This course provides a scholarly study of Canadian literature in a historical context with a focus on the intersections and departures between European and Indigenous traditions of literature and orature.
At the heart of this course is an examination of the power of stories, and in particular the stories we tell ourselves about being in Canada. We will examine story telling in literature and the stories we tell about literature; we will look at “whose stories” we listen to, and whose stories we cannot seem to hear – and why not? Edward Chamberlin urges us that, “now, it is more important than ever to attend to what others are saying in their stories and myths – and what we are saying about ourselves.” Students will read a range of literary texts, academic articles and relevant material. Students will be encouraged to develop independent critical responses to the texts as well as active participation in online discussions.
ENGL 470A Canadian Studies is designed for senior students and requires analytical skills and written assignments as befits a 400-level course. This course is of most interest to upper level students specializing in English, Education, First Nations, or History. The course requires regular and consistent engagement and the ability to work with an online community of fellow students. In return, this promises to be an engaging course designed to facilitate regular and lively dialogue between students and with the instructor.
Course Objectives:
The objectives of this course are to strengthen your critical and literary skills and to enrich your understanding of the complex historical and contemporary relationships between literature and storytelling. This includes an understanding of the historical relations between nation building, canonization and colonization. This course requires that students have a willingness to develop a critical awareness and sensitivity to the tensions created by racism in Canada in the past and the present.
Through this course of studies students will:
- Gain perspectives and develop a dialogue on the historical and critical process of developing a Canadian literary canon.
- Develop an understanding of the relations between nation building and literature.
- Discuss, research, and write about the intersections and departures between literary narratives and oral stories.
- Develop reading strategies for recognizing allusions and symbolic knowledge other than Western.
- Learn to recognize and challenge colonizing narratives and representations.
- Gain some expertise in story telling.
- Cultivate the ability to create knowledge through social relationships.
- Develop expertise with collaborating in online spaces, writing for online spaces and presenting for an online conference.
- Come to some conclusions on the state of literature in Canada today and offer up ideas for the future.
Upon completion of this course students will be able to discuss the historical and critical processes involved in developing a Canadian literary canon and explain the relations between canon building and nation building in a context that includes First Nations participation and agency in this process. Students will have developed reading strategies for recognizing and understanding allusions and symbolic knowledge other than Western. The end goals for this course are to be able to recognize colonizing narratives and representations, to be able to discuss, research, and write about the intersections and departures between literature and story, and to speculate on the future of literature in Canada in consideration of new media technologies.
Unit one: Weeks 1 – 3: Introductions, terms and theories
- Collaborative online working spaces
- Blogging standards and criteria
- Working in self-organizing groups
- Critical definitions of story, literature, myth, history
- Literature and identity: issues of representation and voice
- Critical discussions on borders and territories in context with literature and story telling.
- Colonizing narratives and nomadic stories
Unit two: Weeks 4 – 6: The Power of Stories and Canons
- Pre-contact Story
- Explorer narratives
- Settler narratives
- First Nations post-contact Story
- Nation building and literature
- Creating a Canadian canon
Unit three: Weeks 7 – 9: Reading Strategies
- Green Grass Running Water: Coyote pedagogy and re-mapping world views
- Oral stories and textual narratives as history, myth and literature
- Reading strategies for Green Grass Running Water: reading for allusions and learning through hyper-texting
Unit four: Weeks 10 – 12: Interventions and conclusions
- Literature and world view
- Story and world view
- Identifying the present state of Literature and Story in Canada today
- Ways to intervene in the future shape of Literature and Story in Canada.