie Novels. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2004.

The Prairie Novels, Edited by George Ryga’s biographer James Hoffman, is a collection of Ryga’s three novels “Ballad of a Stonepicker”, “Hungry Hills”, and “Night Desk”. Each of these novels is threaded with the similar theme of struggle and survival within the wake of the cultural and economic stagnation of Alberta’s depression. Of course, this setting also brings to life a broad array of desperate and miserable characters who act within the novels as indicators that the depression was a generally awful time. Though Ryga expresses the realities of the depression and the miserable people who resulted from it, it is notably unusual that as writer who was interested in Marxist theory, he did not refer so much to the socioeconomic disorganization of the 1930s as much as the struggle of the individual within that cultural context. This makes The Prairie Novels more useful for understanding the individual within that era as opposed to the historical account of the depression’s political and economic disarray.

Ryga, George. Ballad of a Stonepicker. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1976.

By using the metaphor of slavery, Ryga’s Ballad of a Stonepicker tries to reflect life within the agricultural community during the depression as one that is bound with strife and toil. The work functions as a series of anecdotal stories that collectively form a ballad expressing the narrator’s regrets and resentment for his land and the death of his brother. Thus, it is a work that is in tune with Ryga’s social awareness of that time and his interest in the native man’s class struggle.

Ryga, George. Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1973.

Ryga’s most famed composition was that of the Ecstacy of Rita Joe, a drama that was not only compelling for its provocative and uncomfortable theme but for its criticism of both native and white culture. The subject points to the realities of skid row and expresses the difficulties native society faced as it struggled out from a century and a half of white oppression. As a play that was expressed through both professional and amateur productions it became known as a controversial piece due to its exposure within the middle and upper classes of white culture. It is and was an undisguised comment on the white-man’s denial of native culture.

Ryga, George. The Athabasca Ryga. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1990.

The Athabasca Ryga, introduced by E. David Gregory, Chair of the Centre for Social Analysis, is a collection of Ryga’s two television dramas, “Storm” and “Village Crossroad”, five short stories, essays, and novels, and a variation of writings that reflect life in Deep Creek, Athabasca, and Edmonton. These writings also reveal Ryga’s class-conscious perspective of life in Alberta, and the contrast between the alienation of city life to that of rural Alberta and his struggle for finding a comfortable life between the two.

Works about George Ryga:

Chevrefils Marlys and Steele Apollonia, eds. The George Ryga Papers. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 1995

The George Ryga Papers, a biography consisting of 336 pages, is a collection and comment on Ryga’s most essential works. It is an engaging and informative analysis of Ryga’s career as a writer, and includes such works as The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, Hungry Hills, Sunrise on Sarah, Ploughman of the Glacier, and many others.

http://www.ucalgary.ca/UP/1-895176/1-895176-66-2.html

Grekul, Lisa. Leaving shadows : literature in English by Canada's Ukrainians. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2005

Leaving Shadows is the first Canadian book-length monograph on English Ukrainian writing, with substantive analysis of the writing of Myrna Kostash, Andrew Suknaski, George Ryga, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Vera Lysenko, and Maara Haas.

http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=640

Hoffman, James. The Ecstasy of Resistance: A Biography of George Ryga. Toronto: ECW Press, 1995.

This biography by James Hoffman is an extensively researched work on the life and writings of George Ryga. Organized chronologically within the biography, the works that Hoffman describes and analyzes are some of Ryga’s most well known and controversial writings, including the “Ecstacy of Rita Joe” and “Indian”.

http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol2/no19/ryga.html

Innes, Christopher. The Canadian Dramatist. Canada: Simon & Pierre, 1985.

Through analyzing the sociopolitical content of Ryga’s fifteen stage-plays, Innes has commented on the aspects of Ryga’s work that deal with poverty, self-definition and marginalization within white society, and native mythologies. In his book The Canadian Dramatist, he also makes note of how Ryga’s childhood influences the themes of defined in his stage-plays and what makes these themes relevant to native culture within modern Canadian society.