ENGL 372: Oh Canada

During an inaugural reading of Green Grass Running Water it is nearly impossible for even the most well-read scholar, history buff, or pop culture aficionado to unfold every individual layer of reference Thomas King has intricately layered into the novel. Using Jane Flicks Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, I will attempt to unpack all of the references King makes between pages 23-37. I chose this portion of the book as it is, in most cases, the first time the reader is introduced to these characters and…read more

6. Find three examples of names that need to be spoken aloud in order to catch the allusion. Discuss the examples as well as the reading technique that requires you to read aloud in order to make connections. Why does King want us to read aloud? Relying on Jane Flicks guide to illustrate the three examples of names that need to be spoken aloud in order to catch the allusions that I have chosen to examine, the examples are as follows: AHDAMN: (King, 40) A ”play on Adam and the…read more

2] In this lesson I say that it should be clear that the discourse on nationalism is also about ethnicity and ideologies of “race.” If you trace the historical overview of nationalism in Canada in the CanLit guide, you will find many examples of state legislation and policies that excluded and discriminated against certain peoples based on ideas about racial inferiority and capacities to assimilate. – and in turn, state legislation and policies that worked to try to rectify early policies of exclusion and racial discrimination. As the guide points out, the nation is…read more

My 3 favourite blogs for review are as follows: Understanding oral and written culture: https://blogs.ubc.ca/emiliabrandoli/2020/01/17/assignment-13-question-1/ Exploration of concepts of home: https://blogs.ubc.ca/emiliabrandoli/2020/01/29/assignment-22-home/  Surveying land and ownership: https://blogs.ubc.ca/emiliabrandoli/2020/02/20/assignment-26-contrapuntal-cartographies/

 In order to address this question you will need to refer to Sparke’s article, “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” You can easily find this article online. Read the section titled: “Contrapuntal Cartographies” (468 – 470). Write a blog that explains Sparke’s analysis of what Judge McEachern might have meant by this statement: “We’ll call this the map that roared.” In his article “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation,” in the section…read more

King uses dichotomies help to re-train the mind that has been educated on euro-centric education. By contrasting “The Earth Diver” with a story so familiar to western civilization as the Genesis story from the bible, King is able to manipulate the two stories to highlight both their similarities and differences. This also makes the reader/listener consider why exactly one is right and one is wrong? We have two extremely different cultures at odds in how authority is perceived. In euro-centric/settler understanding documentation is synonymous with the law, this is perhaps…read more

I loved reading all the different interpretations of this assignment, one take-away I’ve certainly had so far from this course is what a wide variety of experiences there are in a small group of people. While I read many of the 2:2 assignments the ones I’ve chosen to reflect on are Eva, Sarah, Chino, Gabrielle, Arianne, and Maya. I made this selection in part at random and in part because of the diversity of stories and experiences that became apparent as I read through. While incredibly diverse and wildly unique,…read more

The year is 1630. My French ancestors prepare to leave their home in La Rochelle by the sea for Canada. They eventually reside in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, which rests on the St. Lawrence River. My Grandfather grows up there. The year is 1951. My Nonno (grandfather) boards a ship in Naples that will bring him to Canada. His sister is already living in Port Alberni. His wife, my Nonna (grandmother), won’t join him for another year. My father will be born in Burnaby in 1953. My Nonno will build two homes…read more

I have a great story to tell you. In another time, in another place, people and deities existed. They lived in contact with each other, like neighbours, separate but within reach. Not like now. Not unseen and unheard. The people would ask the deities about all manner of things. What would the crops be like this season, who would fall in love with whom, would there be many babies born this year? The deities were obliged to answer, it was their duty. In exchange the people provided bountiful wheat, grains,…read more

        Explain why the notion that cultures can be distinguished as either “oral culture” or “written culture” (19) is a mistaken understanding as to how culture works, according to Chamberlin and your reading of Courtney MacNeil’s article “Orality.” Attempting to understand culture through a binary of oral versus written culture is a reductive approach to an extremely complicated and expansive topic. According to the website Ethnolouge, “of the currently listed 7,111 living languages, 3,995 have a developed writing system.” This data suggests that the fundamentals of communication…read more