Hello World,
Welcome to my blog. My name is Laura and I am a fourth year English student at UBCO. I feel passionate about bike riding, crocheting, my dog and vegetarian chicken strips. I hope to see this blog develop itself into a record of my own learning and realization.
This course, Canadian Literary Studies, will be my first specifically Canadian study of literature. I look forward to exploring the intersections of Indigenous and European traditions of writing and story telling. I am willing to admit that even now, I’m not sure how to define Canadian literature. I found an older article from The Globe and Mail that debates the various definitions of what makes literature uniquely ‘Canadian’, whether it is the birthplace of the author or the “attitudes and sensibilities” of the narrative. The author of this article even jokingly references Pierre Berton who famously said, “A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe”. If we apply this standard, is a book ‘Canadian’ because it is suitable for reading while making love in a canoe? Or being written, while in a canoe, about making love?
To find out what makes our first assigned reading, “If This is Your Land, Where are Your Stories?” by J. Edward Chamberlin uniquely Canadian, I looked him up. Evidently, Chamberlin is a professor at the University of Toronto and his work specifically focuses on Indigenous people in Canada, America, South Africa and Australia. Overall he has contributed greatly to scholarship on Indigenous issues and his work educates his readers towards a more tolerant and informed Canada. Chamberlin gets my Canadian stamp-of-approval.
On a more serious and canoe-less note, I can already tell that this subject matter will result in one of those “The more I know, the less I know” kind of situations, and I welcome the radical uncertainty and disassociation that will come from re-learning the history of my country through story. What I know already is that I am unprepared for the truth behind Canadian lit.
Thanks for your time!
Laura
Works Cited
“J. Edward Chamberlin”. Penguin Random House Canada. n.d. Web. 11 May 2016.
Smith, Russel. “Why do we struggle with what makes Canadian literature?” The Globe and Mail. 21 Nov 2013. Web. 11 May 2016.
Anonymous
May 10, 2016 — 12:19 am
erikapaterson
May 13, 2016 — 7:30 am
May 13, 2016
Hello Laura, welcome to our course of studies together and thank you for a delightful introduction and welcome to your Blog. I am looking forward to our work together and am happy to see you begin with a nice big open mind. Enjoy.
LauraSavoie
May 13, 2016 — 11:29 am
Hello 🙂 Thank you, I’m really looking forward to it.
JuliaUllrich
May 16, 2016 — 4:19 pm
Hi Laura,
I can sympathize with your feeling of being “unprepared for the truth behind Canadian lit”. Often when I think of Canada and what being Canadian means to me, I think of inclusion, equality and a country that is run logically and sympathetically. Unfortunately, it’s easy to shy away and disassociate from the truth, that these ideals I hold have been a serious struggle in the past and continue to be a problem in the present. It was only very recently that I learned about the intensity of the #IdleNoMore movement and how poorly First Nations people have been and are still being treated. Hopefully this course will be enlightening on how to encourage Canadians to hear all the diverse voices of our country.
LauraSavoie
May 20, 2016 — 1:37 am
Hi Julia,
I still remember how stupid I felt while I listened to a classmate in a university class last summer explain the severity of the Idle No More movement. I had heard that title go around and around on the Internet or the news, but was always too lazy to look it up.
An attitude that I feel I need to change is that I am only accountable for my own actions. Essentially if I do good, then that’s the end of it. More and more I realize that beyond doing good things personally, people have a responsibility to encourage others to do good things. For instance, rather than looking up information about something like Idle No More and keeping it to myself – being brave enough to start a conversation about it with a friend. I have always underestimated the power of knowledge until I started my education. And with great power, comes great responsibility 🙂