The beginning of a new semester brings with it feelings of excitement, nervousness, and curiosity. Luckily for me, as an English student, I always have courses to look forward to that introduce me to diverse and eye-opening texts that bring with them a wealth of questions and inquiries for me to explore. In particular, I have been eager to open the ENGL 372 course blog to see what the semester has in store for us. After reading through the syllabus and perusing the course blog, I am very excited to see how the semester goes, and know that at the end of these thirteen weeks I will have a greater capacity to take part in decolonizing literature and analyzing Canadian (and other) texts with a more critical eye.

So, welcome to my ENGL 372 blog! I’ve titled it, “Oh Canada: Reflections on Canadian Literature” to encapsulate what this course is about. As this blog grows as I complete assignments, and my readers and peers (you!) contribute to comments and discussion, I hope that this website conveys a deep contemplation of the power of stories, especially within the context of Canada as a settler-colonial nation. I hope that in reading this blog, you will, alongside myself, develop a greater understanding of the complex relationships between storytelling and literature, both throughout history and today. I know that it will be difficult to engage meaningfully with racist tensions in Canada that have persisted for hundreds of years, and continue to persist, but I know that this engagement is crucial to developing a better understanding of one’s complicity in violence and colonization, and creating meaningful discussions with hope for a future of better relations.

I am most looking forward to deconstructing colonizing narratives and representations while gaining the ability to recognize symbols and allusions outside of the Western canon. Further, the social aspect of the course will be very interesting for me, and I look forward to trying storytelling myself. And, I have never used a blog format for a course before, so it will be a learning process for me to create blog posts and engage with discussion online. I can’t wait to read all of my classmates’ posts and connect with them via comments. I hope to create some meaningful discussion and am eager to learn from both the instructor and my peers through scholarly and personal writings.

With this post, my blogging journey in ENGL 372 begins. I know that when I look back on this first post after completing the course, I will have so much new knowledge to carry with me as a Canadian. I am eager to learn, and am excited to have this platform as a representation of learning.

Works Cited

Bhambra, Gurminder. “Settler Colonialism.” Global Social Theory, 4 Aug. 2015, https://globalsocialtheory.org/concepts/settler-colonialism/.

“Canada ‘Complicit in Race-Based Genocide’ of Indigenous Women.” BBC News, BBC, 3 June 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48503545.