Our area of interest:
Throughout this course, we have focused heavily on the “Us vs Them” dichotomy that has come to the fore many times throughout Canadian history. As we have discussed at length, nation-building in Canada has focused on maintaining a multicultural face, while effectively sustaining a central fictive Canadian identity. The “Us vs Them”, or the creation of the “Other” in Canada has cropped up again and again, between various ‘immigrant’ groups and the fictive ‘Canadians’, or First Nations people and the “normative” Canadian. As a group, we are interested in interrogating the Canadian picture of multiculturalism as it pertains to Canadian literature in this post-colonial age. We intend to take a look at contemporary Canadian literature in a bid to uncover whose voices are reflected in the mainstream culture, and whose narratives have been silenced. Does Canadian literature still maintain the fictive Canadian identity we have so frequently discussed? Is Canadian literature effectively displaying the diversity of voices within its nation, or is there a central Canadian identity that continues to sustain the “Us vs Them” dichotomy? How has globalization and the introduction of new technologies hindered or aided in the goal of diverse narrative representation, and reworking of narratives in Canada?
Scheduled Meetings:
We will be using our Facebook group thread, Skype, and Google Docs as a means of collaboration and discussion of our ultimate research and in the construction of our website.
Wednesday, March 25th between 4 to 7 PM: Brainstorming Session
Friday, March 27th from 3 to 6 PM: Research Description Drafting
Tuesday, March 31st from 1-3 PM: Hyper-linked annotated bibliography
——————————————————–
Deadlines for our research project:
Saturday, March 28th: Decide which group we would like to dialogue with.
Friday, April 3rd
- Ensure that everyone has contributed two annotated sources for our bibliography for a total of 8.
- Begin the research dialogue
Specific Annotated Bibliography Deadlines:
March 30th, April 1st: Shamina
March 31, April 2nd: Christie
April 1, April 3rd: Devon
March 29th, April 2nd: Charlotte
———————————————————
Friday, April 10th: Final deadline for completion of dialogue. Synthesize our dialogue and research at this point.
Friday, April 17th: Completion of research team website – Ready for launch! 🙂